We heard some more stomping around upstairs, and when the door to the basement opened we both freaked out.
I look around for something to use to DEFEND myself, but the best I could come up with was a toilet plunger.
Rowley grabbed a can of lemon dust spray and one of grandma's handbags. And, when we heard footsteps coming down the stairs, we braced ourselves.
The footsteps PAUSED when they got near the bottom, and that’s when we made our MOVE.
It turned out it wasn't Mrs McNeil, and it wans't a BURGLAR, either. It was MOM.
She was there to do a load of laundry, since our washing machine at home is broken.
Mom didn't say much. She just told us to get our winter clothes back on and to get in the car. And she was totally silent on the drive back to our neighbourhood, which was really AWKWARD.
I figured that, as soon as Rowley was out of the car, Mom was gonna yell at me for being at Gramma's house without permission. But she didn't say ANYTHING, and she didn't mention it to Dad during dinner, either.
After I finished doing the dishes, Mom told me she wanted to have a talk in my room. She said it was "perfectly normal" for boys my age to play "make believe”, and that there was nothing to feel ashamed of. Then she said she was glad me and Rowley were using our imaginations instead of playing video games.
I have no IDEA what Mom thought we were doing in Gramma's basement. But, to be honest with you, I kind of wish she had just GROUNDED me instead.
FEBRUARY
Wednesday
It's been snowing for the past few days, and last night we got another inch and a helf.
Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to close the school,
and even if it snowed MORE than that I don't think
they would've give us the day off.
We only get a certain amount of snow days each year and, if we use them all, then we have to make up for them during the summer holidays. And we've already burned through most of our snow days for this winter, even though SOME of them technically weren't used because of SNOW.
In December the school shut down for three days because of a LICE epidemic.
What happened was that Lily Bodner came to school swith head lice, but I guess she didn't know. ANd they SPREAD when she took pictures with her friends.
So, if we're sitting in a hot classroom in July, I guess we can all thank Lily for taking selfies.
Sometimes, when it snows in the morning, they'll give us a HALF-day. But I'm not a big fan of half-days, because we still have to walk all that way just to put in few hours at school.
What REALLY stinks is when the school looks at weather forecast and decides in advance that the NEXT day is gonna be a half-day.