Schools Out Page 3

  “Cold,” said Marius when he saw everyone looking at him. “Cold paint.”

  “Wet,” shouted Genevieve. “That’s wet paint.”

  “Cold and wet,” said Marius, nodding his head.

  “If you leave the paint on, you’ll know which is which,” suggested Lucas. He started laughing again. “Marius has two white socks. Marcus has one.” He thought it was a great joke. Probably Julio would appreciate it, too.

  Genevieve did not think it was funny. “I am surprised at you, Lucas Cott,” she said in an angry voice.

  Lucas couldn’t understand why all her anger was directed at him and not at the twins. They had been naughty, not him. However, as he watched her removing the paint, he started thinking. He remembered how he had insisted to his mother that he was able to take care of Marcus and Marius and that they didn’t need any outside help from an au pair girl. This afternoon, though, he hadn’t helped with the twins at all. He had let them get paint on themselves when he could have prevented it.

  It took a whole hour for Genevieve to remove the “white socks” from the feet and ankles of both twins.

  When Mrs. Cott returned home from shopping, there were still some traces of the paint remaining on the boys. “I am so sorry,” said Genevieve. Lucas was relieved that she didn’t mention that he had been watching the twins when they got the paint on them.

  “Didn’t I tell you not to get any paint on you?” Mrs. Cott asked Marcus and Marius.

  “No paint on my clothes,” said Marius proudly.

  Marcus waved his fingers in front of his mother’s face. “No paint on my hands,” he said.

  Mrs. Cott nodded her head slowly. “I guess it’s my fault,” she said. “I never told them not to stick their feet into the paint cans.”

  Lucas knew it was his fault, too.

  5

  LUCAS ON THE ROOF

  The two painters worked at Lucas’s house for several days. Each morning, Lucas watched them with envy. It looked like so much fun to climb the steep ladders that were propped against the house. Applying the fresh white paint looked like fun, too. Maybe he would get a job as a house-painter when he grew up.

  On the third day that the painters were working at the Cott house, Lucas was home alone. Lucas’s father was off at work. His mother had gone off in the car with the twins and Genevieve. Today was the day that Marcus and Marius were scheduled for a checkup and booster shots at the pediatrician’s. Lucas was watching the painters and waiting for Julio.

  Lucas walked around the house, admiring the painters’ work. Three sides of the house were freshly painted. At the rate the men were working, this might be their last day. Lucas wished that he had climbed to the top of one of the huge ladders. He should have done it yesterday evening when the men had gone home and his family was in the house. Now no one in his family was around to scold, but the men were busy painting. He knew if he tried to climb on one of the ladders now, he would be ordered to get off.

  He stood admiring the ladder leaning against the front of the house. It reached right up to the roof. One of the painters was standing on the roof at this very moment. Lucas thought it would be great fun to climb the ladder and sit up there. Then he would be able to see all over town. He would see people doing their errands, walking their dogs, and mowing their lawns. He would be able to see Julio as he rode his bike toward Lucas’s house.

  Lucas walked over to the ladder to examine it. The ladder was stained with dried bits of every color of paint that the men had ever used. Lucas reached out and touched the ladder with his hands. It felt good and steady. He raised his right foot and placed it on the first rung of the ladder. Before he had time to put all his weight on his right foot and lift his left foot up, he felt the ladder begin to move slightly.

  Lucas put his foot back on the ground and looked up.

  The painter who had been standing on the roof was coming down. Since he came down backward, though, he didn’t notice Lucas standing at the bottom. Lucas quickly moved farther away from the ladder.

  “Listen,” the painter said, “we have to go off for a little while. There’s a lady a couple of blocks away who wants us to look at her house and give an estimate.”

  Lucas looked at the painter. He was wearing a hat, but bits of red hair stuck out. The hair, the hat, and even his face were spattered with tiny specks of white paint. What fun to get paint on you and not have anyone scold, Lucas thought.

  The second painter came down from another ladder at the side of the house. Lucas looked from one painter to the other and grinned. The second man had a streak of white paint along the side of his nose.

  “Keep away from the paint,” said the redhaired painter. “We don’t want any of it to spill.”

  “I won’t touch the paint,” Lucas promised solemnly. “Cross my heart and hope to die,” he added, hoping to convince the men of his sincerity. After all, they had seen what his brothers had done with the paint two days ago.

  “Good,” said the painter.

  The men got into their pickup truck and drove off. Lucas watched the truck disappear down the street. Then he turned back toward the house. He could hardly believe his good luck. He had no intention of touching the paint, but no one had said anything about touching the ladders. This would be his chance!

  Lucas walked over to the ladder that reached the roof. He put his hands along the sides of the ladder. He lifted his right foot and hoisted himself onto the first rung. The ladder shook slightly from his weight. He raised his left foot. There was a bigger distance between rungs than he had realized, but he was able to manage. He put his right foot up, then his left foot up. The slight motion of the ladder was a bit scary, but he kept on going. When he was midway up the ladder, he turned his head around. When he looked down, he felt dizzy. He held on to the sides of the ladder more tightly than before. He was really very high. He was already higher than the top of the jungle gym in the playground. He was higher than his bedroom window. Maybe this was high enough and he should go back down.

  “Lucas Cott! What are you doing?” a voice called up to him.

  Lucas froze on the ladder. Without turning around, he recognized the voice. It was Cricket Kaufman, who had been in his class at school. What was she doing spying on him in his own yard?

  “Does your mother know what you are doing?” Cricket shouted up at him.

  “My mother isn’t home. Besides, it’s none of your business. What are you doing here?” Lucas shouted back. The problem was that he couldn’t really turn around and face her because he was still feeling a bit dizzy from the last time he had looked down. Instead, he held the sides of the ladder tightly and stood still for a minute. It was impossible to argue with someone when you had your back to them and you were many feet above their head.

  “You better come down right away,” said Cricket. “You could kill yourself.”

  Lucas had no intention of killing himself. He also had no intention of giving Cricket the satisfaction of getting him to do what she wanted. Lucas ignored Cricket Kaufman and continued climbing up the ladder. With each step he took, he could hear Cricket shouting.

  “Lucas Cott. Stop. Come down,” she cried.

  Lucas reached the top of the ladder and stepped over it and onto the flat surface at the front of the roof. He looked down at Cricket and the ground below. He felt dizzy from the height, so he sat down. You couldn’t fall down if you were sitting.

  “What are you doing here?” Lucas called down to Cricket. At school, she often bugged him. Looking down at her from this height, Lucas felt much more important, though. Now that he was seated, he didn’t feel dizzy anymore. Too bad he couldn’t always speak with Cricket Kaufman from this angle.

  “What are you doing up there?” Cricket shouted back.

  “I live here. I can sit wherever I want. It’s my house. Besides, I asked you first. What are you doing here?”

  “I came to give this to your mother.” Cricket held up a book. “My mother is lending it to her. It’s a
ll about being a good parent.”

  “My mother doesn’t need that book,” Lucas shouted down to Cricket.

  “Oh yeah? Then how come she asked my mother if she could borrow it?” demanded Cricket.

  Lucas shrugged his shoulders. “My mother isn’t home,” he called to his classmate. “But you can leave that in the house on the kitchen table. The door is open.”

  Cricket went inside the house with the book.

  A minute later, she was back outside again. “You better get down, Lucas,” she shouted up at him. “I’m not going home until you climb down.”

  “Then you’re going to have a long, long wait,” Lucas called back. “Why don’t you come up here?” he urged Cricket. “I can see your house and I can see the school and everything. It’s great. ”

  “Do you think I’m crazy like you? I wouldn’t climb up to a roof,” shouted Cricket. “You could fall.”

  “I won’t fall,” said Lucas. “This part of the roof is flat. There’s nothing to be scared of.” Lucas grinned down at Cricket. “I dare you to climb up here, too.”

  “Darers go first,” Cricket retorted automatically. The kids always said that at school. Suddenly, Cricket realized what she had said. It was too late to take the words back.

  “I already did it,” said Lucas. “Now it’s your turn.”

  “Well, I don’t care,” said Cricket, “I’m not climbing up this ladder.”

  “You’re chicken!” shouted Lucas. “Chicken. Chicken.”

  “I am not,” said Cricket. “But I’m not crazy like you, either. ”

  “Chicken. You’re chicken,” Lucas taunted his classmate.

  It was too much for Cricket. “Stop that, Lucas. You’ll see. I’m coming right up. Right now.”

  From where he was sitting, Lucas couldn’t see Cricket as she mounted the ladder, but he could hear the sound of her steps as she began to climb.

  “Hold tight,” Lucas called in warning. He didn’t want to be responsible for Cricket falling off the ladder. He could hear her steps getting closer. He could also hear Cricket talking to herself. “I think I can. I think I can,” she said.

  Lucas recognized the words. They were in a story about a little train that his father read aloud to Marcus and Marius. He had read the story to Lucas when he was little, too.

  “I think I can. I think I can,” said Cricket. Then suddenly and amazingly, Cricket’s head appeared at the top of the ladder. She really had done it.

  “I can’t believe I did this,” Cricket said as she climbed over the top of the ladder and walked cautiously on the roof toward Lucas. She sat down beside him. “It’s scary, but it’s a little bit fun, too,” she admitted. “Wouldn’t it be funny if we had our whole class up here?”

  “Even Mrs. Hockaday?” asked Lucas. He tried to imagine Mrs. Hockaday standing with her open-toed shoes up on his roof. It was a funny thought, but not much funnier than actually sitting on the roof next to Cricket Kaufman.

  “Hey, Lucas!” a voice shouted up at him.

  It was Julio. He was jumping up and down and waving up at Lucas. “Why did you climb up there with Cricket?” Julio’s voice sounded a little angry. “I thought I was your best friend,” he said.

  “Cricket did it on a dare,” said Lucas.

  “I’m coming up, too,” said Julio, not waiting for a dare or an invitation.

  Lucas and Cricket heard Julio climbing up the ladder.

  Julio made it up much more quickly than either Lucas or Cricket. First of all, he had longer legs. And he was the best athlete in their class.

  “Man, this is neat,” shouted Julio as he joined Lucas and Cricket. He sat down by his classmates on the rooftop. “We can see everything from here.”

  Julio turned his head about. “Look.” He pointed. “There’s my street. And that’s my house.”

  When Lucas looked across at the treetops or at the roofs of the nearby houses, he felt great. It was only when he looked down that he felt the dizziness return.

  Lucas took a quick look down at the street. He thought he saw the pickup truck that belonged to the painters coming toward the house. What would they say to see him and his classmates up on the roof?

  A car door slammed down below. The truck Lucas had seen was indeed the one that belonged to the painters. Both men came and stood at the foot of the ladder.

  “What are you doing up there?” called one.

  “Sitting and looking at you,” said Lucas. Even if they made him go down now, at least he had had his chance to climb the ladder.

  A second car door banged shut. “Lucas Cott! Get down from there at once!” a voice screamed.

  “Lucas. Lucas.” More voices shouted at him.

  It was his mother and Genevieve and the twins. Lucas waved to all of them. Even if he was in big trouble for what he had done, he was glad he had done it.

  “Hello, Mrs. Cott,” called Cricket.

  “Is that Cricket Kaufman up there with you?” shouted Mrs. Cott incredulously.

  “It’s me,” Cricket announced. “Lucas dared me, and I did it!”

  “Well, get down at once, all of you,” shouted Mrs. Cott. “What is your mother going to say, Cricket?”

  “I don’t know,” said Cricket, giggling. “I never climbed up on a roof before.”

  “None of us did,” said Lucas. “That’s why we had to do it.”

  Lucas knew that going down the ladder would be harder than going up. You had to go backward.

  “You go first,” Lucas said to Cricket.

  “I don’t want to,” said Cricket. A minute ago, she had been giggling, but now she looked as if she might cry.

  “Ladies first,” Lucas insisted.

  “I’m not a lady,” said Cricket. “I’m just a girl. And I’m afraid I’ll fall.”

  “Naw, you won’t fall,” said Julio. “It’s easy.” “Then you go first,” said Cricket.

  “Sure,” said Julio. He stood up and walked over to the ladder. When he had his hands on the ladder, however, he couldn’t seem to make his feet move at all. He stood looking down. “It’s really high up here, isn’t it?” he said.

  “Lucas, what’s taking you so long?” Mrs. Cott screamed.

  Lucas knew that he should go down the ladder first and show his friends that it was easy, but he just sat and rubbed his hand against the rough surface of the roof. He had been so busy planning his climb up that he had never thought about climbing down.

  Cricket started to cry. “It’s all your fault, Lucas Cott. We’ll have to stay up here forever.”

  At that moment, though, they could hear that someone was climbing up the ladder. For one second, Lucas thought it might be his mother. It wasn’t. It was the red-haired painter.

  “You crazy kids,” said the painter as he reached the top of the ladder. He reached for Julio, who was standing at the ladder, and helped him turn around so his face looked toward the house and his feet could go down the rungs, backward.

  “Take it slowly,” said the painter. “I’m right behind you. You won’t fall. Just go one step at a time. You can do it. I do it every day.”

  “But we’re not painters!” Cricket sobbed. “I’m going to be a lawyer when I grow up. And lawyers don’t climb ladders. ”

  “You should have thought of that before,” said the painter, but he smiled at Cricket. “I won’t let you fall,” he promised. So Cricket went down after Julio.

  Then it was Lucas’s turn. Lucas took one peek downward as he began his descent. His stomach churned and he thought he would throw up his whole breakfast. He squeezed his eyes shut and held as tightly as he could to the sides of the ladder.

  “I think I can. I think I can,” he told himself, and he lowered his right foot, trying to find the location of the rung below. When his foot landed safely on the rung, he felt a surge of relief.

  “I think I can. I think I can,” he repeated again, and he was still a bit closer to the bottom. It felt as if it took an hour to get all the way down.

&nb
sp; When he reached the bottom, Julio and Cricket were waiting for him. Mrs. Cott, Genevieve, Marcus and Marius, and both the painters were standing at the foot of the ladder waiting, too. Lucas’s mother looked as white as the white paint.

  As punishment for doing something so reckless as climbing the ladder, his mother said Lucas had to spend the rest of the day inside the house. He couldn’t go off to the swimming pool with Julio.

  “See you tomorrow,” Julio said as he got on his bike and departed without Lucas.

  “See you in fourth grade,” said Cricket as she started off toward home.

  Lucas went inside. He was relieved to be down on the ground again, but he was still a tiny bit glad he had climbed the ladder. It was worth staying in the house for the rest of the day, he thought. He didn’t tell that to his mother, though. “I promised the painters that I wouldn’t touch the paint,” he said. “No one said that I shouldn’t climb up on their ladder to the roof. ”

  “Some things don’t need to be said,” said Mrs. Cott. “You could have been killed, and Julio and Cricket with you.”

  That afternoon, the painters finished their job.

  Lucas watched from the window as they packed up all their gear—the canvas drop sheets, the paint cans and brushes, the long rollers, and the ladders.

  Without the tall ladders, he would never again be able to climb up to the roof, he thought. Neither Marcus nor Marius would be able to climb the ladder, either. He hadn’t worried too much about Cricket or Julio, but it would have been awful if the twins had managed to get up onto the roof.

  Nothing he or the twins had ever done had gotten his mother so upset as this. He wondered why being naughty was so tempting. After all, even Cricket had gone up on the roof!

  6

  LUCAS VS. GENEVIEVE

  After the roof-climbing incident, Mrs. Cott was afraid to let Lucas out of her sight.

  “I knew I had to watch the twins every moment. I didn’t know that I had to keep an eye on you at all times, too,” she complained to Lucas.

  “You don’t have to watch me. I won’t climb to the roof again. ” It was an easy promise to make now that the tall ladders were gone. In September, the painters were going to return to paint inside the house. Lucas would be back at school by then.