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It was a lovely Spring morning when Rachel Merriman woke up in her white
canopy bed with the pretty blue and white hangings. She sighed and yawned and stretched, then got out of bed and got
dressed. She put on her underdress and her underthings, then carefully chose her workdress that Mother had made her.
She tied up the back, smoothed down the front of the dress with her hands, and carefully brushed her long, brown hair.
As a finishing touch, she picked up her lace pinner cap and pinned it to her hair. Then she skipped out of the bedroom
and downstairs to the breakfast room.
Breakfast was a lovely affair of liberty biscuits and dressed eggs which
Nancy had cooked up earlier in the morning. Rachel happily ate it up while she listened to her father talk about his
store, and her mother talk about her talk with Mrs. Larson at the latest sewing circle. She ate quickly, then headed
to the kitchen to begin her chores.
But when she arrived there, she spotted something sitting by the fireplace.
A box!! What could it be?
When Rachel asked her mother if she could open the box, her mother agreed.
Rachel hurriedly tore open the package and lifted out the finely wrapped object inside. It was another box! She
giggled and opened that box, too. Inside of this box was a beautiful white lesson jacket with a blue drawstring that
matched the deep blue skirt underneath it. She drew in her breath. She knew what this meant!
"Mother,
did Miss Samantha say that Proper School is starting again?"
"Yes dear, she sent us all notices in the mail last week.
I decided to surprise you and order your uniform from the Milliner's in Williamsburg. Do you like it?"
"Oh yes!"
said Rachel, her eyes glowing. "I looove it! It is probably the prettiest Proper School uniform I have ever seen!"
Rachel
squeeled and hugged the uniform. Then she stopped. She could squish it if she wasn't careful!
"Come on
dear, let's get you all ready. Proper School starts this afternoon. Now where is that Nancy?"
Meanwhile, at the Parkington's house, Miss Samantha was eating her leisurely
breakfast in the Green Parlour. They were all having a lovely discussion about the weather and the string quartets of
Joseph Haydn until they finished all of their courses. Then Samantha went to prepare her teaching plan for the day,
taking Alison and Elsa with her to help set up the desks outside for the class. Samantha loved having class outside;
the fresh air and the flowers and the lovely view was always so stimulating. Besides, it meant that none of the students
could accidentally knock something over. After all, they weren't entirely proper yet.
Teresa waited until Nanny Louisa had buttoned the very last button on
her high-button shoes and straightened her hairbow, and then carefully stepped downstairs and out onto the front porch.
This was one of her favorite parts of Proper School. Waiting for all the students, her friends, to arrive. She
loved seeing them all come to her house dressed in their clean white shirts and lovely blue skirts. It was all so lovely!
She leaned against one of the porch railings and waited. Who would be the first to come?
Back at the Merriman's house, the family was all flustered. Nancy
had climbed up on top of the smoke house in order to pick an apple for Miss Samantha, and had gotten stuck there.
How were they to get her down? And with Proper School starting in only a few hours! They would be hideously late!
Nancy began to wail.
"Don't cry dear! We will get you down!" shouted Mrs. Merriman, wringing her hands.
They would just have to wait until Mr. Merriman returned with Mr. Larson's ladder.
"I'm not crying!" said
Nan, disgruntled. "I'm singing a little song to help pass the time. This tree is very green OoO.... but the smoke
house roof is very mean OoO... it hurts and it hurts OoO because it is so very hot. 'Tis too hot for my feetsies, OoO..."
"What
shall we do?!" Mrs. Merriman began to pace back and forth.
The students were beginning to make their way to Miss Samantha's classroom.
Elinor and Mei Mei climbed up to the roof of the hair salon and began tapping on the attic windows. When they found
out that they were easy to open from the outside, they crawled in. They were trying to find Vera, who was part of their
club, but she wasn't down with her sister Cristal in the salon. They found her sitting on a large cushion in the attic,
meditating.
"Come on, Vela! We got to go to Plopel Schoor!" Mei Mei shouted at her through the window.
"I coming. Do you have food?" Vera asked, still in her trance.
"Yeh we have food. Come on,
me and Erinol don't want to be rate!" With that, Mei Mei dragged Vera with her downstairs and through the Hair Salon,
startling Cristal, and exiting through the front door. They walked briskly towards the Parkington Mansion, trying to
ignore the little girl running after them and shouting at them.
"You are SO rude! You should have waited
for me! I am your little sister! You wait until I tell Miss Cristal, Vera! You will be in trouble!"
Little Katherine Purr huffed and puffed as she tried to keep up with her big sister and her friends.
Rebecca was trying to get Francisca to wake up. Francisca had been
having her morning siesta for almost 2 hours! And Rebecca needed to get to Proper School very soon.
How could she go with her hair looking like this? She had to get Francisca to brush it for her!!
Rebecca waved her hand in front of Francisca's face. It didn't
work.
She tried poking Francisca on the arm, but Francisca kept sleeping, oblivious to Rebecca's presence.
"What
will make her wake up?" thought Rebecca. She really really needed to get there on time because she was supposed to recite
her poem today!
Rebecca thought and thought, and then she came up with an idea. It always worked with Juan and
Antonio! She ran into the cocina and scrounged through the shelves until she found a plate of food sitting
by the herb room. Mmmm.... leftover frijoles bueno. She returned to Francisca, and carefully wafted the
smell of the beans towards Francisca's nose.
It didn't work. Francisca didn't even move.
Rebecca
shoved the food under Francisca's nose. She slept on. Rebecca stamped her foot and forced a little tear out of
her eyes. This was getting annoying!
Just then, Papa walked into the courtyard.
"What is troubling
you, Rebeccascita?" Papa asked, using her favorite nickname.
Rebecca told him about how she needed to wake
Francisca up. He smiled and turned towards Francisca. He walked up to her and whispered something in her ear.
Francisca
sat up with a start. "Where?!" She yelled, slapping at her arms and shrieking. Then she stopped.
"There are no lizards on me! Papa, you are joking with me!"
Papa laughed. "Quick, Francisca, get your sisters
ready to go to Proper School."
Heather and Rebecca were soon happily on their way to Proper School,
riding on Pimienta's back and singing along with Papa to his favorite songs. They were just starting on one of their
favorites about a little dove, palomita, when a large yellow carriage burst around the corner and zoomed towards
them!
Nancy had managed to get out of the apple tree once Mr. Merriman had
returned with Mr. Larson's ladder, but they were seriously late. Nan hopped into their carriage as soon as William had
finished hitching up Penny, and her and Rachel careened down the highway towards the Parkington Mansion in town. Narrowly
missing the Montoya family, they pulled to a stop outside the front door. Dust billowed around the yellow carriage as
Nan and Rachel stumbled out and handed the reins to the footman. They ran up to the door and took their seats.
Miss Samantha was waiting for her class on the outside porch in front
of the desks.
"Welcome class! It is so wonderful to see you again. Please clasp your hands in front of
you and rest them on your lap, as we've practiced. Now, could we please have our recitations?"
Rebecca stepped up first and performed her recitation. A few things
went wrong, especially when she accidentally pulled up some of Miss Samantha's flowers in a moment of creative genius, but
other than that she was proud of herself for speaking in front of so many people. They all applauded her, too!
Next it was Rachel's turn to go. She had memorized her poem weeks
and weeks ago, so she wasn't nervous at all. In fact, she had even been working on it when Traveling Ruthie was here!
She took her place in front of the class and recited her poem.
The rest of the class went wonderfully. They learned how to greet
each other properly and how to dance a simple square dance. They also wrote in cursive and started work on their little
embroidery samplers. Before they knew it, it was time to go home again!
That night, before bed, Rachel
played dolls with her sisters Felicity and Nancy. She was still smiling from ear to ear from her lovely day at proper
school and couldn't stop looking at the notes that Miss Samantha had given her to improve her handwriting and her recitation.
She couldn't wait until the next class! But for now, it was time to sleep. It takes a lot of work to concentrate
through a class, let alone get to it in the first place! Because as we know, anything can happen in Pleasantville.
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