Eva [chapter sample]

“Okay everyone, we’ve talked about rhyming words all week," Eva stood before her grade three class before lunch on Friday. "Can anyone give me an example of three words that rhyme? Yes, Jayne.”

          “Snail, wale, hail.”

          “Good. Peter.”

          “Truck, stuck, luck.”

          “Good. Pac.”

          “Rake,” Pac said with a grin. “Umm, fake,” his voice held a note of mirth. “Snake,” he let out a giggle.

          Eva narrowed her eyes at him. “Why did you choose those words, Pac?”

          “I was…inspired,” Pac said triumphantly, finding the word he wanted.

          “By what…” Eva stopped when she saw part of Tim’s shirt move. “Timothy Daley, what do you have in your shirt?”

          “My body, mostly,” Tim replied.

          “Do you have any other bodies in your shirt?” Eva asked, feeling for her desk, just in case she had to climb it.

          Tim looked at Pac with a fierce frown and then back at Eva. “Maybe.”

          “Timothy! You take whatever is in your shirt out right now!” 

          With a big sigh and a dramatic roll of his eyes, Tim put his hand inside his shirt and pulled out a long, brown-green snake.

          “TIM!” Eva shrieked. “Get rid of that thing!”

          “But, but he’s a really good one! I never find them this big.”

“Right now, Tim!”

Tim frowned and then half threw, half passed the snake to Pac, who was sitting beside him.

“Pac, get rid of that creature.”

Pac shrugged and tried to pass it to the table beside his, but Daphne Carter was the first person at the table, and she ducked away from the snake rather than catching it. The snake landed on Daphne, Sonya, Jayne, and Dexter’s table, wiggling its way over their papers in its attempt to get away. All the girls screamed and jumped back from the table, their chairs clattered to the floor.

“Dexter, grab the snake,” Eva, fully pushed against her desk now, cried.

“I’m allergic to fish!”

“It’s not a fish, it’s a snake.”

“But it can swim and that's kind of the same thing!”

All the girls in the class were now standing on the remaining tables while the boys rushed toward the snake. Daphne, Jayne, and Sonya joined Tess atop her table.

“Boys, take it and put it outside,” Eva instructed.

The snake fell off the table in its effort to get away from the stampede of boys. Eva screamed, ran around her desk, and mounted her chair and then desk. There she stood, looking down at the mass of boys and seeing neither hide or hair of the reptile that had invaded her classroom.

“Boys!”

All the boys—except Dexter, who had climbed onto the table where Katie and Ruth stood—fell to the floor on their hands and knees and scampered after the snake.

“Where is it?” Eva demanded. She looked up in time to see Jayne Bryon’s white face staring at her with eyes the size of saucers. “Jayne.”

Jayne did not reply.

“Jayne, it’s okay. The boys are going to catch it. Jayne, breathe.”

Jayne swayed slightly.

“Tess! Catch her!”

Tess and Daphne looked from the snake searchers to the girl standing between them on their table island. In unison, they put their arms around her.

"What do I do?" Tess cried, looking at Eva.

"Distract her!'

“Jayne!” Tess said. “Jayne, look at me.”

Jayne turned her fear filled eyes to Tess.

“It’s okay, the boys will catch it,” Tess said with so much confidence that even Eva believed her.

“I’m so scared,” Jayne whispered.

“It’s okay, we’re safe on this table,” Tess assured her.

“Actually, snakes can climb,” Tim announced from his place on the floor.

“TIM!” Eva shouted.

Jayne fainted, slumping against Tess and Daphne.

          “We’re going to drop her!” Daphne shouted.  

          “I’m coming,” Katie Van Pelt leapt from her table island to a chair and in a flash was on the table island containing the stranded damsels in distress. “Here, let’s lay her down. Someone has to get off so there’s room.”

          “You go, Sonya,” Daphne said.

          “But I can’t touch the floor.”

          “Jump from the chair to the table like I did,” Katie said.

          Off went Sonya, hopping from table to chair and chair to table looking quite a lot like a frog wearing a kilt.

          “Lay her down,” Katie said to Daphne and Tess.

          “What if the snake gets her?” Daphne asked.

          “I got him!” Pac announced, holding up the long serpent for everyone to see. His grin spread from one ear to the other.

          “Robert, open the window and Pac, throw him outside,” Eva instructed from her place on her own desk.

          “But he’s a really good one,” Tim pleaded, his blue eyes held all the desperation they could muster.

          The look Eva sent him would have shrunk a lesser boy several inches. “Yes, he’s lovely,” her voice held so much steal that the students stared at her, “and he belongs outside. Robert, open the window. Pac, throw. Him. Out!”

          Robert opened the window.

          “So long, Smith,” Pac said, kissed the snakes head, and dropped the snake into the garden below.

          “Should I shut the window?” Robert asked.

          “Yes please,” Eva said. She slowly descended from her own safe haven and went to the girls. “Jayne,” she called the girl’s name. “Sonya, take a bunch of Kleenexes from the box and get them wet with my water bottle, then bring them to me.”

          Sonya was not particularly careful, so the result was a handful of soggy tissues, a puddle on the floor, and not much water left in Eva’s water bottle. “Thank you, now take some more Kleenex and clean up the puddle on the floor,” Eva said before directing her attention back to Jayne. She applied the wet concoction to the girl’s head and in a moment Jayne gasped and opened her eyes.

          “Hello Jayne, it’s alright now,” Eva smiled at her. Looking up at the rest of her class she asked, “does anyone have a juice box in their lunch?”

          “I do, but it’s my favourite,” Tim said glumly.

          “Well, since you are the one who brought the unexpected and uninvited guest into our class, I think it’s only fitting that you give your juice to Jayne.”

          “Okay,” Tim said. He dug the orange juice out of his lunch bag and handed it to her. 

(thanks for reading! This is a section from a novel that I'm working on. No release date yet.)