the rest of coney plus a new school
Nov. 25th, 2011 01:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzie"Take off your shoes and roll up your pants!" Liam tells him.
"I have sand in my stockings," Julia comments. "I should have been a mermaid. Mermaids do not have to worry about sand in their stockings."
"Did you wear your shoes and stockings in the ocean?" James asks, not sure how else she would be sandy.
"I must not have brushed my feet off enough." She sits on the ground, unbuttons her shoes, and peels off her stockings, then stuffs the stockings down inside her shoes, brushes off her feet, and stands back up. "You were going to buy us ice cream," she says to Sean, grinning. "Or did you spend all your money riding the Whip?"
"I did not throw up," James says proudly.
"I have enough," Sean says, holding out his hand to show Julia his remaining money. "We found an ice cream stand."
Ten minutes later the boys are pushing each other in the line in front of the ice cream stand, each trying to get in front of the others so he can order first, and Julia is watching them without comment.
Sean is short a nickel, which James gives him from the remainder of the money Julia gave him for rides, and they take their cones and walk back towards the subway station, dripping ice cream the whole way. By the time they find the subway station, James' hands and face are all sticky from his melting ice cream and the way it has gotten all over him as he eats it. Sean laughs at him for licking his palms and his fingers, but then Liam is happily licking himself too and Sean is laughing at both of them and putting his own sticky hands on James' shirt and arms.
They take the subway to the stop closest to Sean and Liam's house, where the brothers try to convince Julia to let James come inside, just for ten minutes, at least let him say hello to Mrs Meara and Mary Margaret, who have asked about him. But Julia says no, they should get back home before Lucas becomes suspicious or Luisa starts to worry, but perhaps they can do this again sometime – go to Coney Island and ride the rides and eat hot dogs and ice cream and walk on the beach.
"Next time, we will bring bathingsuits so we can swim in the ocean," James says. The brothers do not look convinced.
"And go on the carousel." Julia adds.
"And more roller coasters," Sean says.
"And. Uh. The beach!" Liam says.
"But now we have to go home," Julia announces, and she and James say goodbye and head towards 34th Street and the streetcar that will take them back to their house.
"Julia," James says on the streetcar, "you have sunburn."
"I do?" she asks, pulling on the collar of her shirt so she can see the line of sunburn on her shoulder.
"On your face, too. Am I sunburned?"
"Just a bit." Julia licks the tip of her finger and rubs James' cheek. He scrunches up his face. "You still have ice cream on you."
"That was fun. I want to do that again. Even the Whip."
"I do too. Hopefully we have evaded Lucas enough and will be able to go another time."
"I wish I could tell Luisa and William and Aimee about Luna Park," James says wistfully.
"Perhaps they can come with us next time. We will see if we got away with it today, and if we did, we will suggest it to Luisa. We will just have to pretend we have not already been,"
This sounds like a good plan to James. He reminds himself not to tell anyone about his day, not even Hollis and Alexei and Trenton, not even if they are all bored on one of the days when their mothers have gotten them all together to play. He can talk about Coney Island with Sean and Liam and Julia, of course, but no one else. It is their secret.
James is discovering that he does not particularly like keeping secrets when they involve an adventure. When he has an especially exciting and interesting day, he wants to share. But he is not allowed to go to Coney Island, even with Julia, and if Luisa and Lucas and more importantly his mother find out that he went, he will be in trouble. He might even get Sean and Liam in trouble too, and he does not want that.
He thinks he and Julia have done a good job hiding their trip from Lucas, but he knows that they have been up to something. Luisa is suspicious of Julia's sunburn, and Con looks much too pleased with himself for his part in their escape from the house in the morning, and by the end of the day, after Luisa has gone home, Lucas has figured out that they snuck out and went somewhere they were not allowed. He gives James and Julia both a good talking-to, and it is not until after Julia has admitted it was all her idea that she and James realize that Lucas did not know exactly what they had done or where they had gone. He got them to confess without know what they would be confessing.
The end result is that he will have to report their deception and their jaunt to Coney Island to Mrs Godwin, who will no doubt punish them.
"I feel a bit stupid," Julia admits to James, after Lucas has finished talking to them and gone downstairs. "I should not have said anything. I am sorry."
"Do not apologize," James tells her. "Perhaps nothing will happen."
But what does happen is Lucas speaks to Mrs Godwin when she and Mr Godwin return from their trip, and she speaks to Julia and James, and Julia and James are barred from anything they might consider fun and interesting for the rest of the summer. Julia has to give up her dance class, which does not upset her that much, and James has to give up his weekly get-togethers with Hollis and Alexei and Trenton, which does not upset him too much either, although he does miss Alexei's dog a little bit. Sean and Liam are still allowed to come over on Saturday with Mrs O'Donnell, because it would be punishment for them if they were forbidden to do so, and it is not for Mrs Godwin to punish another woman's children. But there is to be no more baseball in Central Park, and no more making forts out of the furniture, and no more dragging Aimee into their games of pretend when they need a fair maiden to rescue.
So the rest of the summer passes slowly and stickily, and in September James and Aimee and Julia start school at a new place. Their new school has just opened, and Mrs Godwin explains that it is co-ed, meaning girls and boys attend together, and that it will use a more individualized approach to teach them to be more independent thinkers than their old schools.
None of this makes much sense to James. It only means that he will meet a whole new classroom full of people, rather than being taught another year with boys he knows, and he will be able to walk to school with his favorite sister.
Con and William have opted to stay at their old school – Con because he does not want to leave his friends and because he wishes to continue on his sports teams, and William because he does not want to go to school with girls.
James suspects that Con is just being difficult, and his desire to stay at his old school is more because he is defying Mrs Godwin and less because he is really that determined to stay.
The first day of schoo, Mrs Godwin has Mr Sewell drive her and James and Aimee and Julia, so that she can speak to the headmistress and see her children off to their first day at this new school with its progressive program. It is a day of new introductions for James – not just introductions to his new classmates, but an introduction to a new way of being taught. He misses Mr Van der Waal, and even the boys in his class, although his new teache seems like a nice person and he does not dislike any of his fellow students. But it is all very new and he is not sure how he feels about that.
Mrs Godwin comes in the car to get them when class gets out at the end of the day, and she asks them all about it, what they liked and didn't like, what are their teachers like, what are their classmates like, what did they learn, do they miss their old school. James says he misses Mr Van der Waal. Aimee misses some of her friends. Julia misses Manon Lloyd and Honey Langston and Florie Gernsback, but she will still be able to see them and stay friends with them, and she thinks she will like this new school.
By the end of the wee James thinks he will like it too. He has a little more freedom in class than he did at his old school, and he gets to play, and he has managed to interest another boy in pirates and cowboys and bandits, and he has seen Julia once and Aimee twice at lunch, and that is pretty exciting to him. Aimee does not like having boys in her class, but James thinks he might enjoy having girls in his.
Sean and Liam think he is very odd for liking school, even after he has explained what his first week has been like and how it is different from his old school. But they attend a public school much different from his, and he suggests that if they were in his class, they would like it too.
And then Sean changes the subject and they spend the next hour pretending to be flying aces in the Great War, swooping up and down the hallways of the house making machine-gun noises and trying to shoot each other down until Mrs O'Donnell yells at them to get out from underfoot and go play in the courtyard.
Liam is not interested in climbing the tree – it is windy out and he wants to watch the clouds scudding across the sky because it feels to him as if the earth is turning faster, and lying on the ground is like getting to ride a Coney Island ride without having to pay admission – so Sean and James clamber up it and sit on the same branch and talk about nothing much and listen to the leaves rustling in the wind, and every so often Liam calls up to them that he can see a cloud shaped like a whale or a sailing ship or a man laying bricks. James is a litte hungry, but he is content with his life and everything.
words: 1816
total words: 38,659
quickie research: girls' shoes in 1919, the dalton school
"I have sand in my stockings," Julia comments. "I should have been a mermaid. Mermaids do not have to worry about sand in their stockings."
"Did you wear your shoes and stockings in the ocean?" James asks, not sure how else she would be sandy.
"I must not have brushed my feet off enough." She sits on the ground, unbuttons her shoes, and peels off her stockings, then stuffs the stockings down inside her shoes, brushes off her feet, and stands back up. "You were going to buy us ice cream," she says to Sean, grinning. "Or did you spend all your money riding the Whip?"
"I did not throw up," James says proudly.
"I have enough," Sean says, holding out his hand to show Julia his remaining money. "We found an ice cream stand."
Ten minutes later the boys are pushing each other in the line in front of the ice cream stand, each trying to get in front of the others so he can order first, and Julia is watching them without comment.
Sean is short a nickel, which James gives him from the remainder of the money Julia gave him for rides, and they take their cones and walk back towards the subway station, dripping ice cream the whole way. By the time they find the subway station, James' hands and face are all sticky from his melting ice cream and the way it has gotten all over him as he eats it. Sean laughs at him for licking his palms and his fingers, but then Liam is happily licking himself too and Sean is laughing at both of them and putting his own sticky hands on James' shirt and arms.
They take the subway to the stop closest to Sean and Liam's house, where the brothers try to convince Julia to let James come inside, just for ten minutes, at least let him say hello to Mrs Meara and Mary Margaret, who have asked about him. But Julia says no, they should get back home before Lucas becomes suspicious or Luisa starts to worry, but perhaps they can do this again sometime – go to Coney Island and ride the rides and eat hot dogs and ice cream and walk on the beach.
"Next time, we will bring bathingsuits so we can swim in the ocean," James says. The brothers do not look convinced.
"And go on the carousel." Julia adds.
"And more roller coasters," Sean says.
"And. Uh. The beach!" Liam says.
"But now we have to go home," Julia announces, and she and James say goodbye and head towards 34th Street and the streetcar that will take them back to their house.
"Julia," James says on the streetcar, "you have sunburn."
"I do?" she asks, pulling on the collar of her shirt so she can see the line of sunburn on her shoulder.
"On your face, too. Am I sunburned?"
"Just a bit." Julia licks the tip of her finger and rubs James' cheek. He scrunches up his face. "You still have ice cream on you."
"That was fun. I want to do that again. Even the Whip."
"I do too. Hopefully we have evaded Lucas enough and will be able to go another time."
"I wish I could tell Luisa and William and Aimee about Luna Park," James says wistfully.
"Perhaps they can come with us next time. We will see if we got away with it today, and if we did, we will suggest it to Luisa. We will just have to pretend we have not already been,"
This sounds like a good plan to James. He reminds himself not to tell anyone about his day, not even Hollis and Alexei and Trenton, not even if they are all bored on one of the days when their mothers have gotten them all together to play. He can talk about Coney Island with Sean and Liam and Julia, of course, but no one else. It is their secret.
James is discovering that he does not particularly like keeping secrets when they involve an adventure. When he has an especially exciting and interesting day, he wants to share. But he is not allowed to go to Coney Island, even with Julia, and if Luisa and Lucas and more importantly his mother find out that he went, he will be in trouble. He might even get Sean and Liam in trouble too, and he does not want that.
He thinks he and Julia have done a good job hiding their trip from Lucas, but he knows that they have been up to something. Luisa is suspicious of Julia's sunburn, and Con looks much too pleased with himself for his part in their escape from the house in the morning, and by the end of the day, after Luisa has gone home, Lucas has figured out that they snuck out and went somewhere they were not allowed. He gives James and Julia both a good talking-to, and it is not until after Julia has admitted it was all her idea that she and James realize that Lucas did not know exactly what they had done or where they had gone. He got them to confess without know what they would be confessing.
The end result is that he will have to report their deception and their jaunt to Coney Island to Mrs Godwin, who will no doubt punish them.
"I feel a bit stupid," Julia admits to James, after Lucas has finished talking to them and gone downstairs. "I should not have said anything. I am sorry."
"Do not apologize," James tells her. "Perhaps nothing will happen."
But what does happen is Lucas speaks to Mrs Godwin when she and Mr Godwin return from their trip, and she speaks to Julia and James, and Julia and James are barred from anything they might consider fun and interesting for the rest of the summer. Julia has to give up her dance class, which does not upset her that much, and James has to give up his weekly get-togethers with Hollis and Alexei and Trenton, which does not upset him too much either, although he does miss Alexei's dog a little bit. Sean and Liam are still allowed to come over on Saturday with Mrs O'Donnell, because it would be punishment for them if they were forbidden to do so, and it is not for Mrs Godwin to punish another woman's children. But there is to be no more baseball in Central Park, and no more making forts out of the furniture, and no more dragging Aimee into their games of pretend when they need a fair maiden to rescue.
So the rest of the summer passes slowly and stickily, and in September James and Aimee and Julia start school at a new place. Their new school has just opened, and Mrs Godwin explains that it is co-ed, meaning girls and boys attend together, and that it will use a more individualized approach to teach them to be more independent thinkers than their old schools.
None of this makes much sense to James. It only means that he will meet a whole new classroom full of people, rather than being taught another year with boys he knows, and he will be able to walk to school with his favorite sister.
Con and William have opted to stay at their old school – Con because he does not want to leave his friends and because he wishes to continue on his sports teams, and William because he does not want to go to school with girls.
James suspects that Con is just being difficult, and his desire to stay at his old school is more because he is defying Mrs Godwin and less because he is really that determined to stay.
The first day of schoo, Mrs Godwin has Mr Sewell drive her and James and Aimee and Julia, so that she can speak to the headmistress and see her children off to their first day at this new school with its progressive program. It is a day of new introductions for James – not just introductions to his new classmates, but an introduction to a new way of being taught. He misses Mr Van der Waal, and even the boys in his class, although his new teache seems like a nice person and he does not dislike any of his fellow students. But it is all very new and he is not sure how he feels about that.
Mrs Godwin comes in the car to get them when class gets out at the end of the day, and she asks them all about it, what they liked and didn't like, what are their teachers like, what are their classmates like, what did they learn, do they miss their old school. James says he misses Mr Van der Waal. Aimee misses some of her friends. Julia misses Manon Lloyd and Honey Langston and Florie Gernsback, but she will still be able to see them and stay friends with them, and she thinks she will like this new school.
By the end of the wee James thinks he will like it too. He has a little more freedom in class than he did at his old school, and he gets to play, and he has managed to interest another boy in pirates and cowboys and bandits, and he has seen Julia once and Aimee twice at lunch, and that is pretty exciting to him. Aimee does not like having boys in her class, but James thinks he might enjoy having girls in his.
Sean and Liam think he is very odd for liking school, even after he has explained what his first week has been like and how it is different from his old school. But they attend a public school much different from his, and he suggests that if they were in his class, they would like it too.
And then Sean changes the subject and they spend the next hour pretending to be flying aces in the Great War, swooping up and down the hallways of the house making machine-gun noises and trying to shoot each other down until Mrs O'Donnell yells at them to get out from underfoot and go play in the courtyard.
Liam is not interested in climbing the tree – it is windy out and he wants to watch the clouds scudding across the sky because it feels to him as if the earth is turning faster, and lying on the ground is like getting to ride a Coney Island ride without having to pay admission – so Sean and James clamber up it and sit on the same branch and talk about nothing much and listen to the leaves rustling in the wind, and every so often Liam calls up to them that he can see a cloud shaped like a whale or a sailing ship or a man laying bricks. James is a litte hungry, but he is content with his life and everything.
words: 1816
total words: 38,659
quickie research: girls' shoes in 1919, the dalton school
