But when I entered the art studio for my last class of the day, I felt as if I had swallowed a cup full of tadpoles. Miss Stevens took one look at me and hurried over to my desk.
"Don't worry," she whispered. "I'll be all right. Actually, I'm sorrier that I got you in trouble than I am about myself."
"That's how I feel about you."
She laughed. "I guess we'll have to take Louis's advice and start painting the lake, since that's on school grounds. Until you get your parents' permission to leave, that is."
"Not for a week," I added.
"In the meantime, you still have the river picture you've started to complete." She squeezed my hand. "Anyway, artists aren't expected to behave and obey the rules. Artists are impulsive and unpredictable. We have to be in order to be creative."
She made me feel better again, and I didn't think about my punishment and my meeting with Mrs. Ironwood until I returned to the dorm and saw Mrs. Penny straightening the furniture in the dorm lobby. I pounced on her.
"I thought we had a deal," I snapped at her. "I thought we agreed."
"Deal?" She smiled in confusion. "What do you mean, Ruby dear?"
"I thought you weren't going to tell about me and Miss Stevens going to the river to paint," I said.
She shook her head. "I didn't tell. I've been worried about it, but I didn't tell. Why?" She pressed her palms to her bosom. "Did Mrs. Ironwood find out?"
"Yes. I'm confined to the dorm for a week. No social privileges. I'm sure you'll be told about it shortly."
"Oh dear, oh dear," she said, her hands fluttering from her bosom to her plump cheeks as if they were birds looking for a place to alight. "That means she's going to be calling me to find out why I didn't know and why I didn't tell her when I found out. Oh dear."
"Just say I snuck out," I said quickly. "Just say you never knew. I'll confirm that if she asks."
"I don't like lying. See: One falsehood leads to another and another."
"You didn't lie."
"I didn't do what I was supposed to do. Oh dear." She walked away in a daze.
It wasn't until later in the evening, when I had a chance to speak to Gisselle alone in her room, that I realized what had really happened.
"You hate it here now, don't you?" she asked me after I had told her about my meeting with Mrs. Ironwood. "Now maybe you'll tell Daddy we should leave and return to our own school." Her smile turned oily and evil. "I still want to leave, even though the Iron Lady likes me more than she likes you. Why, we're almost pals," she added with a laugh.
And then it came to me: why she had been pretending to be a good student, why she had been behaving. She had ingratiated herself with Mrs. Ironwood and then she had told on me and Miss Stevens.
"You're the one who ratted, aren't you, Gisselle? You got me and Miss Stevens in trouble."
"Why would I do that?" she asked, shifting her eyes away.
"Just so I would be punished and be unhappy and you could pressure me to ask Daddy to get us out of here. And because of your constant jealousy of me," I told her.
"Me? Jealous of you?" She laughed. "Hardly. Even though I'm in this wheelchair, I'm still head and shoulders above you. You've got years and years of swamp life to overcome. You and your Cajun family," she said contemptuously. "Now, are you going to call Daddy or not?"
"No," I said. "I won't break his heart and hand Daphne another victory over us."
"Oh, you and your stupid competition with Daphne. Why don't you want to get back to our school where there's no Iron Lady and none of these stupid rules, where we have boyfriends and fun?" she whined.
Unable to hold back, I flared. "From what I can see," I said, "you're having loads of fun here—and at my expense or someone else's every single day."
Samantha stepped into the room but hesitated when she saw my face and heard my loud voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you two want to be alone?"
"Hardly," I said, my face on fire. "And if I were you and your friends, I'd be very careful about what I said and did around here from now on."
"What? Why?" Samantha asked.
I gazed with fury upon my twin sister. "Things have a way of getting back to Mrs. Ironwood," I said, and pivoted to march out of the room.
But Gisselle almost had the victory she wanted when Beau phoned that night. He was very excited about his upcoming trip to Greenwood to see me on Saturday. I had forgotten for the moment because of all the trouble. My heart was breaking; the tears came pouring down my face as I told him.
"Oh Beau, you can't come this weekend. I can't see you. I've been punished and confined to my dorm."
"What? Why?"
Shuddering through my gasps and cries, I told him what had happened.
"Oh no," he said. "We've got an away game the following weekend. I won't be able to come for at least two more weeks then."
"I'm sorry, Beau. You have every right to forget me, to find yourself someone else," I said.
"I won't do that, Ruby," he promised. "I have your picture in the top pocket of my shirt every day, close to my heart. I take it out and gaze at it every now and then in school. Sometimes," he confessed, "I even talk to you through your picture."
"Oh Beau, I miss you?'
"Maybe if I come up, you can sneak out and—"
"No, that's just what she wants, Beau. Besides, Gisselle would love to reveal it even if no one else knew, just so she could get me expelled."
"I'm with Gisselle."
"I know, but it would break my father's heart and cause all sorts of new problems at home. Somehow, Daphne would find an even worse situation for me and for Gisselle. And that would be terrible, even though Gisselle deserves it," I added angrily.
Beau laughed. "All right," he said. "I'm going to call you then and I'm going to plead with Father Time to hurry along."
After I had hung up, I stood there sobbing. Mrs. Penny saw me and came hurrying down the corridor.
"What is it now, Ruby dear?" she asked.
"Everything, Mrs. Penny." I ground the tears from my eyes with my small fists and sighed. "Mostly, my boyfriend. He was coming to see me this weekend and I just had to tell him I can't see him."
"Oh. Oh!" she added, wide-eyed. "You spoke to him on the phone?"
"Yes. Why?"
She looked up and down the corridor and shook her head.
"You can't do that, Ruby. You're not permitted to use the phone for social calls for a week. Mrs. Ironwood has made that perfectly clear."
"What? I can't even use the phone?"
"Not for social calls. I'm sorry. All I need is for one more thing to happen that gets Mrs. Ironwood angry at me, and she might give me my discharge," she said sadly. "I'll post that restriction on the bulletin board so all the other girls will know not to call you to the phone. I'm sorry. If you get any social calls, I'll have to talk to the person and explain. I'll give you any messages, however."
I shook my head and then lowered it. Maybe Gisselle was right. Maybe we were better off fleeing from Greenwood and taking our chances with Daphne. My heart felt torn in two: One side was crying for Daddy and what would happen and the other crying for Beau and what had happened.
I returned to my room to bury my sobs in my pillow and do what Beau had said he would do: pray to Father Time and ask him to rush the minutes, the hours, and the days.
I plodded through the remainder of the week, preparing myself for a weekend of what amounted to house arrest, when the second unexpected event occurred. On Friday night after dinner, after most of the other girls in the dorm had gone to the auditorium to see a movie, Mrs. Penny came to my room. Abby and I were amusing ourselves with a game of Scrabble and listening to music. There was a light knocking on the door and I raised my eyes to see our housemother looking rather confused and troubled.
"You had a phone call," she announced. I imagined it had been Beau again. When Mrs. Penny didn't continue but instead wrung her hands and bit on her lower lip nervously, I glanced quizzically at Abby and then turned back to her.