Ship of Dolls by Shirley Parenteau

say Emily Grace is bringing a hug from girls who want to be friends.”
    “Put that in along with your haiku and you’ll have it done.” He walked away to join friends throwing a ball over the school woodshed to a team on the other side. They whooped and laughed as he joined them. One made kissing sounds toward Lexie.
    She wanted to tell Jack she liked his idea about putting the haiku in the letter. Now was not the time. Raising her chin, refusing to look at the whooping boys, she walked to the school porch to watch over Emily Grace in her box.
    The school bell hadn’t rung yet when shouts broke out on the playground. “It’s a fight!” someone shouted, running toward a gathering crowd.
    Louise glanced over as she came up the walk. “Boys.”
    Someone else yelled, “It’s Oliver! And Jack!”
    Jack!
Lexie ran toward the crowd. She heard Jack shout, “Take it back!”
    Oliver Johnson, a red-​haired boy who sometimes offered to carry her books, yelled back, “You
luuve
her! Ow!”
    Lexie stopped short. Loved who? Oh, no! That kiss! Could they be fighting because of the kiss? Jack was never going to forgive her.
    The principal, Mr. Anderson, raced from the building.
    “Hit him again!” someone yelled.
    “You got him, Jack!” another shouted.
    A third screamed, “Come on, Ollie!”
    The shouting stopped as suddenly as it had started. The boys scattered as Mr. Anderson waded in. Moments later, he came past Lexie, towing Jack with one arm and Oliver with the other. Both boys were red faced, their shirts pulled loose and dusty. Blood oozed from Oliver’s lip and reddened Jack’s cheek.
    As the principal hauled him toward the school, Jack looked straight at Lexie. The hard look on his face was one she had never seen before and never wanted to see again.

J ack and Oliver arrived in class just after Miss Tompkins rang her bell, but she made them sit at the front on opposite sides of the room. There was no chance for Lexie to speak to Jack. She wasn’t sure she wanted to.
    He didn’t want to talk to her. He made that clear at noon recess. She hated feeling responsible for his fight, especially when he kept rubbing his forehead as if it hurt. Ollie’s swollen lip didn’t bother her. He probably deserved it.
    Since Jack was at the front of the room, he was one of the last to leave after school. When he saw Lexie waiting by the door, he snapped, “I’m not walking with you.”
    “Are you okay?”
    “What’s it to you?”
    His head hurts. That’s why he’s mean
, she told herself. “What was it about? The fight?”
    His face flushed. “
Your
eye should be turning black, not mine. You took the doll from the teacher’s room. This should be
your
punishment.”
    She hadn’t expected that. “I
was
punished.”
    “Yeah. Punished. By getting to sew a dress. By getting to hold the doll, even take her home. You were punished, all right.” He brushed past her and ran toward the street.
    Lexie yelled after him, “At least I’m not dumb enough to get into a fight!”
    Lexie couldn’t stop feeling that it was her fault Jack was mad. She hoped he didn’t get in trouble with his mother for fighting. After supper, she climbed into the tree between the two houses and threw twigs at his window. His blind was pulled all the way down. He didn’t raise it, although she saw his shadow when he moved past. She also noticed that the window was open an inch at the bottom.
    Leaning as near as she dared, she called, “Jack? Are you all right?”
    No answer.
    She threw another handful of twigs. When the blind stayed down, she gave up and crawled back to her room.
    She hadn’t told him to fight Oliver. And if he did want to fight, he should have known better than to do it at school. “Louise said it right,” she muttered. “Boys!”
    The dress was almost finished. Grandma kept her promise to help, and over the next three days, taught her to use the treadle sewing machine. That turned out to be even harder than Lexie