Big thick books Need some help Trevor recognized the voice a classmate He looked up Way up It was Loyola Louden Loyola Louden the school giant For the past year ever since Trevor had arrived at Queensview Elementary to enroll in grade six the two of them had had a secret unspoken pact Under absolutely no circumstances were they to appear together side by side Ever It wasn’t because they didn’t like each other They actually didn’t know each other all that well As far as Trevor could tell Loyola was a perfectly normal grade-six girl She hung out with a typical group of chatties they talked nonstop about clothes they whispered to each other by holding their hand to the other person’s ear rather than just speaking under their breath like the boys did and when they giggled which was all the time it was typically over nothing To Loyola and her circle of friends everything was a Very Big Deal Trevor hardly paid them any attention But he couldn’t help noticing how Loyola struggled to blend in despite her height Once when the class was handing in assignments by passing their work to the person who sat in front of them
and so on all the way up to the first row Trevor spotted Loyola’s handwriting It was tiny and cramped as if her words wanted to take up as little space as possible on the white page In recent months she had also started slouching Just a bit Especially when she was sitting with the chatties outside of class like during lunch When the giggling became too much and a teacher called out to them to pipe down she would hunch like a Galapagos tortoise pulling into its giant shell Also Trevor had noticed a change in her color choice for clothes She had moved away from the brilliant pinks and oranges that the chatties favored on the days that they didn’t have to wear their school uniforms Now she wore browns and grays and dark greens turning herself into an invisible backdrop for the merry parade of shorter girls surrounding her Then there was her voice She had started speaking in softer tones maybe thinking that doing so somehow made her appear smaller It didn’t Besides her booming laughter gave her away It filled the corners of the room and turned every head within earshot Trevor knew one more thing about Loyola Whenever she met someone for the first time it was the same routine She was asked if she was a basketball player
Loyola who despised basketball always had a great comeback No she would say Equestrian’s my thing I’m actually training to be a jockey Trevor enjoyed the next part the confused look on the face of whoever had suggested that Loyola was a basketball player Either they didn’t get her sense of humor or they didn’t know what a jockey was Trevor knew all too well that jockeys were elite racehorse riders He also knew that the ideal jockey was small Unusually small Like Trevor Trevor was the shortest boy in his class In fact he was shorter than the boys below him in grade five And the boys in grade four And even a few in grade three Trevor understood exactly why Loyola didn’t like standing next to him It was because she’d look like the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk Or the beanstalk So they stayed clear of each other their secret pact standing between them What are you doing here he asked Borrowing books she replied curtly a stack of them
on her hip Awkward silence Then the library’s telephone rang Queensview Elementary Library Ms Wentzell the librarian said from behind her desk How can I help you A short pause and then Oh dear How sad Ms Wentzell said her voice stricken Both Trevor and Loyola drifted out of the aisle and toward her desk No I haven’t seen it But I will keep a lookout What’s your telephone number just in case She jotted it down And you’ve checked with the animal shelter Of course Of course I’ll ask around and I’ll let you know Bye for now Ms Wentzell sadly shook her head as she hung up What’s wrong Loyola asked Someone’s lost a dog she explained She got up from her desk and went to the library’s window She looked across the school’s soccer field and scanned the fence line What does it look like Trevor asked White with brown spots Short ears Medium-sized All three studied the landscape but there were no dogs with spots mingling with the recess crowd If not here then maybe the cemetery Ms Wentzell suggested
