Book 2, Chapter 4: Best School Day So Far!

Dovic and Richo arrived at school, excited and ready to meet the Hibiscus class. They sat on the stool at the front and waited… and waited… and waited.

“It’s taking so long!” complained Dovic and Richo agreed.

“I wish I’d brought my football,” replied Richo, “Hey, remember that goal of the match last Friday night? Richmond is the best team! I hope they’re in the Grand Final with the Cats.”

“Mmmm” mumbled Dovic who was watching the clock, “I think the clock is an hour behind the real time. Hibiscus hasn’t put the clock forward for daylight savings.”

“If I brought my football,” continued Richo, “We could handball it around the classroom. I wonder if we will go out to the oval?”

“Mmmm” said Dovic who wasn’t paying any attention to Richo and Richo was thinking so much about the football on the weekend, he wasn’t listening to Dovic either.

The music began and children started running past the classroom, laughing, yelling, talking to their friends. There was excitement, nervousness, happiness and rushing. Dovic wondered what the class of Hibiscus would think of him.

As the students lined up outside, Hibiscus reminded them of the need to sanitise their hands as they enter the classroom, keep their spaces clean and to minimise movement. Dovic and Richo expected she would probably need to say that a few times throughout the day. When all the class was seated, they were introduced to Dovic and Richo and Hibiscus shared the chapter about “Twas the last day of zoom and all through the class…..” when Jack piped up, “It sounds like Christmas!”

The students had to do a lot of work and they went off to PE leaving Dovic and Richo behind in the classroom. Unfortunately, due to Covid and the need to sanitise things they touch, the students were not able to give them any cuddles. Hibiscus took them to her meeting but after a very short time, Dovic and Richo fell asleep.

After lunch, it was Power Reading time. The students had to read their own books and some of them were reading Book 1 of the Dovic Adventures. A few times Jacob played the video clip where Lulu is talking to Dovic on Facetime and says, “Do you know how hard it is to dance to the Richmond theme song?” and then the music begins and Lulu has to leave. Richo laughed hard when he heard it and he remembered that time. Even the third time Jacob played that clip, Richo couldn’t stop laughing but Hibiscus raised her eyebrows at Jacob and he knew he’d better not play it again.

The students packed up and as they ran out the door, a few of them stopped to say goodbye to Dovic and Richo. Dovic and Richo had had such a good day, they looked forward to the next time. As Dovic ‘belonged’ to the Hibiscus class, he would be there often but Richo had to take in turns with the others. When they got home, they told stories of the class to the rest of the Hibiscus clan and Lulu blushed when she heard that the children had heard her talk about dancing to the Richmond theme song. Richo told Gazza that he had passed on his greetings to Miss Lauren in the library and Gazza blushed, “Oh boy, oh boy” he sighed, “I can’t wait to see her at school tomorrow!”

The next day in class, the students were chatting with Dovic, Lulu and Gazza. Finally, one of the students blurted out, “But Lulu isn’t like the others! She doesn’t look like a teddy bear” and the whole class stopped talking. You could have heard a pin drop. Lulu looked steadily at the boy, trying very hard to hold back her tears. Gazza moved closer to Lulu and squeezed her hand and Dovic held his breath, hoping someone would speak up.

Finally, “She’s unique, she has her own special talents and gifts but she’s still part of the Hibiscus clan” said a girl from the back row. “Yeah,” agreed another, “It doesn’t matter if she looks different, she belongs to us!” and with that, the noisy chatter recommenced, and Lulu felt happy.

After school, Hibiscus took Dovic, Gazza and Lulu to the library where Miss Lauren was waiting for them at the table. She opened a book by Andy Griffiths and read to them. Gazza held the pages for her and they all listened intently. Miss Lauren read and read until the chapter was over and it was time to go home. “What a great day I’ve had,” said Lulu as she did a pirouette and skipped a few steps and Gazza and Dovic both agreed. “Oh boy, oh boy!” said Gazza, “One of my best school days so far!”