Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons?

By Rachel V. Olivier

All Mary, Jill, and Eddie wanted to do was to settle their differences —the old fashioned way. But then Miss Simmons came along... Once upon a time this story was a 2,000 word college paper that was just your basic kids’ story. But then it grew up into the little chapter book you see today, complete with pictures that I drew. Myself. Don’t expect professional level illustrations in this little book. Do expect to have fun reading the story and seeing how I envisioned it. Take, for example, the monster slug pictured, whose profile page says it’s three feet tall (liar), bright yellow, likes long slides in dark tunnels, and prefers sautéing fresh children with a dash of fennel and sliced mushrooms...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Aug 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781312455269

Book preview

Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons?

Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons?

by

Rachel V. Olivier

RO Blocksb bw

Copyright Page

Published by Lulu.com, Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

3131 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, NC 27607-5436

Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons?

Putt Putt Productions, An Uphill Company

Copyright ©2014 by Rachel V. Olivier

Art and cover design by Rachel V. Olivier

This story is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person or event, living or dead, is purely coincidental. No slugs were harmed in the writing of this story. At least, not yet.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

ISBN: 978-1-312-45526-9

putt2

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Prologue

Chapter One: Miss Simmons

Chapter Two: After School

Chapter Three: The Old Oak

Chapter Four: The Cave Beneath the Tree

Chapter Five: Looking for Jill

Chapter Six:  The Room

Chapter Seven; The Tunnel

Chapter Eight: Eddie and Mary: To the Rescue!

Chapter Nine: Miss Simmons and the Slug

Chapter Ten: What Now?

Chapter Eleven: The Plan

Chapter Twelve: Jill and Mary’s Break In

Chapter Thirteen: The Babysitting Gig

Chapter Fourteen: The Great Escape

Chapter Fifteen: Blowing up the School

Epilogue

About the Author

Frontispiece

Miss Simmons and two of her slugs.

Dedication and a Few Words

This short story was originally written for a creative writing class (English 351) with Laura Kalpakian at Western Washington University, 1985 or 86. That was back when colleges (or at least Western) didn’t offer creative writing courses. They barely offered writing intensive courses. I jumped at the chance to take it.

Recently, I found the old marked up drafts of Who Will Sub for Miss Simmons? with Ms. Kalpakian’s comments, and I was reminded of her patience for her students, or at least for me. It needed a LOT more work. After thirty years, it finally got it.

However, after revising it, I realized that I didn’t want to try to submit this story to market after market and see it passed over for being too young or too old, or have to edit it down just to make it into a pro magazine. No. Much as I like playing with the cool kids, I wanted to publish this story myself. In a little chapter book. With pictures. That I drew. Myself.

So, I did.

Don’t expect professional level illustrations in my little chapter book. Do expect to have fun reading the story and seeing how I saw it in my own head.

I’d like to thank Ms. Kalpakian for her help all those years ago. I’d also like to thank all the (good and bad) teachers I had in school, as well as the rogue friends who taught me how to use my imagination and have a good time.

Prologue

The man’s wife had run in, for just a minute, to pick something up from the rabbit warren of shops in the Southern Californian mall. Ten minutes later he’d decided to shut off the car and the a/c, and get out with his kids and