Misha and I'd been playing a hard game of hockey and had forgotten all about everything else. When we finally asked a man what time it was he said,

"Exactly two."

We nearly keeled over. Two o'clock! Why, we'd only been playing for about five minutes, and here it was two o'clock! Yikes! We were late for school! I snatched my briefcase and yelled,

"Run, Misha!"

We dashed off like greased lightning, but soon got tired and slowed down to a walk.

"There's no sense hurrying now, 'cause we're late anyway," Misha said.

"We're in for it. And we don't have a good excuse, either."

"Let's think of one. Come on, think fast!"

"Let's say we each had a toothache and we went to the dentist to have our teeth pulled."

Misha made a face. "You mean our teeth began to ache at the same time, like on signal? They'll say we're lying. And if you have a tooth pulled you have a hole where it used to be."

"What we'll do? You know what? We'll think of something special, something brave, so they'll praise us for being late. How's that?"

"Like what?"

"Well, like say there was a fire someplace and we saved a baby. See?"

"Gee! A fire's a swell excuse. Or we can say that a baby fell through the ice in the pond, right into the water, and we saved it. That'll sound good, too."

"Yes, but a fire's better."

"No, it isn't," Misha said. "Thin ice on the pond is much better!"

We kept on arguing until we reached school. After we'd taken off our hats and coats the woman who worked in the cloakroom said,

"Look, Misha. You're missing two buttons on your jacket. What happened? You can't go to class like this. You're late anyway, so sit down while I sew some on. See, I have a whole box of buttons just for such emergencies. Go on upstairs, Dennis. There's no sense in you hanging around here."

"Hurry up, Misha, I don't want to get all the blame," I said.

The woman from the cloakroom made me go up and said Misha'd be right along.

I opened the classroom door a crack, stuck my head in and heard Raisa Ivanovna dictating:

"The fled-ge-lings were chir-ping."

Valery was at the blackboard, writing crookedly: "The fled je lings were chur ping."

I laughed. Raisa Ivanovna looked up and saw me, so I said,

"May I enter, Raisa Ivanovna?"

"Oh, it's you, Dennis. Yes, do come in. I was wondering where you were all this time."

I entered the classroom and stood by the bookcase. Raisa Ivanovna stared at me. She was amazed.

"What a sight! Where've you been? What've you been doing?"

I didn't have my story down pat, so I had to talk fast to stall for time. "It wasn't just me... It was Misha and me... That's what. Yep. You can't imagine. That's how it was!" And so on.

"What? You're too excited. Don't talk so fast. I can't understand a word you're saying. Now tell me slowly where you were and what happened."

I didn't know what to say, but I had to say something. Yet, what could I say if there was nothing to say? So I said, "Misha and me... Well... It was like this.... We were on our way to school. Just walking along, minding our own business. Because we didn't want to be late. And all of a sudden.... You'll never believe it, Raisa Ivanovna! It was really something!"

Everybody started laughing and shouting, Valery louder than anyone else, because he must've known he was going to get a "D" for those "fled je lings". But now the lesson'd been interrupted and he could stare at me and laugh. He was all doubled up. Raisa Ivanovna put an end to the commotion in a jiffy.

"Quiet, children! Now, Dennis, I want you to tell me very clearly where you both were and where Misha is right now."

I was beginning to sweat by now, and the next thing I knew I was saying, "There was a fire there!"

It became very still. Raisa Ivanovna turned pale and said,

"Where?"

"Near our house. In the small house in the yard. Smoke was pouring out of the windows. And Misha and I were walking by just then... Along the back. And somebody'd leaned a board against the back door, so you couldn't open it. And we were just walking by, just then, and smoke was pouring out of the house! And somebody was crying. And choking. Inside. So we took down the board and there was a little girl. Crying. And choking. We grabbed her hands and feet and saved her. And then her mother came running and said, 'What's your names? I want to write about you boys to the papers.' And we said, 'Oh, don't bother thanking us for such a small girl. It's not worth it. And, anyway, we're very modest.' There. So we walked away. May I sit down, Raisa Ivanovna?"

She stood up and came over to me. She looked very serious and happy, and said, "I'm very proud of you and Misha. You're fine boys. Go to your seat. Sit down. Rest a while."

She looked like she wanted to pat my head or even kiss me, and it made me feel sort of sick. I slouched over to my desk. Everybody was watching me, as if I'd really done something great. I was feeling awful. Just then the door opened and Misha stuck his head in. Everybody turned to look at him. Raisa Ivanovna smiled and said,

"Come in, Misha dear. Go to your seat. Sit down and rest a while, because I know it was a great strain on you, too."

"It sure was! I was afraid you'd be mad."

"Not if you have such a good reason for being late. You needn't have worried. After all, you and Dennis saved a child. It's not something that happens every day."

Misha gaped. He looked like he'd completely forgotten our agreement.

"Ch-ch-child? S-s-saved? Who d-d-did?" he stuttered.

I saw he was going to ruin everything if I didn't give him some help. So I smiled a real friendly smile and said, "No use pretending, Misha. I've told her what happened."

Meanwhile, I was looking at him hard, so's he'd understand I'd lied real good and so's he wouldn't let me down. I was winking at him, with both eyes now. At last I saw that he'd remembered! He got into the swing of things right away.

Dear old Misha looked at the floor shyly, like Mommy's little darling, and said in an icky voice,

"Oh, you shouldn't have. It was really nothing." And he even blushed, like a real actor.

Good for Misha! I'd never expected him to catch on so quickly. He sat down at his desk and began taking his notebooks out of his briefcase. Everybody gaped. They stared at me, too. It all would've probably ended then and there if Misha hadn't suddenly opened his big mouth. He looked around and said, "He wasn't really heavy. He only weighed about ten or fifteen kilos."

"Who? Who only weighed about ten or fifteen kilos?" Raisa Ivanovna asked.

"The boy."

"Which boy?"

"The one we pulled out of the pond when the ice broke."

"What? But the child was a girl! And where does the ice come in?"

"The ice? There's always ice on the pond in winter. Dennis and me were just walking along when we heard somebody shouting and splashing around in a hole in the ice. Really thrashing, you might say. Trying to get hold of the edge of the ice. But you know what thin ice is like. It kept breaking off around the edges. Anyway, Dennis and me crawled out across the ice to the hole and we pulled him out by his arms and legs. Then his grandfather came running. He was bawling and sobbing."

There was nothing I could do. Misha was lying even better than I'd done. By now the kids had guessed he was and that I'd been lying, too, so that after every sentence they howled. I was signalling to him to shut up, because he wasn't saying the right things at all, but it was no use. Misha didn't even notice. He just babbled on and on.

"Then his grandfather said, 'I want you to have my gold watch, because you saved my grandson.' And we said, 'No, thanks. We don't accept gifts, because we're modest.'"

That was the limit! I shouted, "Misha's all mixed up! It was a fire!"

"You nuts or something? How could there be a fire in a hole in the ice? You're all mixed up," he snapped.

By now the kids were falling off their seats. Raisa Ivanovna suddenly slapped her desk real hard, and everyone shut up in a minute. Misha was standing there with his mouth still open when she said,

"For shame! It's disgraceful! And I thought you were such fine boys! We will now continue the lesson."

Nobody was looking at us any more. Everything was very quiet and awful. I wrote Misha a note:

"See? We should've told her the truth."

This is what he wrote me: "I know. Or else, we should've got our stories straight."