Vice Principal Taney is a tall, bony guy with very white hair. He has permanent wrinkles in his forehead from frowning so much. His nose is long and pointy. We’re all pretty sure he doesn’t like kids at all. He usually walks around the halls looking for ways to get people in trouble.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Taney,” I said, following him into the school office. The receptionist, Adele, looked up and smiled at me. “It was an accident — I can explain.”

“That’s what they always say,” Mr. Taney said, pulling a detention pad out of his jacket.

A tall African-American woman came out of the principal’s office in the back. She had long black braids tied back with a peach-colored scarf. I’d never seen her before, but I guessed she was meeting with Principal Ernst. She paused at the mailbox outside the office, looking through a stack of papers.

“It was my dog,” I said. “He got loose and followed me and I had to take him home and make sure he couldn’t get out again.”

Mr. Taney was already starting to write the detention slip. His eyebrows were raised up high like he didn’t believe me.

“What kind of dog?” the strange woman asked curiously.

“He’s a golden retriever,” I said. “We just got him.”

“I have this under control, Mrs. Hansberry,” Vice Principal Taney said.

“Well, it sounds like a reasonable excuse to me,” said the woman. She put her pile of papers on the front desk and held out her hand to me. “And you are?”

“Parker Green, ma’am,” I said, shaking her hand. I wanted to ask who she was, but I thought it would be impolite. Luckily she just went ahead and told me.

“I’m Mrs. Hansberry, your new principal,” she said. “And lucky for you, I have a misbehaving dog myself. Mr. Taney, I think we can make an exception on the first day.”

Mr. Taney’s lips were pressed together into very thin lines. “Certainly,” he said in a tight voice.

Principal Hansberry wrote something on a slip of paper and handed it to me. “Give that to your teacher,” she said. “Whose class are you in?”

“Sixth grade, Mr. Peary,” I said. There were two other sixth grade classes. Troy was in Miss Woodhull’s and Hugo was in Mr. Guare’s, but luckily Danny and Eric were both in the same class as me.

“All right, hurry along,” she said. “Try not to let it happen again.”

I wanted to run all the way down the hall, but I knew Vice Principal Taney was still watching. He’d probably give me a detention for that too. So I just walked as fast as I could.

When I pulled open the door to Mr. Peary’s class, I saw that everyone was pushing their desks around. Eric and Danny both looked super-relieved to see me.

I handed Mrs. Hansberry’s note to the teacher. Mr. Peary isn’t nearly as old as Mr. Guare. He only graduated from college a few years ago. He has brown hair and kind of a thin scruffy beard. Camellia said once she thought he was trying to grow facial hair to make himself look older. I think the stern look on his face made him look plenty old enough.

But he nodded when he saw the note. “Eric told me what happened,” he said. “Grab a desk, Parker. We’re arranging them in a semicircle.”

This was something new. We’d always sat in rows in all our other classrooms. But with Mr. Peary directing, we got the desks all set up like three sides of a square. On the open side was his desk and the blackboard. There was a space in the middle where he stood to talk to us.

I managed to shove my desk in beside Danny’s. Eric was on his other side. Rebekah Waters sat next to Eric, which I knew would make him really nervous. Eric is kind of shy, except with us, and he thinks Rebekah is the prettiest girl in the class. So he definitely, definitely can’t talk to her.

Rebekah is cute, for sure, but if you asked me, I’d say Natasha Kandinsky is prettier. She’d gotten new glasses over the summer with thin silver rims that made her look like a high schooler. She has masses of black hair, all the way down to her waist. But she’s one of the silliest girls I’ve ever met. Natasha spends every recess sitting on the wall and giggling with her best friend, Tara Washington. It’s totally impossible to talk to them, because they’ll just start giggling and you never have any idea what is supposed to be so funny.

She was sitting across the classroom, next to Tara, of course. They were already whispering to each other, even though I was sure they’d spent the whole summer together. Kristal was sitting on the other side of Tara, and she waved hi to me. Which of course made Tara and Natasha whisper and giggle even more.

Nikos Stavros took the other desk next to me. He’s really smart, and he usually reads instead of playing baseball or whatever the rest of us are playing. But watch out if he asks you over to play video games — he beats everyone at everything, hands down.

“All right,” Mr. Peary said, sitting on top of his desk to face us. “Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves. Tell us your name and something interesting about yourself.”

I am so bad at this game. Ms. Applebaum made us do the same thing, and I could never think of anything interesting to say. I’m just a regular guy. I think last year I said something like, “I like baseball” or “My favorite fruit is blueberries.” I know, so fascinating.

Ella Finegold was first. She stood up and said, “I’m Ella, and this summer I learned two new solos on the piano. I haven’t decided which one I’m going to do for the talent show yet.” She sat back down. I saw Tara and Natasha rolling their eyes at each other. Ella is a total musical genius, but she sang some kind of slow opera thing at last year’s fall talent show, and everyone nearly fell asleep.

When it was my turn, I said, “I’m Parker, and … I have a new dog.” Thinking about Merlin made me smile as I sat back down.

“What kind of dog?” Nikos asked.

“A golden retriever,” I said. “His name is Merlin.”

“Oh, wow!” Heidi Tyler said. “That is so cool! I love dogs! I want one so badly!”

“He’s the most handsome dog ever,” Kristal said. I was glad she didn’t say “gorgeous.”

“Does he look anything like that dog out there?” Natasha asked, pointing out the window.

I turned to look out at the playground.

Merlin was sitting under the slide, wagging his tail and wearing the biggest grin I’d ever seen.