One hard part about being an original thinker is that sometimes it makes teachers glare at you and Mrs. Washburn is a big one for glaring. Also she likes people to “STAY SEATED” just about all the time. When I explained about her at dinner last night, my grandfather said, “Mrs. Washburn doesn't have an original bone in her whole body.”
Then my mom said, “It's only September and she might get better in a month or two.” Which I doubt.
Luckily Mrs. Washburn is only a two-morning-a-week teacher who comes to help with reading.
My everyday teacher is Mr. Welsh and he does not glare. Today he came up to me at lunch and he said, “How are you settling in, Lucy Rose?”
And I said, “Okie-dokie.”
And he said, “That's great.”
And I said, “Well, a little okie-dokie.”
“Only a little?” he asked me.
I told him, “Actually, it is not the easiest to be the new kid in the neighborhood and the new kid at school at the exact same time especially when you don't know any friends yet.”
He had sympathy for that because he told me, “I had a hard time when I was a new teacher and I didn't know any of the other teachers or any of the kids and, to tell you the truth, the principal made me a little nervous, but after a while it got better.”
“Are you still nervous of the principal?”
“Nope,” he said. “But it took a little time for me to get the hang of everything. I think that will be true for you, too.”
“Doubt it,” I said.
“Lucy Rose,” Mr. Welsh said, “I'll eat my hat if things don't get better for you next month.”
I have never seen him wear a hat so he might be kidding but I hope he is not because it is almost October and that is the next month and I would really like it to be better.
Here are some things about Mr. Welsh: He has a nice look of not too much hair and little round eyeglasses and he is skinnier than my dad and my grandfather, probably because he is one for good eating habits. Plus he has two daughters who are in junior high and a son who is still a kid and a wife who works at the organic store. Mr. Welsh is a big one for jokes. Also palindromes, which are words that are spelled the same forwards and backwards. I know about them from my father and so far I have six. One of them is Dad. I told Mr. Welsh another one which is the girl name of Eve. And he said, “You have a way with palindromes, Lucy Rose.”
And I said, “Yes, I absolutely do because I'm the one that figured out that we should call my grandmother Madam and my grandfather Pop.”
“What did you used to call them before?” Mr. Welsh asked me.
“We called my grandmother Grandma but she likes Madam better.”
“How come?” he asked me.
“She says it makes her feel rich and she says who wouldn't like that?” I told him. “And we always did call Pop, Pop, it's just that in the beginning I didn't know he was a palindrome.”
Mr. Welsh is an original thinker.