Even though I had decided to skip Madam's recommendation I changed my mind this morning when I was at school. Mrs. Washburn was reading out loud about the house on the prairie but I did not feel in a mood to listen to that book. I was thinking about how October was supposed to be better and how it actually isn't.
Later, when I was supposed to be doing nouns, I wrote a list on the back of my language arts worksheet called WHAT MY NEW FRIEND SHOULD BE:
Funny.
An original thinker.
Doesn't like Melonhead.
I took it home and showed my list to everybody at family dinner.
“Those are three important things,” Pop said.
But Madam told me, “You might want to think about it some more.”
Then my mom said, “Lucy Rose, you should give kids a chance and try to be friendly and ask them about themselves.”
And then all of a sudden, right there in Madam and Pop's dining room, I shouted at everybody, “I am sick of school and I want to go home to Ann Arbor where I already have friends!”
I didn't expect to say it. It just came out and I'm not even sure it's all the way true.
“Well,” Pop said, “you have a point about school. I used to tell your mother and her sisters and brother, ‘School is as close to prison as I hope you children ever come.’”
Then Madam gave him her sharp look and said “Not helpful” in a whispery way which I could hear.
So my grandfather said, “I just don't think people should have to go inside when a bell rings or have to go outside just when they might be doing something interesting.”
My mom says my grandfather has never been one for taking too much direction. I say that is a sign of an original thinker.
After dinner we walked to Grubb's and I got a lime Popsicle out of the Igloo freezer which are not as good as Good Humors but it is fun to hang your head down in the box while you are looking. And I used my own quarter to buy a postcard with a picture of the Capitol on the front to send to my Ann Arbor friends who are twins and have the names of Frannie and Annie Rhineburger. Also at Grubb's my grandfather bought a box of white Tic Tacs,which is the only kind I like, and told me I could carry them around in my pocket which is good because one thing I am big on is fresh breath.