Ms Arthur said we should
bring in a photo of ourselves,
our favourite,
to paste on the Class 6A wall
and we could draw a design
around the photo
with our name, in bright colours.
And underneath our photo
we could write,
once a week,
what we’ve done lately
or what made us happy, or sad.
‘Just like Facebook,’ I said.
On Tuesday we spent all morning
drawing our names in big letters
with swirling colours
of red, yellow, green and blue.
Except Cameron
who wrote his name in tiny letters.
His writing was so small
you had to go really close
just to see if it was there at all.
And he’d chosen a thumbnail photo
of when he was a baby
lying in a cot asleep.
Cameron spent the whole morning
admiring his little photo and his teeny name
surrounded by glaring white cardboard.
Sometimes he stepped back
and looked at the photo from different angles,
like an artist.
Then he’d move close and adjust it,
just slightly.
Finally Ms Arthur couldn’t stand it any longer.
She asked Cameron
if he planned to add anything
to his cardboard.
Cameron looked shocked
and said, in his usual loud voice,
‘No way, Ms.
I want to have lots of space
to write about everything I think!’