Free Friends of a Feather by Lauren Myracle Page B

“Can I have it?”
    He wrinkles his brow. I guess he doesn’t know what to do when girls ask for stuff, either.
    â€œUm . . . sure?” he says. He wiggles it off and gives it to her.
    â€œAw,” Elizabeth says. “You should have given it to me!”
    â€œOr me,” Lexie says. “But, I mean, never mind, because it’s ugly. No offense.”
    Everyone starts jibber-jabbering.
    Elizabeth says that saying “no offense” is rude, and Breezie agrees.
    Chase tells everyone about his rubber bracelets. “I pretty much collect them,” he says. “They all say different things, and the reason I’m not wearing them is because they get in the way when I try to write. But boys
are
allowed to wear that kind of bracelet.”
    Of course they are
, I think, as Silas talks on top of Chase about his own rubber bracelet collection. Boys are allowed to wear any kind of bracelet they want to. Most just don’t.
    Hannah brings up her gymnastics class. She says that in gymnastics, jewelry isn’t allowed, period. Natalia tells everyone that she just started piano lessons and that piano is harder than gymnastics.
    Maybe it is or maybe it isn’t, I think, but what happened to talking about Fernando? What happened to the Great Bird Capturing story Joseph and I were going to act out?
    Oh well. Things change.
    I realize I’m okay with it, which makes me feel grown up.
    Mrs. Webber comes in and tells us all to settle down. Nobody listens. She tells us it’s time for morning meeting. Nobody listens. She does the
clap-clap clap-clap-clap
rhythm that we’re supposed to clap back at her, and Joseph and I look at each other, but since no one claps back, we don’t, either.
    â€œI don’t want to smell your shoe, Taylor,” John says. “If you ask me again, I’m going to give you a wedgie. I mean it.”
    Taylor gestures at his privates, which he shouldn’t do, and says, “Hey! Leave my pee-pee out of this!”
    I wander toward the front of the room, because I can’t not listen to Mrs. Webber for very long. If I do, my stomach will start to hurt. Plus she’s heading for the light switch, and I know what happens after the light is turned off and on.
    I sit on the floor and think about Fernando. I hope Sam’s helping him feel better.
    I think about all the pets I tried to get for Baby Maggie, even though she didn’t want any of them. I make a list of them in my head:
    A monkey, a fly, a puppy. A hyena and a platypus. A snake (like Lester), and a ferret and a hedgehog and a jackalope. An armadillo and a camel. Also a mouse, a koala bear, and a rabbit.
    Wowzers. That is a lot of pets. If I had all of those pets, I’d have to build them a pet condominium, with different size rooms and places to eat and drink, and—ha—an emergency exit just in case. Maybe the ferret would escape. Maybe the ferret would dash into Sandra’s room and hide in her fluffy Ugg boots, and she would never know it until she put her boots on and it bit her toe.
    Joseph sits down next to me. We smile.
    Mrs. Webber blinks the lights off and on. When that doesn’t work, she threatens to get out the egg timer, and one by one the other kids come and sit down, too. I look at them, and it occurs to me that I do like them. Even though sometimes they’re annoying.
    I look at Joseph, who’s saying “oh, cool” as Chase describes his rubber bracelets some more. I look at Elizabeth, who’s tugging a scowly faced Lexie to the front of the room. I look at Breezie, who’s wearing Joseph’s rubber bracelet. The bracelet doesn’t seem very Breezie-ish, not with her pretty hair and her pretty dress. But maybe she doesn’t always want to be Breezie-ish?
    Taylor is still talking about his pee-pee. Mrs. Webber strides to her desk, grabs the egg timer, and goes up behind him. She puts her hands on his shoulders and steers