Kimani high-fives Diamond.
“Tasting is not a winning thing,” says Harry. “There wasn’t a winner.”
“There was too a winner,” says Diamond. “And why are you always talking in line?”
DAY 15. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
After playtime, morning meeting, math, and reading, it is always time to line up for lunch.
Today, Harry has a peanut-butter sandwich plus canned peaches, applesauce, and a box of raisins.
Blech. That is what his mom packs when there’s not much in the house.
Diamond is leading the line right in front of him. She peeks into her lunch bag. “Leftover pasta with meatballs, hooray!”
Then it’s time to go downstairs, and Diamond lifts her chin high again, all proud to be the Line Leader.
Harry pushes her as they start to walk. Just a little push. She is not walking fast enough. Also, he is totally tired of her.
“Stop!” says Diamond.
And Harry pushes her again. A little harder than before.
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel turns. “We need to have a serious talk, Mr. Harry,” she says.
How did she see what happened? Does she have eyeballs in the back of her head?
Everyone walks to the cafeteria, where the lunch aides watch the kids. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel makes Harry stay in the hall with her.
They sit down on two hard chairs. She lets him start eating his yucky sandwich and talks about how hands are not for pushing. “If you are angry at your friend, that’s okay,” says the teacher. “Everyone gets angry sometimes. Our job in first grade is to say how we feel with words.”
Harry knows that. He is sorry he pushed Diamond. But he does not know how to say how he feels in words. If he tried, it would come out “Thinks-she-won-the-apples-bragged-about-a-yummy-lunch-didn’t-share-the-green-pencil-pizza-expert-Line-Leader-booger-head!”
He knows those are not the words Ms. Peek-Schnitzel wants to hear. She wants organized words and nothing about boogers.
So he doesn’t say any words at all. He just stares at the floor and bites his thumb.
“Do you want to tell me how you’re feeling about Diamond?” Ms. Peek-Schnitzel asks, after a minute.
“No.” Harry can’t look her in the eye.
“Okay. Well. Can you use words in the future, instead of pushing?”
Harry nods.
“Great. It was nice to have this talk with you, Harry,” says the teacher. “You may go to lunch now. I’ll see you after.”
As he heads into the cafeteria, Harry thinks that she did all the talking, really.
DAY 16. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
When you’re Calendar, there is one special part of the job: you get to lead a song about the days of the week. Ms. Peek-Schnitzel had been waiting to introduce it, but today she taught it to Harry privately first thing when he got to school. Now he stands up in front of everyone and leads them.
What is today? Friday, Friday.
What was yesterday? Thursday, Thursday.
What is tomorrow? Saturday, Saturday.
Harry points at the different days on the calendar with a stick. The other kids are watching him! Calendar is not such a bad job after all.
Diamond raises her hand. “It’s a poem,” she says.
“Nuh-uh,” calls out Wyatt. “It’s a song.”
“It’s a poem and a song,” says Diamond.
Later, during writing time, the teacher asks, “What rules should we all follow in school?” She has everybody brainstorm answers on their paper, without worrying about spelling. When they are finished, she has them share their best ideas.
“Don’t throw the clothespins,” says Jayden.
“Don’t go under the table,” says Abigail.
“Come to school on time,” says Mason.
“Don’t pick your boogers,” says Wyatt. Everyone laughs.
“Let’s be serious,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.
“I am serious,” says Wyatt. “You really shouldn’t pick them.”
“Don’t bully people,” says Adam.
“Or say mean stuff about their families,” adds Orlando.
“Share the green pencil if somebody wants it,” says Harry.
“Don’t push the Line Leader,” says Diamond.
Harry knows she is right. “Sorry about that,” he whispers.
“It’s okay,” Diamond whispers back. “Sorry I didn’t share the pencil.”
DAY 17. MONDAY, OCTOBER 1
Harry and Charlotte are walking to school. Just the two of them, without their mom. It feels very grown-up. The ginkgo trees have turned bright yellow, the way they do every autumn. Leaves sprinkle the sidewalk, all down the block. There are ginkgo berries on the ground, too. They smell like farts.
Harry decides to collect the pretty yellow leaves for his classroom. He wants to bring one hundred!
“Hurry up,” says Charlotte. “We’ll be late.”
But Harry is counting leaves.
When he puts all one hundred leaves on her desk, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel gives Harry a huge smile. Even though he is late.
The students make ginkgo-leaf rubbings. They put the leaves bumpy side up, set paper on top of them, and roll the long sides of crayons hard across the bumps. Leaf shapes turn up on their papers, like magic.
Harry moves his leaves and rubs his paper over and over so it looks like there are lots of leaves all across it. He uses a million colors. “I made rainbow leaves!” he says.
“You need green to make a rainbow,” says Diamond. “They’re not rainbow leaves unless you have green.” She looks down at the green crayon in her hand. It is the only green crayon at Goat Table. She hands it to Harry. “Here, you take a turn.”
And Harry does.
DAY 18. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2
The students have library with Ms. Tellicherry on Tuesdays. Ms. Tellicherry has thick hair she wears in a ponytail, and a long oval face. She reminds Harry of a friendly horse. Today, she’s wearing a fuzzy brown sweater.
The librarian has already shown the kids where to find fiction picture books and nonfiction picture books on the shelves. Now she brings them to her special story-time area that looks like a wooden ship. It has a pretend sail and everything.
“Get on board!” she says in her librarian whisper.
Inside the make-believe ship, the kids sit on three levels of risers covered with brown carpet. Ms. Tellicherry sits by the ship’s wheel and reads a book about a kid on a bus with his grandma.
Wyatt puts his hand up. “I live with my grandma, too,” he says.
“Where’s your mom?” Diamond asks.
Wyatt shrugs. “That’s who I live with.”
Harry puts his hand up, but other people are shouting out.
“I live with my mom, my dad, and my brothers,” says Kimani.
“I live with Mom and Mama,” says Diamond.
“I live with six dogs,” says Abigail softly. Then she giggles. Harry wonders if she is joking. Or pretending.
“I wish I lived with six dogs,” says Mason.
“We’ll talk about our families tomorrow,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “Right now it’s time for everyone to choose a book. Right, Ms. Tellicherry?”
Harry finds a book that shows a boy in a wrestling costume on the cover. Inside are pictures of weird silly monsters. It looks so fun! He is totally taking it home.
DAY 19. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3
The teacher asks about people’s families. “I live with my husband, Carl, and my mother,” she tells them.
“Where are your children?” asks Mia.
“They’re grown and moved away.”
Harry puts his hand up. “I live with my mom and my sister,” he tells the class.
He wants to explain tha
t his dad lives far away in Boston, and that he can’t even remember when Daddy used to live with them. But there isn’t time, because Amira calls out, “I live with my mom and dad.”
“I live with my dad and my sister,” says Jayden. “And then with my mom and my sister when it’s a different week.”
“I live with Mom, Papa, and my dog, Pebble,” says Mason. “And my birth mother lives in Ethiopia.”
Some kids live with only one grown-up. Some live with two or even three. Elijah has a pet ferret. Isabella has a sister and a foster mom and dad, plus a mom. Orlando has two dads.
“That’s weird,” Elijah says to Orlando.
“Not any weirder than a ferret,” says Diamond.
“Yeah,” says Orlando.
“Ferrets aren’t weird,” says Elijah.
“Nobody’s family is weird. All families are just families,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. Her voice sounds final.
“What about ferrets?” asks Diamond.
“It would be more accurate to say that ferrets are unusual pets here in Brooklyn,” says the teacher.
DAY 20. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 4
During morning meeting, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel tapes a large sheet of paper to the wall over the book bins. “This will be our Sparkly Word Wall,” she says. “It’s different from our Sight Word Wall. These words will make our conversations and our stories sparkle! You can use these words even if you can’t spell them yet.”
She writes the word weird on the Sparkly Word Wall.
Then she writes usual and unusual. “Weird means ‘spooky’ or ‘strange,’ but unusual just means ‘uncommon, not ordinary.’ ” She sounds out the word: “Un-yoo-zyoo-ul.”
“It’s okay to be weird,” says Abigail. “My mom says it takes all types to make the world.”
Ms. Peek-Schnitzel nods. “I agree. But weird can be a hurtful word sometimes.”
“I think un-yoo-zyoo-ul is different from weird,” says Elijah, saying the long new word carefully. “Ferrets are unusual pets but not weird pets.”
Harry raises his hand. “Cheese puffs are weird if you think about them too much,” he says. “But they’re usual.”
Everyone is silent for a moment, considering cheese puffs.
Harry thinks he might like the Sparkly Word Wall quite a lot. Without it, he wouldn’t have had that idea about puffs. And now everyone in the class is thinking about it.
DAY 21. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5
During social studies, the students make family circle charts. Each kid puts a small circle in the middle of the paper. Inside that circle goes the kid’s name.
Around that goes a circle for names of other kids in the family.
Around that goes a circle for the grown-ups.
Around that goes a circle for the old people.
“However many parents you want to put, that’s fine,” says the teacher. “If you have important people who live far away, put down their names, too. And if you want to put down cousins, godparents, or anyone else, do it. It’s all good.”
Elijah raises his hand. “What about my ferret?”
Mason puts his hand up. “What about my dog?”
“Let’s just put humans,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.
“But my ferret is important to me!” says Elijah.
“So is my dog!” says Mason.
“So are my six dogs,” says Abigail softly.
“Okay, fine.” Ms. Peek-Schnitzel sighs. “You can put pets in the same circle as kids.”
Harry’s chart has him at the center. In the kid circle he puts Charlotte. In the grown-up circle he writes Mommy and Daddy, and then his mother’s brother, Uncle Stevie. He adds Evaline, his babysitter.
In the old-people circle he puts Baba and Grandpa Mike, Great-Aunt Irina, Grandpa Cillian, and Nana.
Abigail has put six dog names in the kid circle. She reads them to Harry, since the words are tricky. “Tally, Puddleduck, Bacon, Eggs, Scooter, and Toad,” says Abigail.
“Do you really have six dogs?” whispers Harry.
Abigail nods, but one corner of her mouth turns up. Harry is still not sure whether to believe her.
Wyatt’s grown-up circle says Mom but not Dad. His old-people circle has a bunch of names. Harry is curious, but he remembers what Ms. Peek-Schnitzel said: “All families are just families.” So he doesn’t ask.
DAY 22. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9
Yesterday was a holiday. Nobody went to school.
Harry went to Mason’s apartment. They played with Pebble. Mason’s mom took them to the park. Then they ate spaghetti.
Today, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel explains about the day off. “It has traditionally been called Columbus Day, but change makers in more and more places are renaming it Indigenous People’s Day.”
“How come?” asks Harry.
“Columbus was a famous explorer who traveled from Spain a long time ago, in 1492.” She shows them on the map. “He landed in what’s now Haiti, North America. But his arrival led to sad and terrible things for the people who were already living there, and in the rest of North America.” She points on the map. “Renaming the day honors the first people of this land, the Indigenous or First Nations people. Indigenous means that people come from this land and have always been here.” She says students at the Graham School will study this history in fourth grade. She shows them another map. “Here you can see the names of indigenous groups and their territories from that time. The Lenape are from the New York City area, where we live now.”
After lunch, Ms. Peek-Schnitzel writes the word indigenous on the Sparkly Word Wall. “Does anyone know if your family members are indigenous Americans?”
Robbie raises his hand. Lots of kids shrug. They aren’t sure.
“If your family isn’t indigenous, that means they came here from somewhere else at some point in time. Remember the people in your family circles?” Ms. Peek-Schnitzel points to the wall where they are taped up. “Did your parents or other important adults grow up far away from the USA? Raise your hand if they did.”
A bunch of kids put up their hands. Others seem unsure. Harry raises his hand because his father came from Ireland.
“Great. Hands down. Now, are your old people, grandparents and so on, from far away?” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. “Raise your hand if they are.”
Hands go up. Harry puts his up because Nana and Grandpa Cillian still live in Ireland, and Baba came from Ukraine.
“Thank you. Hands down. Now, even you might have come from far away, when you were little. Do you know if you did?”
Mason, Orlando, and Maddie put their hands up.
“My grandparents came here from Poland and Germany,” says Ms. Peek-Schnitzel.
Mason waves his hand. “My dog came from New Jersey,” he says.
DAY 23. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 10
This morning, as Harry hangs up his jacket in the cubby area, Wyatt looms over him. He’s humongous, and his eyeballs bulge. “I’m gonna pull your pants down!” Wyatt whispers.
“What? No!”
“Yes!”
“Don’t!” Harry says, giggling. “Don’t!” He’s laughing, but he doesn’t think it’s funny.
Wyatt reaches out and snaps Harry’s waistband.
Harry looks around for Ms. Peek-Schnitzel. She is talking to Mr. Daryl, who stands in the doorway.
“Don’t!” Harry giggles again without wanting to.
“Nah, it’s just a joke,” says Wyatt, sauntering away. “I wasn’t really going to do it.”
Harry puts his jacket back on and doesn’t take it off for the rest of the day.
DAY 24. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11
Harry wears a belt to school to keep his pants secure. He watches Wyatt.
Will Wyatt snap his waistband again? Or even worse, try to pull down his pants?
At recess, Harry is scared Wyatt will come up behind him. He doesn’t play on top of the Rocket with Mason. Instead, he sits against the brick wall.
But Wyatt doesn’t snap Harry’s pants.
In fact, the whole day goes by without Wyatt even saying anything about pants. Yay! Harry breathes easily again.
DAY 25. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12
Harry doesn’t like his belt. The buckle is too tricky, so it’s hard to use the toilet. So today, he didn’t wear it.
He is waiting in line for pizza, when up comes Wyatt and snaps his waistband. “I’m gonna pull your pants down,” Wyatt says, grinning.
Harry does that nervous laugh again, without meaning to. He clutches his pants. When he gets his pizza, he keeps a grip on his waistband with one hand and carefully holds his tray with the other. And when everyone goes outdoors for recess, he sits with his back against the wall.
“I don’t like Wyatt,” Harry tells his babysitter, Evaline, after school. Evaline is a tall, narrow person with a warm voice and an even warmer smile. She has grown-up children already and is very good at making mac and cheese. Harry likes when she takes him and Charlotte to the park in the afternoons, but some days they have to run errands instead. Today, they are picking up groceries and dry-cleaning for Harry’s mom, who is at work till nine o’clock.
“What’s wrong with Wyatt?” asks Evaline.
“He’s a meanie,” says Harry.
“What flavor of mean?”
“He teases. Like, he says I never lost a tooth but he lost one already, ha ha.”
“Well, you told me you didn’t like Diamond a couple weeks ago, and now you’ve had two playdates with her. Isn’t that right, H?”
“Yeah.”
“So maybe that will happen with Wyatt, too,” says Evaline comfortingly. “Sometimes we come around to liking people.”
“No way,” says Harry.
“Just maybe,” says Evaline. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Harry Versus the First 100 Days of School Page 3