The next day I sneak down to Norma's and listen to her snoring. Her real cats line up at the window to bid me farewell as I go off to school. They know better than to meow before their master is up.
I knock on the window right in front of the cats faces and run, laughing at how they all jump. Hopefully, Norma didn't hear me. She wears hearing aids sometimes but claims she's too young to wear them. I remind her there are many deaf children who wear them. She frowns at me and tells me it's time to leave.
At school, Felicia finds me and we swing before the first bell rings. I see Georgie. She's playing with the popular kids. Birds of a feather and all that.
I invite Felicia to come over to my 'grandma's' house again but she says she has to see her niece get baptized.
Whatever.
But she already asked her mom if she can play on Saturday. I tell her that's a good idea.
School is the same as it always is.
Dumb.
Stupid.
Boring.
Full of sideways looks.
Or it could be my imagination.
My teachers tell my dad I'm very creative. They show him my pictures and I see him cringe. He should be use to them by now.
It's not blood I draw on the people in my pictures. It's fruit juice or kool-aid, depending on what the person is drinking.
I draw clumsy people because it makes me feel stable (doesn't that sound like shrink talk?). I'm clumsy and so by drawing others clumsier, I am validating my existence or weaknesses or something like that.
My new teacher is the first one to believe. She thanks me for sharing my imagination with her in such a special way.
I wait for her to call Dad or talk to the principle, but she doesn't.
She trusts me. And because of her, I want to stay here forever.