Dad calls me Kelsey Dreamer because I guess I daydream a lot, and I like to take my time doing things. I just don’t feel that crazy rushing sense or the competitiveness that Jenna and Molly seem to have been born with.

I opened my laptop, logged in, and clicked over to the homework page and sighed. Ugh. There is so much homework in middle school.

There was no way I’d finish before dinner, which I hated. I liked to be able to relax after dinner, and have what Dad calls downtime, when you kind of just do nothing.

I peeked over at Molly. “Do we have to read this whole chapter for history?” I asked.

“Yes,” said Molly, her hands flying over the keyboard.

I opened the window and breathed in.

“Ooh, someone is burning leaves,” I said. I love that smell.

I positioned my chair so the breeze from outside tickled my face. It was a shame to spend such a beautiful afternoon inside doing homework.

Then I looked over at Molly again. “Did you finish reading it already?” I asked.

“Yeeesss,” said Molly with a hint of annoyance, not looking up from her laptop.

“What is it about?” I asked.

“KELSEY!” Molly screamed so loud I jumped. “You have to do your own homework! I’m not going to do it for you!”

“I wasn’t asking you to do my homework,” I said crossly. “I was just curious.”

“If you’re curious, then open the book,” said Molly, and she sounded exactly like Mom when she said it.

I sat there for a few more minutes, listening to the leaves crinkle in the wind. Dad was going to make us help rake them up on the weekend.

“Kelsey, I can help you if you get stuck, but you have to start and you have to try,” said Molly.

“Okay,” I said, eating some more popcorn. “This tastes so much better when Dad makes it on the stove than in the microwave,” I said. “And it’s fluffier.”

Molly looked at me sideways. “Thanks for the review, Princess Popcorn,” she said.

I snickered.

Molly looked over and giggled too. Then she grabbed a handful and chewed. “You’re right,” she said. “This does taste good.”

She glanced over at me with a mischievous twinkle in her eye that I know well and said, “Sheep on a log! Well, what if those sheep flew?”

Then she hurled a fistful of popcorn at me.

“MOLLY!” I screamed, shaking popcorn from my hair but laughing.

I tossed some down the back of her shirt.

“Oh, it is on, Princess Popcorn!” she said, and showered me with half of what was in the bowl.

We were both throwing the popcorn and cracking up when we heard my mom say, loudly, “Girls, what on earth is going on in here?”

Jenna peered around her. “Are you maniacs having a popcorn fight?”