I headed for the side door. I wanted to avoid the front of the school in case Macii was out there, whispering away at everyone, showing them the picture of me and my dad.

I know Circle Square has a no bullying policy, but remember when that one girl got bullied because the newspapers found out her mom, who was a big-deal politician, was hiring undocumented workers and not paying them properly? No one was mean to her, but we all kind of stayed away from her after that. Even the teachers seemed a little uncomfortable with her because Circle Square believes in human rights and not taking advantage of other people.

Well, I was just hoping that’s how things would go for me. People would ignore me and I could ignore them back.

I headed across the field so I could take a side street home. I was one of the first outside, so I figured I could get away without people seeing me.

I thought I was clear when I heard a voice behind me.

“Hey! Rodney!”

I almost kept going.

“RODNEY!” came the voice again.

It is impolite to ignore people, so I looked back.

It was Rigmor. She was running after me in her bright-green chucks, long white hair streaming behind her like a ribbon.

“Wait up,” she said, even though I’d already stopped to wait for her.

“Aren’t we going to my brother’s store?” she said.

I looked at my shoes. They were also green. I never used to be a shoe looker. I used to look people in the eyes. That’s gone too.

“I don’t know,” I said.

I took a chance and looked at her.

Her eyes are dark blue, and her eyebrows are much darker than her pale hair. Rigmor isn’t just nice. She is extremely pretty. Not that I wanted to notice, especially right then. I felt like a terrible person for noticing.

“Yes, dummy. We made a plan. I told my brother we were coming.”

I didn’t know whether I should bring up the thing with Macii or the thing with my dad. If I did, maybe Rigmor would change her mind. And I didn’t want that. My emotions felt tired out. Like someone smeared all of the colors together and now I just felt muddy.

“Come on,” she said.

So basically, it was a top-five worst day, but it was also not completely terrible. I’ve got to go have a pot pie. I’ll finish this after dinner, even though I said this was the last thing I’d say about this today. I wish I could send you a Perfect Pie. They would blow your mind.

Take care,

Rodney

12

Hey, Lar,

I’m back. Again! I’ll just finish telling you about what happened because it was pretty interesting—at least, I think so.