My last school told my mom we should maybe wait to move, that it would be better for me to “finish out the term.” But my mom said it was time for us to go, even if it was the beginning of June.

“Need a pencil?” the teacher asked next.

I nodded.

Don’t bring anything in until your second day at a new school. You have to see what kind of class you’re in so you don’t stick out too much. And if you think at least a pencil would be a safe bet, you’d be surprised. I was in one place where everybody got their own laptop and another one that used these old-fashioned mini-chalkboards. You don’t want to be the only kid holding a pencil when everybody else has a piece of chalk.

But this seemed like your basic pencil class. She handed me one that was long and new and still had a full eraser. And when she turned to walk away, I saw she had about five more, pointing in all different directions through her ponytail. The back of her head looked like some kind of flying sea urchin.

I sat down and bent over my desk like everybody else. The math was easy. I looked at the numbers, and the answers showed up. Even if it’s supposed to be letters that tell you things loud and clear, numbers talk to me a lot louder.

I finished the page and went on to the next one. I didn’t know if we were supposed to, but I never met a teacher who got mad and upset because a kid did more pages than they were supposed to do. The next page had some wordy problems, though. I watched the letters moving from one line to the next.

But before I could worry about which blanks looked like they wanted letter-answers, and which blanks looked like they wanted number-answers, the teacher rang a little bell. It was the kind you ding at a store counter when you need somebody to help you—round and silver and very shiny.

The kids closed their books and put them away. I did, too. I’m good at following directions. If you don’t give teachers any problems, nine times out of ten, they won’t give you any problems.

Then I realized what was coming next—The Introduction.

The teacher would say she had an announcement to make. She’d tell everybody my name and that they should be welcoming to me. Then she would ask me to say a few words about myself, like what I enjoyed doing in my free time and why my family had moved.