Ms. G. stuck that word on the wall. Then there was incredulous and wilderness (lots of howling and growling for that one) and steadfast and ironic, which Ms. G. said she would have to explain using words.

“You might say it’s ironic I became a teacher because I was not a strong student.”

That seemed more like surprising to me. I couldn’t imagine Ms. G. not being one of the golden-sticker kids in her class.

“Or,” she went on, “it would be ironic if you saw a member of the Safety Squad running down the hallway. It’s the opposite of what you expect, and that makes it kind of strange or funny.”

Bertie raised her hand. “But what if the Safety is responding to an emergency? Sometimes things aren’t what they look like at first.”

“That’s true,” Ms. G. said.

Next, it was time for reading. A lot of teachers go down the row and make everybody take a turn. And that can be tricky because you have to ask to go to the bathroom at just the right time. Or if you can’t, like if the teacher is having one of those “No one else is going to the bathroom!” moments, you can fake a coughing fit. They can’t not let you get a drink of water. And if worse comes to worst, you can say you feel like you’re going to throw up. Trust me, no teacher wants you around if they think you’re going to throw up.

But Ms. G. only asked for volunteers to read out loud. Bertie got lots of turns, but nobody seemed to mind. She read strong and clear and gave all the characters different voices. She would make a real good audiobook reader when she grew up.

The story was about this shepherd girl who was very courteous. One day, she saw an aggressive coyote. At first, she was incredulous, but her helper dog was steadfast. Then Ms. G. looked at the clock and said it was time for lunch.

Everybody let out a big “Aww!” because we had to wait until tomorrow to see what happened.

We lined up by a family member’s first name. I chose my mom. Mostly because she was the first person I thought of. But also because it put me pretty close to the front of the line again.

Bertie squeezed in right ahead of me. “I have a lot of cousins,” she said. “It’s turkey tetrazzini today. Try saying that ten times fast.” And she did.

At some schools, the turkey tetrazzini looks a lot like the tuna casserole, which looks a whole lot like the shepherd’s pie. But here, the turkey tetrazzini was real turkey in a thick gravy over noodles. I followed Bertie to our table and sat down.