The second word in the morning message started with a small w that was probably not supposed to be a capital. I’d already found one of those, and I didn’t think Ms. G. would make two of the same mistake in a row. I’d almost gotten to the end of that word when Dee walked in. I wondered where he’d been this whole time.

He didn’t look at me. He dumped his stuff in his cubby, real loud. Then he sat down at his desk, real loud, and took out his notebook, real loud. I didn’t know if he was supposed to be copying the morning message, but it looked like he was scribbling all over a page in his notebook again. I tried not to listen, but even scribbling can be loud if you want it to be.

“Good morning, friends!” Ms. B. was already at the door. Today she was wearing a necklace that looked like it came straight out of the ocean, all spiky and shelly.

A couple of kids got up. Dee was one of them.

“I heard we left the cafeteria a little early this morning,” Ms. B. said to him when he got to the door. She didn’t say it mean. It was more like she thought they should talk about it.

Dee looked up at her, but he didn’t say anything. It was almost like he was doing the thing where it’s okay not to answer a teacher’s question, so long as you let them know you heard them.

I went back to my notebook and pretended not to watch him leave.

—

After the morning message, Ms. G. had us clear our desks.

“We’re going to do some practice for the Safety test,” she said. “I realize not all of you may be taking it on Friday, but the information is useful for everyone to review.”

She made a big sweep with her arm to divide the class into two teams. Bertie was on one side. I was on the other.

Then Ms. G. gave us three minutes to come up with team names. Our team decided to be the Safety Superstars. The other side was Lightning, which didn’t really make sense, except it had started to thunder outside. It was still far away, low and rumbly.

Ms. G. asked for one player from each team to come to the front of the room. Bertie’s hand shot into the air.

“Okay. It’s Bertie for Team Lightning,” Ms. G. said. Bertie skipped to the front and bounced from foot to foot. She looked at me and made a “come on” motion with her hand.

The last thing I wanted to do was stand up in front of the class and say “Look at me. Here I am.” But no one else from the Safety Superstars was raising their hand.

“Who can help us out?” Ms. G. asked.