Dear Sonia,

How are you? I’m in the lunchroom at my school. Half my class gets to eat in our classroom today with the radio playing, but not me, and not Carolyn Shattuck, who is sitting right next to me, even though I purposely left my sweatshirt there. She just slid it over. Do you have annoying people in your class this year?

My best friends are Angus and Lizette. You can meet them when you come. Lizette has a brother who’s three years older, and Angus has a sister in college already! I know you have two little brothers. What are their names? Are they annoying? Or not?

When we were in second grade, Carolyn Shattuck told me to make a bridge with my pencil between my hands. She wanted to karate-chop it. But instead of breaking in half like it was supposed to, the pencil stabbed me right under my thumb, and I had to go to the nurse. When the cut healed, there was a pencil mark that never went away. My dad calls it the world’s tiniest tattoo.

Write me back if you can.

Your future sister,

Bea

The November Spelling Party

Dear Sonia,

My teacher, Mr. Home, started a new thing. When he hands back our spelling tests, he balances them on our heads. If we can keep them there until he gets back to his desk, we get a plus-one on the test. Everyone gets a plus-one, because he lets us cheat by holding the papers on our heads with our hands. Now even more people get invitations to the spelling parties, but I am still not one of them. My mom put a cranberry muffin and two caramels in my lunch today because she knows that spelling-party Fridays are the worst.

I got your postcard. California looks cool. It’s good that your brothers are not annoying.

This week at school we started a project called “my breakfast table.” It’s because we’re doing colonial America this year. In April, all the parents are coming to our colonial breakfast. I’m on the food committee with Lizette and Angus. We’re making butter from scratch. It takes forever!

For “my breakfast table,” we’re supposed to think about how we have breakfast in modern times, like what we eat and where everyone sits and everything. We have to draw diagrams on graph paper and label them. I have two tables, one at my mom’s and one at my dad’s, so I’m doing two diagrams. Maybe I will get extra credit.

Your future sister,

Bea

The December Spelling Party