I said in a quiet voice, “Well, an owly way.”

Again I heard an intake of breath from the girls. Dr. Lightowler looked like her glasses were going to steam up and she nodded curtly at me.

I did my rap. I put my heart and soul into it and used everything in the room to do the beat, hitting the walls and the desks and turning the light switch on and off.

When I finished, the girls applauded wildly.

Dr. Lightowler said, “Stay behind at the end of class.”

Everyone else left the room. Dr. Lightowler paced up and down while I stood there. Finally she said, “What makes you think you are so special?”

I stammered, “Well, I don’t, I don’t think that. I mean, it was only about the owlets and I was . . .”

She came and stood really near me and bent down to look into my eyes. “I know your game and I will not stand for it. Do you hear me?”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but also I didn’t want her to bite my head off so I just thought nodding was the safest thing. As I nodded, she winked at me again.

Spooky dooky.

The Tree Sisters were all agog when I came out. I said to them, “She did wink at me, didn’t she?”

Flossie said, “It’s hard to tell, but you definitely don’t want to do any more winking back.”

Next we went to the Taming of the Shrew analysis with Monty. I still felt a bit shaky. Dr. Lightowler really did seem to hate me.

Monty told us that it’s Kate that is called a shrew. I thought a shrew was a little furry creature with twinkly eyes, but when I said that to Monty, he said, “Oh ho! I see, you thought the play was about taming a tiny furry creature called Kate?”

Everyone laughed, but I bet some of them didn’t know. Or maybe they all did. That’s the trouble with me never having gone to theater school or, well, anything really.

Monty explained, “Kate is a headstrong, independent woman with a vile tongue and an even more violent temper. She refuses to listen to her father when he tells her how to be nice to men. In the end, Petruchio bets that he can get Kate to be nice to him. He’s going to ‘Tame the Shrew,’ do you see???”

I said yes, but I don’t think Kate is a shrew just because she doesn’t want to be bossed around by blokes. Fair enough, I think.

It’s a pity there’s nothing in the play about being bossed about by owly people.

At home in my squirrel room. Boy, what a day.

On the one hand it was lovely to see Charlie again, and he had said nice things to me. But then Dr. Lightowler raised her beak again. She really does think I do things to annoy her. And, well, I suppose I do a bit.