![]() I felt my face go pink as heads turned to see what the commotion was about. ![]() ![]() “Bernice Buttman, get your raggedy behind over here right this minute!” Momma leaned against the chain link fence, her face pressing through the metal diamonds. “Bernice!” My momma’s voice cut across the playground, making my heart yank into my throat. But how in blue blazes are you supposed to get someone to like you, anyhow? I hoped he could be the first kid to play tag with me at recess and live to tell the tale. He was real smart and he always smelled like name-brand laundry detergent and I’d never heard him answer a question wrong. Even though Oliver avoided me so he wouldn’t get pounded like the rest of the kids, I had decided I wanted him to be my friend. I stared at the back of his curly head while I swung my legs back and forth. Oliver Stratts stood in a small knot of kids, huddled against the wind. There was only one kid in this whole mess who I didn’t want to clobber. Kids whirled all around me, talking to their buddies and playing games, but nobody came within arm’s length of me. I sat on top of the monkey bars, feeling like a booger on a cheese ball . I was less great at knowing what to do with myself at recess. ![]() Three: wearing the teachers and puny kids of Oak Grove Elementary School into nubs. Here are things that I, Bernice Buttman, was awesome at. ![]()
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