Second-Grade Dramz

When I saw Lo on Friday, she was about to bust a gut to tell me the following tale of intrigue. Note: The children's names have been changed, mostly to protect the guilty.

Lo: Mom, have I got a story to tell YOU! Stop looking at the computer and listen. Everybody always thinks Violet is so good. She never gets in any trouble. But today at school, she got caught stealing. Yeah, she's not so good after all.

TR: How did she get caught?

Lo: We've been missing so much stuff, and Amanda couldn't find her Webkinz--and she hadn't even LOGGED IT IN yet, so that was the last straw. Ms. C said she was going to check everybody's bags. Right then, Violet started hiding in the curtains and walking around the room--and then she did something stupid--really stupid--INCREDIBLY stupid. All right, what she did--she opened up her book bag thinking no one was watching and said, "Here's the webkinz right here! I found it!"

So Ms. C said, "Where was it?" and Harris said, "In her backpack." Then Ms. C looked through Violet's bag and found the box with the mechanical pencil, Kool-Aid packet, and Smarties that was supposed to be the prize for whoever found the most words in Leprechaun Gold.

And there was a ton of pencils too. We're always running out of pencils. A ton of them in her cubby, too, and Ms. C said, "Violet. why do you have all these pencils?" and Violet said, "Um, I didn't put them there..."

You know my missing library book you had to pay for? She took that too.

TR: Really? They found it in her backpack? I paid ten dollars...

Lo: No, but still. I'm sure she took it--and my crayons. And my snacks. She's our Table Captain, but now, all that's going to change.

TR: Is she poor, Lo?

Lo: No, she's Indian-ish.

TR: Huh? What does her being Indian have to do with it?

Lo: She's not poor. She doesn't even have an accent or anything. Anyway, so Ms. C sent her to Mrs. Huck's room and told me to go get a behavior sheet from the office...

TR: Why does Ms. C always let you do that?

Lo: Because I like it. Then I brought it back and she asked me to get Violet's parents' phone number. Then she goes and calls and comes back with Violet and tells Violet to go to Mrs. Huck's room, but we all saw Violet running around outside.

Then we watched a movie and no one sat next to her--of course. Then we went to specials and when we got back, Violet's father was there. He was real calm. He didn't freak out like you and Dad would have.

TR: I don't freak out.

Lo: Whatever. Anyway, after they left, we had a class meeting and Ms. C said that she'd better not see any of us being mean or not playing with Violet or not talking to her. She said everyone makes mistakes.

TR: That's true, Lo. Besides there must be some reason she felt compelled to take all that stuff.

Lo: Yeah, because she WANTED it. Ha! I'm never playing with her again. I'm going to be Table Captain too. You wait and see.