Page 4 - My FlipBook

posts, but we can’t even pass a daily quiz. Right now we’re sup-
posed to be doing a historical analysis between suffrage and
civil rights, but I got to know if my friendship with Alma is
history first. We haven’t talked in two weeks and I’m in serious
bestie withdrawal.
History is the only class the three of us have together
anymore. The only reason Alma is in a regular class—and rest
assured there’s nothing regular about the cray-crays in this
class—is because all her other classes are AP and she needs a
breather. Alma’s not here today though. She’s on another field
trip in this program called Tomorrow’s Leaders Today. (See G
for Gifted and Talented.) George and I are not in this program
because nobody appreciates our gifts or talents today—or
any other day. Currently George is displaying his talent for
appreciating my jokes. Every time he laughs he bashes into
desks like bumper cars. Any minute he’ll start wheezing and
get sent to the nurse. George has the asthma.
Me: “Alma always never posts pics of herself. Even her pro-
file pic is of one of her kids. Check it out. This girl is Alma’s
mini-me. She always never—”
“Macy! George!” Teacher Man is staring us down. “Let’s
talk about why we cannot use the words always and never in the
same sentence.”
“What do you mean by we?” I lean way back in my seat.
People are always talking like that to me. Saying our and we.
Our plan for Macy is . . . I think we can all agree that . . . We
don’t want THAT to happen, do we?
Teacher pops a cap off a black marker and writes the sen-
tence I said on the whiteboard in Caps Lock.
ALMA ALWAYS NEVER DOES THAT.
He’s trying to turn this into what he calls a teachable

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