kindergarten

when we moved to montgomery, alabama from south carolina, it was the middle of august. i was just starting kindergarten but when we arrived in montgomery, school had already been in session for a few days. my first day of school at brewbaker primary school, it took several hours to get me all registered and everything so by the time i made it to my classroom, everyone was getting ready for nap time. i was not happy. i had just left my best friend and this great house in south carolina and there i was in this new school and they were taking naps. everyone else had been in school for a few days already so they were all adjusted to the routine and each other so i walked in as the new kid and felt so out of place.

things eventually got better. my teacher's name was mrs. booker. she was a beautiful black woman who was always dressed so nicely. she wore pretty silk scarves and really neat jewelry and always had her nails manicured. i really liked her. this was about 1990 so whitney houston was really popular and i remember in the afternoons right before school was over, she would have us all sit in a circle on the floor and we listened to whitney houston records and mrs. booker would sing along sometimes and she had such a nice, pleasant voice.

there was a first grade class next to ours and it was taught by a woman named mrs. turnipseed. she was mean. all day long we could hear her yelling at the children in her class. she would say things like, "YOU MAKE ME SICK TO MY STOMACH!" and "YOU ALL BETTER SHUT UP!" she was a tall, thin woman with frizzy, curly red hair and she wore bright red lipstick. she always had this crazy scowl on her face and i'm sure she's one of those people that ended up killing her ex-husband or something like that. she was just crazy. i mean, sane people don't scream at 7-year-olds all day.

i made a lot of friends at my new school. there was a cute little blonde boy named micah and i had such a big crush on him. he always put his little red and blue mat beside mine at nap time and we would hold hands the whole time. one time i even kissed him and mrs. booker saw and wouldn't let us sleep next to each other anymore. after that my friend lisa slept next to me. i remember her being sort of trailer-park and she wore hot pink cowboy boots with fringe on them. she was really fun to be around though, so we were buddies. we could never fall asleep during nap time so most of the time we would whisper to each other. there was a big bookcase beside where we slept. one day lisa noticed that the clear varnish was chipped in one corner of the bookcase so she started peeling it off. she had long fingernails and she would scratch the edge of the varnish up with her nails and we would take turns peeling off strips of it. we both knew we probably shouldn't have been doing this, but we were bored and once we started, we didn't want to stop. we would peel off more and more each day and shove the scraps behind the bookcase. at one point we were able to peel the varnish off in the shape of an elephant and we were so excited about this. my mom came to eat lunch with me at school one day and when she walked me back to my classroom, i pulled her by the hand over to the bookcase to show her the elephant. she just kind of looked at me weird. about a week later, mrs. booker was sweeping the floor after nap time and went to sweep behind the bookcase and out came all the strips of peeled-off varnish. she immediately looked at lisa and i and we both pointed at each other and said, "SHE DID IT!" we were in big trouble. my mom was always at school, volunteering to help teachers make copies and things like that, so mrs. booker asked her to come to the classroom after school that day so they could discuss the varnish elephant situation. i knew i would be in trouble if i admitted that i did it and that it wasn't just lisa, so i denied it over and over. i remember my mom and mrs. booker sitting beside me, saying they knew i did it. i had shown it to my mom and told her that i did it. but i had never gotten in trouble for anything before so i was terrified and would never admit it. i just sat there and cried and felt so guilty. i had to sleep beside mrs. booker's desk during nap time after that.

despite the varnish elephant, mrs. booker really liked me. i was smart. i was the only one in the class that knew how to read and i was only 6 years old. she would have me read stories to the rest of the class sometimes and i was so proud of myself because everyone was so impressed. at the end of every school year, mrs. booker would choose the most outstanding student in her class and give him or her a special gift. that year, she chose me. we had a big ceremony at the end of the school year and everyone's parents came. she announced that i was the most outstanding student and had me come forward and she gave me a little gold ring with a T on it. it was real gold and the only jewelery i had ever been given and i loved it so much. i wore it every day until it didn't fit on my finger anymore. my parents were so proud of me when mrs. booker announced me as the most outstanding. my mom cried and my dad took us all out to dinner after the ceremony to celebrate.