Chapter 44

School was not at all what I had expected. I walked into the schoolyard and watched the other children. A woman came out and rang the bell. Immediately all the children stopped and lined up in front of the door. I went over and joined the line. They walked silently into the school and put their bags on hooks. I found an empty hook and hung my lunch on it. Then a woman came over to me.

"You are new?" she asked, and I nodded. "You will be in my class."

The woman led me down to the end of the hall and into a room full of children the same age as me. I sat at a desk with a boy who looked familiar. He had red hair and freckles. When he saw me, his eyes widened.

"You are the girl with the crazy grandmother," he said. "I used to live next door to you."

"Horses," I said. "You had toy horses. I still have one in my wardrobe. It is in a shoe."

"Keep it," said the boy. "I have a real one now."