My Town

I live in a small town. Now you may think you know what a small town is, but can you shut your eyes and walk yourself up and down the streets and know the name of the people that live in all the houses of your town? If not, you may not live in a small town. I may not know every single name, but I can see the face of the person. Of course I know where the kids live. The old people are not exactly people I need to know, but I do know who to stay away from. Some people are just kind of scary.

I live in a house with my Mom and my older sister Carol who is 16. That is almost a grown up. She can drive and has a job and a boyfriend. My older brother Ted is 18 and doesn't even live here anymore. My dad died when I was only 3 years old.

My house is on the corner. That sounds funny, but it is the corner of the whole town. In one direction is a field, in the other direction is a field, and in the other direction is a field stretching out till you see the mountains. There are houses and roads way out there, but mostly you see the mountains. Right across the street from me is a house that my friend Karen lives in. Karen has only lived there for about a year, and I am so afraid she will move. Her family is staying with her grandparents for awhile. I just wanted you to see that I live in the big bare nothing.

All the roads in my town are dirt roads except the one road that runs from my house all the way through the next town and right up to the next one. Confusing I know, but there are three small towns almost together and some people call us the Tri-towns. Believe me, we are not one town. Those of us that live here know exactly where one town ends and the next begins.

I live in Firestone, I go to school in Frederick and my best friend Georgi lives in Dacona. If I go out the door and turn left, all I have to do is walk up the hill and there is a little cluster of house where my Grandma lives. I just wanted you to be able to picture my town, but before you go thinking there is grass and sidewalks and trees, I better tell you, there is not. There are a few trees, but not near enough for me. I love to climb trees. The fields around me are full of sagebrush bushes, cactus, grass hoppers and a few snakes. So now I hope you can picture my town.

Trouble with Mr. Sass

Hey, It's me Montee. That's not my real name. That's the name I chose. My best friend and I decided to pick our own names and always call each other by that name. She picked Georgie. Since I always have so much to say and so many stories to tell, I decided to write them down. I am 11 years old. I am in 6th grade and have the best teacher I could ever imagine. His name is Mr. Sass. This is the first time I have had a man teacher, and I really like him. He is huge. A very tall man with a big booming voice. When we first saw who the 6th grade teachers would be, we thought we wanted the young cute one. I am so glad we didn't get him, because he is mean. He had a pointer, that teachers are suppose to use to point at the chalkboard or the map. His has a rubber ball on the end of it and he uses it to bonk people on the head with. I hate that. All of the girls have to go to his room several times a week for a class and the boys go to P.E. with Mr. Sass. I don't like to go to Mr. Hubbards room. Did I say I don't like the man. His name reminds me of the nursery rhyme, "Old Mrs. Hubbard went to the cupboard and the cupboard was bare." I wish Mr. Hubbard would get stuck in a cupboard. Here's just one of the reasons I hate him. One day the girls in our class came into his room and everyone was scrambling to find a desk to sit at. Some how everyone found one but me. Why me? Really? I find myself saying that a lot. His room is in an older building and still has wooden desks. Our room has new plastic pink desks with cool pop up desk lids. Anyway the only place left for me to sit was a desk seat with no front to it. Everyone thought it was funny that I had to go all the way to the front of the room and sit there. Why? Because dorky Mr. Hubbard pointed to me and then to that creepy broken desk. Everyone was laughing in a sneaky quite way for fear of getting bonked on the head with that dumb pointer. I suppose I sort of tromped up to the front. Kind of like stomping your foot. Well, wouldn't you? Then I plopped down. OK, maybe I plopped to hard because the dumb desk broke and clatter to the floor with me tangled in the wooden contraption. Now everyone laughed. I guess they were not worried anymore about the pointer bouncing off their head. I laughed too. Maybe to loud, but laughing with everyone else seemed better than being laughed at. Mean Old Man Hubbard did not laugh. Evidently he did not see the humor in the whole thing. He yelled. He yelled at me. Like the whole thing was my fault. How could it be my fault that the old creaky desk broke? How could it be my fault that everyone laughed? I looked at him and said, "This is not my fault. Don't blame me for your old creaky desks." His face got red and he just about had smoke coming out of his nose. He yelled, "Go find Mr. Sass and tell him what you did." I think I mumbled something like..."I think he would be on my side." When he picked up the pointer I moved toward the door...with a few stomps included. Talk about embarrassing. Walking all the way out with everyone looking at me. I stole a glance at Georgie and at least she looked sad for me. I left the building thinking I couldn't wait to tell Mr. Sass all about it. Then I remembered he had all the 6th grade boys out in the schools baseball field for P.E. I started walking toward them, then some kind of fear overtook me. No way was I going to walk up to all those boys and have them hear this whole sad story. I am not boy crazy like some girls, but there are a few cute boys that I just can't tell myself to ignore. OK, they are cute and I like them, but I don't want to marry them. Yuck! My feet just started to move in the opposite direction. I could not go out there. I just found a nice hidden spot on the playground to wait till this awful class was over. When everyone started coming in and going to their own classes, I just followed along. No one knew. Simple as that. Why would they ever have to know that I did not talk to Mr. Sass. I decided to just forget it and enjoy the rest of the day.

Of course I told Georgie. We tell each other everything. I waited until after school. We take different buses, so I called her when I got home. She couldn't believe that I never made it to talk to Mr. Sass. I just didn't think it was that big of a deal. We had other things to talk about. That night we had a band concert. We both played flutes and had for three years. Concerts were lots of fun. That night my Mom dropped me off and I went in and found Georgie. We sat in our rows and put our flutes together to warm up. We were talking and laughing and then it happened. I looked up in the bleachers where teachers usually sit if they come to the concert. There was Mr. Sass and guess who was sitting right next to him? Oh no. Why did mean old Mr. Hubbard have to come and why on earth did he have to sit by my teacher. Then the worst thing ever happened. Mr. Sass pointed his finger at me. Did I tell you he has gigantic hands. Huge fingers to point at you with. I looked all around me to see who he was pointing at. I even smiled and waved. Georgie whispered to me that he looked mad. Then it hit me. He knew. How was I suppose to pucker up and play the flute in a time like this. I just looked at the band director and never let myself look away. I made sure to hurry off and not be seen by my teacher. Tomorrow would be soon enough.

First thing in the morning when I walked into the room, he said he wanted to talk to me. I told him what happened and he said I should have come to talk to him. He wasn't mad that I fell on the broken desk and that all of this created a commotion in the room. He was upset that I didn't follow directions and come tell him what happened. I tried to make up excuses, but he just raised his eyebrows at me. It really made me mad when he said I had to miss P.E. for a whole week. He knew it was my favorite class. How could he do this to me? I wanted him to hate Mr. Hubbard as much as I did. I almost cried. Believe me, I cry enough at school and I just hate it. Most of the time I am tough, but lately the tears just come weather I want them to or not. My Mom said it comes with the age. Sometimes when girls are growing up, lots of things just make them emotional. I hate that. I hate all of the things that come with 'girls growing up'. Anyway, I just went to my desk and tried not to look at anyone. Even Georgies' smile didn't make me feel better. Actually, the only thing that cheered me up was that only one tear slipped down my cheek. I had managed to hold back the flood. Then I heard Mr. Sass saying we were going to have a special project. A science project where two people would work on any kind of invention they wanted to. My neck snapped around to catch Georgie's eye. We both smiled as big as we could. That is one of the great things about having a forever best friend. You always knew who your partner would be.