Poor Darlene

Fiorella told you about nasty Ralph, the boy who squashed her robin egg, but she didn't tell you about poor Darlene. Mrs. Lehman must have seated her second graders alphbetically because Fio sat at the next-to-the-last desk in the first row and Darlene sat behind her. She was blondish, spindle-thin and poorly dressed, lived in a WWII cellar house, and always flunked spelling tests. Fio felt sorry for her so one day she moved her own paper to the side so that Darlene could see over her shoulder.

Mrs. Lehman spotted the maneuver, of course, and thus occurred Fio's one and only school detention. She had to stay in from recess, a devastating blow because (1) everyone knew she had done something wrong, and  (2) she couldn't go out and lead the girls' gang daily charge against the boys' gang.

(Editor's note: for the sake of posterity, Fiorella is writing down every whisp of memory that floats through her addled brain. At least it's a break from her diatribes about DT.)