Before 13

Before Thirteen A skinny child with crooked teeth and hair needing to be kept short because of her habit of tangling it with her own hands. A peculiar child, thrown into a totally new environment away from her father and living with a newly divorced mother and three younger sisters, she spent her fifth year on her grandpa’s farm. She entered school in that year, getting onto the bus each day at the end of the country lane which led to her grandpa's house. She felt abandoned away from her sisters and all alone at the school. Not gregarious or outgoing, but dutiful and rather conscientious, at age five she could not ever have guessed her fate. Wondering why the popular kids talked to her when she walked them home from school, yet on the playground, they ignored her most of the time, the child pressed on through her years in elementary school. Sixth grade came, and with it came a spark! Her teacher, Mrs Daufeldt, loved the child’s work and said she was creative; said the child was bright! Seventh grade and the child’s age was 12. Revelation time. She saw the other girls around her, the ordinary ones like her, no superstars among them; she gathered them to her. Her test scores soared and teachers, not just Mrs. Daufeldt, praised her! Witty she became, and she was blossoming into a woman. Before she reached 13, the child had found her way. Nov 28, 2018