Chapter Five

That morning I rushed into Mama’s room and I saw a spitting image of Mama in her hands. I came over to her bed and cooed at the cute face.
“She is sooo cute,”I squealed,” What are you going to name her?” 

“I don’t know yet, let’s brainstorm right now,” she replied 

             “Doesn’t she look so graceful,” I thought aloud.

            “That’s what her name should be, Grace,”she said softly.

“Grace, come here,” I held out my arms and cooed at her, “Oh who’s the cutest baby ever, you are, yes you are!”

She looked towards me, her blue eyes lit up.

“Can I hold her, can I hold her?” I begged. Those blue eyes were like puppy eyes, when you see them, they take you captive. 

“Of course, calm down,” Mama answered as she handed grace over. I held her in the crook of my arm and gently rocked her. Her eyes started to close as the swaying motion lulled her to sleep. They closed and she looked like an angel. Mama put a finger to her lips. I put her down in her cot, and we crept out of Mama’s room. 

“She’s gorgeous!”I exclaimed while we made dutch baby. 

“I’m going to need you to help out a lot,” she told me. “This baby will take up most of my time. I remember when you did that too. Gosh it felt like yesterday!”

“Mama! I’m nearly six!” I protest.

“Oh yes! I almost forgot, you are going to school starting when you are 6.”

“BUT…”

“Nuhuhuhuh, you’re going to school whether you like it or not. I know you’re probably smarter than most of the teachers, but you should make some friends,” she interrupted. 

“I don’t want to be smart anymore,” I mutter.

“Don’t ever say that,” Mama leans down and looks me in the eyes, “You are perfect just the way you are.”

***

The month passed like the wind, as if it was in a rush to get out. Before I knew it, I was getting all dressed up nice and putting on my backpack. I left grace and Mama at home and walked to school. I was going to preschool, can you believe it? I had been to a college! I walked up to the school and went inside. All around me were kids my age, and young teachers. I went to my class room and unpacked my bag. I ignored the stare that my teacher gave me. Must be about my hair. 

“Alright class,” he said , ”My name is Mr. James .”

He asked what everyone knew and most only knew numbers up to about 2, and letters up to about F, I rattled off some calculus and how I loved Charles Dickens, the normal. 

He responded by saying  ,”UUUUUUUUM okaaaaay.” Obviously confused, as well as the rest of the class but one girl. He clapped his hands to brush that awkward moment away and said, ”Alright, let’s have carpet time! Every day we will talk about something new, it will also happen at the end of the day. Today we will go around and say our names, where we’re from and a fun fact.”

When it was my turn, I made my answer nice and short, so that the little ones could comprehend it. “I’m Danielle, I was born in Teneni, and I once tried to get into college. Oh! And I nearly forgot, my hair is as white as snow, ” I deadpanned. 

Once again Mr. James responded with,” UUUUUUUUM okaaaaay.” Honestly, I would have thought that those were the only words in his  dictionary!

After I got that reaction again, the girl who hadn’t been surprised about my charles dickens and calculus remark scooched over to sit near me. 

“Hi, my name is charlotte. My uncle runs Gogenschmere college and he said this girl tried to get into his college. Could you possibly have anything to do with that?” 

“Yes, I applied. Why? Did he say I was dumb?”

“No! He actually said that you were quite smart, and if you hadn’t failed that final bit he would have been happy to accept you.” 

Huh that was weird he had seemed disgusted by me when we first met.

“Really?”

“Yes! I’m impressed too, not many people could stand up to him like that. Oh and by the way I love your hair!”

It went like this for the rest of the year, me talking to Charlotte(my new friend) while Mr James “taught”. The only time I ever really paid attention was when there was even the slightest mention of science. I never wanted to make a mistake in science ever again, and when the time came, I promised myself that nothing would ever stop me ever again when it came to knowledge. 

Chapter Six

As I grew up and passed each grade with flying colors, Grace grew up too. Soon she was around the age that I had ran away at. I made sure to keep an extra close eye on her. I didn’t want her to do the same thing I had done. Luckily for me, she wasn’t a genius, and therefore, had no urge to run around proving her worth to the world. As the time passed, and Grace grew up to be a beautiful young girl, Charlotte and I spent more and more time together. We talked about a ton of stuff, but Charlotte’s favorite subject was my hair. She was always begging me to dye it. 

“It’s the perfect color to work with! Dye it a pretty red no one will ever know!” And finally one day we both got our hair done. She just did a streak, I did my whole hair. The gorgeous color I chose was a pretty red. It stood out in a crowd.  

Charlotte was full of amazing ideas, and one day she came up with the best ever.