Sheree replies

Hi Maude,
OK.
Sheree.

She wrote it in black pen. It was in my backpack. I can't believe it. In books the quiet mousey person is always told no or ignored or they have somebody else write back and pretend to be the popular girl and laugh at her behind her back. But I saw her put it there herself, I was pretending to look the other way while I put the dictionary away, but I have really good vision out of the corner of my eye.

I don't know why I told her OK. She's weird, for sure. I guess I just don't care anymore. This school is so uptight and I don't think anyone ever thinks about real hippies or real fashion or poems by Nikki Giovanni. If I had the money I feel like I could just get on a plane and fly to New York or Sydney, Australia and get off and become part of the ocean of people walking around the streets and never come back to Elburg. But I'm broke and stuck, obviously, so fine, let's see some forest in the middle of town. Maybe it'll swallow me whole, if it even exists. If they're lucky, maybe I'll send a postcard back.