C-H-E-A-T-I-N-G

CHEATING! That's exactly what Regge was doing. I was sad to the middle of me and back. At first, I thought, maybe he looked at my paper by accident. Maybe he was stretching and looked by mistake or something. I think everybody is trying to do their very best. Why not? It is sorta why we came to earth. Who would even try to do something wrong on purpose and get their book all messed up...because when I think about it, our books (up there) tell us what we get and where we go forever and ever and ever and ever and never quits. That is way past and beyond me!

But, Regge looked at my paper twice and then again and that does it! He was CHEATING on purpose. SAD, SAD, SAD. "Regge, quit looking on my paper," I whispered sharp. He just laughed at me while I squinted at him. And just then Ms. Clay said the last word for us to spell and so I hurried and piled all of my books and my dictionary and my backpack and my pencil holder in front of my spelling words and covered my paper really really good and scooted my chair way-away from him so that the angels don't write anything about that cheaty thing in my book! All day long, I worried about Regge.

Our teacher has a pretty rock collection in the back of our room. I bet it was Regge who showed Ricky and Karen the fool's gold rock and promised them that it was real gold. At recess, I saw Regge cut in line to kick the ball ahead of Justin. OH MY! His book must be stuffed with yuck. How disgusting. I don't even want my desk to be next to his desk.

There are some really cute boys in my class. I wish my desk was by theirs. Like Jonathan, he is fun and includes everybody and he would never ever in a zillion years cheat on a test. Nathaniel is kind and shares with everybody and would never cheat or crowd in line. Samuel is a good sport, everybody likes him too, and he wouldn't cheat either. Now those boys are my kind of people... they are smart, and nice, and handsome to the max! I was thinking to tell Luci about how yucky Regge is. Maybe I should warn everybody.

At recess, I said: "Luci, I have to tell you something about Regge." Just as I was about to tell Luci every little dreadful detail about the boy, a little thought came to my mind about my special Christmas gift, which is really a promise, which is also my New Year's Resolution thingy because it all works out that way... and so just then, I remembered to think about the good instead of the bad things. So I stopped right there. "What about Regge?" Luci asked. "What did you want to tell me?"

"A..well...I wanted to tell you that...a well...I think that Regge is sad." "What?" Luci blinked like a frog who didn't even believe my words. "Well...I think that maybe we should ask Ms. Clay to help him with his spelling. "What, are you kidding me, Hadley K, he got all but the very last word right on his spelling test! That was better than me, I missed two, what about asking teacher to help me!" "Oh, yeah." I mumbled. "Come on, no one's on 4-square," and I started to run.

After recess, I wrote a little note to Ms. Clay and I told her that Regge probably needed some help on spelling, but maybe he was too shy to ask. I didn't think she would know who wrote the note, but after school she asked me to stay and visit with her. Oh yeah, I had written the note with my blue pencil and she knows that is my most favorite color. Plus, I had a smiley face at the bottom and she knows about my smiley faces. "Well, I think Regge is sad because he tried to copy my words to feel better about his paper, and so maybe you could help him learn to spell by himself and then he would be happy." That was all I could think of to say. She thanked me for telling her and said that she would try to help him more.

It still bothered me all day about the Cheating thing. Mostly, because I don't even want to be anywhere near Regge or his cheaty desk. But, then I thought about my part. I was judging him and mad at him and that is bad too. Maybe nobody would want to sit by me either if they could see my mind all mad and judging. But cheating is way bad. But judging is way bad too. But cheating is way way bad. I was mad at him because judging is in my book now, because of the cheating in his! I'm not sure how to fix that.

And then something important happened. Margaret accidentally knocked Ms. Clay's vase off her desk when she was handing in her late library book. The vase went crash-bang-into a million pieces and Margaret started to cry. "Oh, Ms. Clay, I am so sorry." And you know what my teacher said? She just gave Margaret a little hug and said, "I am sad about the vase, but not about you Margaret. I am not mad at you. Come help me sweep up the pieces if you would."
That is very very important what Ms. Clay said...and it fixed my problem too.          I wasn't mad at Regge. I was mad at the cheaty thing.   And cheating is something to be mad about. Wow! I felt much better! So I jumped right up from my desk and helped Margaret clean up Ms. Clay's flowers from the floor while Ms. Clay swept the bazillion pieces of vase. And then I marched back to my desk which is right next to Reginald G's desk and put away my books and dictionary and pencil case and waited for the bell to ring.