“Yes,” said Gingy. “That is a great description.”

  “Please show me the part here about the peanut-butter fish,” I said. “I have to write three sentences and draw a picture by tomorrow. It’s overwhelming.”

  Chapter 29

  There was nothing in the whole library book about peanut-butter fish.

  Information books don’t include all the facts your Poopsie made up, apparently.

  I tried to copy a picture of a jellyfish.

  The picture in the book looked like this:

  My picture looked like this:

  My three sentences of writing homework are:

  1. My animal is jellyfish.

  2. Jellyfish have no brains!

  3. That is a fact, not an insult to jellyfish.

  I am also writing this bonus sentence for extra credit, like maybe a sticker of a star or a cute animal, please, Ms. Patel:

  4. Peanut-butter fish are imaginary.

  Chapter 30

  We have caterpillars! The baby smudges grew into kid stripey wiggles!

  We are all very proud of them.

  “Let’s draw pictures of our caterpillars!” Ms. Patel said.

  We love drawing in Class 2B!

  We sat right down at our desks and started to draw.

  “Hang on!” Ms. Patel said. “Drawing is not just making marks on a paper.”

  I thought that was what drawing is, so I was surprised at that news.

  “Drawing,” said Ms. Patel, “is more about looking closely.”

  She put the caterpillar net house on the floor.

  “Come,” Ms. Patel said. “Bring your papers and pencils.”

  We all crowded around the net house.

  “Look closely,” Ms. Patel said. “Choose one of the caterpillars.”

  I chose the cutest one.

  “Draw what you are really seeing,” Ms. Patel said. “Not just how you remember a caterpillar looks. Look closely and bring the image inside you.”

  I looked closely at my caterpillar and tried to bring the image of it inside me.

  “How many ridges are there?” Ms. Patel asked us. “How thick is that stripe of yellow?”

  The only sound in Class 2B was colored pencils scratching on paper, and eyeballs looking closely at caterpillars.

  Chapter 31

  My drawing looked a little like my caterpillar.

  Also a little like all the other caterpillars.

  But mostly like mine.

  Mine is named Etiquette, I decided.

  I think that’s a name. It might be a word.

  I heard it somewhere.

  It can also be the name of my imaginary baby sister.

  Chapter 32

  Before bedtime, I drew a picture of my imaginary baby sister, Etiquette, and a new picture of my real caterpillar, Etiquette.

  I like them both very much.

  Etiquette is such a fancy name, I had to ask my dad how to spell it.

  It took me a few tries to get it right.

  So I hope my real caterpillar and imaginary baby sister are both up to it.

  Chapter 33

  Ms. Patel gave back our information papers about our animals.

  Mine had a check plus! And a star sticker! And also a sticker of an elephant!

  There was also a word in fancy writing.

  It was very beautiful, up there on top of my page.

  When it was time to pack up/stack up to go home, I asked Ms. Patel what her word said.

  “Interesting!” Ms. Patel said.

  I nodded.

  “With a—the boinger on the end.” I pointed at it. “This! For when you’re excited.”

  “Exclamation point,” Ms. Patel reminded me.

  “I like those,” I said. “They are my favorite kinds of points.”

  Chapter 34

  I held my paper very proudly, the whole way home on the bus.

  My best friend, Bucky, held his paper about seahorses very proudly, too.

  I didn’t look at it to see if he had stickers or the word interesting on his.

  I was staying very proud and very happy of my jellyfish.

  I didn’t want to feel sad and mad and why did you do seahorses with Mallory instead.

  Sometimes it takes a lot of hard work to stay happy.

  Chapter 35

  Our caterpillars shed their skin!

  That is a normal thing for caterpillars to do.

  No reason to panic about that.

  It is not gross.

  Even if it looks a little bit gross.

  Kids don’t shed their skin.

  Ours can stretch.

  We don’t have to crawl out of our skin one Tuesday night and leave it on the floor like laundry and then wake up looking different.

  That’s just for caterpillars.

  Don’t worry.

  Chapter 36

  Sometimes we do have to get new sneakers, though.

  Chapter 37

  “Cats larger than mountain lions don’t purr,” Anna said.

  “Okay,” I said. I was being Super Elizabeth on the swing, in my new sneakers.

  Super Elizabeth doesn’t care about cats.

  “Cats never tuck their paws under themselves unless they’re feeling safe,” Anna said.

  “Why not?” Bucky asked.

  He was supposed to be Super Bucky, flying on adventures with me.

  Not Regular Bucky, asking about cats and their feelings.

  “In case they need to defend themselves,” Anna said. “I did a lot of research for my information paper on cats. How do jellyfish defend themselves, Elizabeth?”

  I thought about my jellyfish information paper.

  There was nothing about defending themselves.

  “Jellyfish go with the flow,” I said.

  “Cool,” Bucky said.

  “One time, the country Belgium tried to train cats as mail carriers,” Anna said.

  “Seriously?” Bucky asked, and stopped swinging. “That’s amazing!”

  “It went very poorly,” Anna said.

  “Good to know,” I said. “Some jellyfish are deadly.”

  Chapter 38

  “Drawing is not just making marks on a paper,” I explained to Gingy. “We are learning how to really draw in second grade.”

  “I’ve always wished I knew how to draw,” Gingy said.

  “Lucky you!” I told her. “I will teach you.”

  “Great,” Gingy agreed. She is a very good babysitter because she likes to learn.

  “We can draw each other’s faces!” I told her.

  “Wonderful!” said Gingy.

  “Look closely,” I told her. “Draw what you are really seeing, not just how you remember I look.”

  “I’ll try,” Gingy said.

  “I’ll try, too,” I said.

  We looked and looked at each other’s faces.

  Chapter 39

  Our pictures came out very good.

  We hung them on the refrigerator and let everybody admire them.

  Chapter 40

  “What happened to Etiquette?” I yelled.

  “What’s wrong, Elizabeth?” Ms. Patel asked. “You’re upset about … what now?”

  “Etiquette!” I yelled, and pointed.

  There were no more wiggly squiggly caterpillars in the net house. Only greenish brownish lumps stuck to the net wall.

  Chapter 41

  Ms. Patel called everybody to the net house and pointed. “Does anyone know what has happened to our caterpillars?” Ms. Patel asked us.

  “They turned into poo?” asked Jace.

  That made Dan laugh so hard.

  “They DIED?” Mallory asked.

  Mallory and I looked at each other with big, scared eyes.

  “No!” said Anna. “They made their chrysalis.”

  “They made who?” asked Mallory.

  “Chrysalis is a stage,” said Cali. She has trouble with the letter S, so it sounded like Kryth-a-lith ith a TH-tage.

  That sounded so cute everybody said awwww.

  I wish I had trouble with the letter S.

  Also that my name could be Krythalith instead of Elizabeth.

  “The chrysalis stage lasts five to ten days,” Ms. Patel told us. “They’ll stay very still on the outside, while inside, they are transforming into…?”

  “Butterflies!” we yelled.

  “Shhhh,” Anna said. “We need to let them have quiet, to transform.”

  “They won’t mind a little celebration, Anna,” Ms. Patel said. “It’s okay.”

  Yeah, Anna, I said on the inside of my imaginary chrysalis.

  Chapter 42

  Every day, we check our chrysalises.

  Every day, not butterflies yet.

  I couldn’t even really tell which one was Etiquette, my favorite caterpillar.

  “It’s that one,” I said to Mallory anyway.

  “Amazing,” said Mallory. “That’s the prettiest chrysalis, I think.”

  “Me too,” I said. Then I whispered, “She can be your favorite, too.”

  “Thanks,” Mallory whispered back, and then leaned closer to the net house. “Good job transforming, Etiquette.”

  Chapter 43

  At drawing time, I drew a picture of me and Mallory both getting a ride on Etiquette, after she turns into a butterfly.

  I wrote Elizabeth and Mallory and Etiquette under the picture.

  Artists do that.

  Grownup artists, even.

  Not just kid artists in Class 2B in case people can’t tell what the picture is of.

  Chapter 44

  “Cats would have made more interesting pets,” Anna said.

  We were looking at our chrysalises.

  The butterflies were still inside.

  Every time Anna says cats, I want to yell, Stop saying cats!

  I held that yell in.

  I tried to think of something nicer to say instead, something Super Elizabeth would say.

  “Or jellyfish could also be cool,” I said. “Or an elephant.”

  “I had a cat when I was a baby,” Anna said.

  “I have a dog,” I said.

  “My cat died. She was very old.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “I didn’t even get to say good-bye to her.”

  “Why not?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know how to talk,” Anna said. “I was a baby, remember?”

  “That’s a good reason,” I said.

  “I don’t remember her,” Anna whispered, frowning. “I wish I could at least have said good-bye.”

  Chapter 45

  Anna is not my best friend.

  I put my arm around her anyway.

  “We could draw a picture of your cat, so you can remember her,” I said. “And then you can say good-bye, or hello, or whatever you want to say to her.”

  “But how can we draw her?” Anna asked. “I can’t look at her. And I don’t remember how she looked!”

  “We can look in our imagination,” I said. “And then we can remember that.”

  I’m not sure if that is a way to draw, but it was my only idea.

  “Okay,” Anna said. “I think that’s called doodling.”

  “I know that,” I said.

  I did not know that, but I hate when Anna knows more than I do.

  We doodled so many pictures.

  They were all of her cat whose name was Winsome.

  We don’t know what Winsome looked like so we doodled lots of options.

  Chapter 46

  I let Anna take home all the pictures we doodled.

  I don’t like saying good-bye to my artwork, especially when my mom hasn’t seen them yet so she will never look at them and say, “Beautiful, Elizabeth!”

  But Anna looked so happy with all the doodles, it felt okay to say good-bye to them.

  Not even ambivalent, really.

  Chapter 47

  The butterflies are trying to poke out of their chrysalises!

  It is disgusting!

  It is also exciting, in a slow-motion way.

  Smelly Dan stood right next to me.

  We were all looking at the net house.

  “Butterflies are my second-favorite bugs,” he said.

  “They aren’t bugs,” I said.

  “Actually, Elizabeth, they are,” Anna said.

  What I didn’t say was:

  Actually, Anna, remember how nice I was to you about your dead cat yesterday?

  What I did say was:

  “Ms. Patel, are butterflies bugs?”

  “Great question,” said Ms. Patel. “Butterflies are insects.”

  “See,” said Anna.

  “But they are not technically bugs,” Ms. Patel added.

  “See,” I said back to Anna.

  Chapter 48

  Ms. Patel explained the difference between insects and bugs to us.

  I didn’t listen.

  That topic was never very important to me and I still don’t care.

  Instead I just really looked at the butterflies and their new wings.

  I knew they were going to come out of there with wings.

  I expected it.

  That’s what they do!

  But also, it seemed like imagination.

  Or maybe like magic.

  They are so beautiful.

  Chapter 49

  WHAT?!

  We have to say GOOD-BYE to our butterflies?

  Tomorrow we will take them outside and set them free.

  We waited so long to say hello to our butterflies.

  I do not want to say good-bye to them.

  I felt a huge sad, all afternoon.

  Chapter 50

  Mom said the butterflies will fly away and be happy.

  It will be wonderful for them.

  “But it won’t be wonderful for ME!” I said.

  “I know,” Mom said. “Sometimes it’s hard to watch someone you love grow and change, and test her wings. But it’s also right and good, and a very happy thing.”

  “I am NOT happy,” I said. “I’m overwhelmed! I’ll never see Etiquette again, forever!”

  I hardly got to know our butterflies.

  I’m actually not even sure which one is even Etiquette, my favorite butterfly.

  That’s why I had to cry.

  Forever is a long time to not see your favorite butterfly.

  Mom’s hand on my back was warm and nice.

  So was her idea, when I finished crying and used a tissue!

  Chapter 51

  Instead of taking the bus to school, I went in the car with Mom.

  We wanted to get me there early.

  I was the first kid in the classroom!

  I opened my backpack and showed Ms. Patel what I had made.

  Pictures and pictures of our butterflies.

  Having adventures.

  Playing with us.

  Being happy.

  “I’m feeling ambivalent about saying good-bye to our butterflies,” I told Ms. Patel.

  “Ambivalent!” Ms. Patel said.

  “It means feeling opposite ways at the same time,” I explained.

  Ms. Patel nodded.

  “I’m happy they will have freedom. And I’m sad that we’ll never see them again.”

  “Except in our memories,” Ms. Patel said.

  “And in my doodles,” I said.

  “Yes,” Ms. Patel said. “You’ve given me another great idea, Elizabeth!”

  “I give her a lot of great ideas,” I explained to Mom when she gave me a kiss good-bye.

  Chapter 52

  The whole Class 2B spent the morning doodling our butterflies and giving them advice.

  “Find good flowers!” Cali said.

  “Don’t crash into windows!” said Dan.

  “Float on breezes,” Bucky suggested.

  “Drink yummy nectar!” said Anna. “And look for cats!”

  “Stick together,” said Mallory.

  “Don’t forget us,” I whispered.

  I looked closely at each of them and drew them my best.

  They are not bugs. But I am, I decided. A doodlebug.

  I think that is a word but I am not sure so I kept it inside my imaginary chrysalis.

  Chapter 53

  It was time to take the butterflies outside.

  We left our doodles in Class 2B and went out to the field, under the big tree.

  Ms. Patel opened the net house.

  Two of the butterflies flew right out, up into the sky!

  Then another, and another, and another!

  Until there was only one left in the net house.

  I think it was Etiquette.

  Chapter 54

  I knelt down next to the net house and whispered to Etiquette.

  “I know it’s scary, Etiquette, and you probably feel ambivalent. But you can do it. You’ll see. And I’ll remember you forever. And any time you want, you can remember me!”

  I think that helped her.

  Because after I finished whispering, Etiquette flew out, and across the field.

  She landed on a bush and flapped her wings a few times.

  She was waving good-bye to me, I think.

  I waved good-bye back.

  And then she flew away.

 

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