by Sophia L. Hi I am Amelia Fretz. I am more of a boy than a girl. All the girls make fun of me because of it. My favorite thing to do is play baseball and football and most girls like playing Barbies and dress up. I think that's boring! All the girls call me "boy" and I don’t like it. I tell them to stop but they never listen to me, so I just pretend I don’t hear them and they still do it! One day they did something worse. They wrote "Amelia Fretz is a sissy" on the wall. I didn't even know until I went to school that morning when I saw the graffiti on the wall. I burst into tears and ran into the girl's bathroom and stayed there the whole day. When the bell rang, I ran home fast as I could still crying. When I got home I wrote in my diary how mean they are and I wish they weren't. I had a headache from crying all day so I took some medicine. That made me tired so I took a nap. When I woke up it was time to go to school. I didn't want to go to school. I hid under my bed so my mother couldn’t find me so she would go to work. Thankfully she didn’t find me and did exactly what I wanted her to do. So when she left I wrote in my diary how lucky I was. Then I threw on some clothes, and went downstairs to make myself some breakfast. I had pancakes with syrup. After breakfast I read for about an hour and played a one person game. I got hungry so I had lunch. I had a sandwich with apples. I turned on the TV and watched The Smurfs. I thought it was a good movie. By the time the movie was over I was done with lunch, perfect timing. I looked at my watch. Oh no! I had lost track of time. My parents were coming home in 10 minutes! I had to say something that gave me an excuse. I thought about saying that yesterday my teacher said that school started early and ended early and that's why she couldn’t find me this morning. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. When my parents came home they asked why I was home so early. I told them my excuse. They believed me! My mom gave me a big slobbery kiss. I was happy to see them and I bet they were happy to see me too. Two years later at dinner I said, “Remember the time two years ago when school started early and ended early and they never told the parents?” "Yeah," Dad said. "Well, really, I was hiding from mommy and lied when you came home." Daddy says, "Ah man! You tell us two years later Amelia!” "I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to worry. When I go back to school they stopped it because I told them I would tell the principal if the didn’t." "Good job for solving your own problem," Dad said.

Exemplary Writing Project, 2012-13 ● Nottingham Elementary School ● Arlington, VA