silly goose

His name was Freddy. He had droopy eyes, a sharp, freckled nose, and the nervous habit of sucking his bottom lip with his enormous front teeth. He was awkwardly tall amongst the first graders, and often hung his neck and slumped his shoulders, appearing as a vulture in profile. It was hard for five and six year old eyes not to examine him, although it was clear by his silence that he preferred to be unexamined. For the most part then, he was willingly ignored, except for one day, when all the attention would be on him.
For every character like Freddy, there is a character like Amy. She had a cruelly cute face and long eyelashed eyes that reflected that she knew this. She was an insidious pageant queen, but she was beautiful and always had gummy bears in her lunch, so naturally, I wanted to be her friend. Most girls vied for her attention and favor. Just as the class would go out to the field to play duck-duck-goose, she seemed to select her next best friend in the same manner. I had been chosen to be a goose. I did not know though, that this decision also meant I would be the subject of jokes and pranks.
I was sick one afternoon, and in my absence, Amy had devised a scheme behind those shining blue eyes. She crafted a note that was as romantic as a first grader could concieve, and artfully signed my name and my affections with it. She promptly delivered this confession to Freddy. I can only imagine the waves of giggles in the classroom. So the next day when I returned to school, I did not understand the sudden attention, the impish glances and smiles towards my direction, the hushed voices when I came near. When I felt Freddy staring at me from across the cafeteria table and heard Amy screech in delight, I knew something was not right. I looked back at him, teeth protruding over his lip, and I asked Amy and others around me what was so absolutely exciting that I did not know about. Amy was proud of her tricks and she happily burst out : “I wrote Freddy a love letter as you!”
“Why did you do that?!” I shrieked.
She shrugged her shoulders. Duck, duck, goose.