Daisy's Defining Day (2 page)

But when Daisy turned to go up her driveway, Grant was standing there. Although she now liked having Samantha living next door, Daisy wished Grant could live somewhere else.

“Look! It's Lazy Daisy,” Grant said.

Daisy tried her hardest to ignore him as Samantha had suggested. Daisy remembered that she had used the same technique last week when Will, who sat next to her at school, took her favorite lavender mechanical pencil and twirled it around in his hand. Daisy simply ignored him and took out a new pencil. After recess, she noticed that her pencil had been returned unharmed.

But something about Lazy Daisy really bothered her. Maybe it was because she had always thought her name was quite wonderful. It was fun to say, not too long or too short, unique and, of course, flowery.

So after thinking for a minute, she took off her backpack, went into the side yard and dragged out a large garbage can.

“What are you doing?” Grant asked.

“My chore,” Daisy answered.

“But no one told you to do it right now,” Grant said.

“I know,” Daisy responded, “but I want to get it done. I don't want to be
lazy
and put it off until later.” She hoped he would get the message.

Grant nodded. Daisy felt a bit of relief as she pulled the garbage can to the curb. Grant played basketball while Daisy went back into the side yard and carried out a large container filled with paper and cardboard to be recycled. Even though she wanted a snack, she wanted to make her point even more. So she decided she wouldn't stop until Grant had gone inside. Back into the side yard she went to bring out the plastic recyclables and the compost bin. Finally, Grant hugged his ball to his chest. Then he turned and called out, “Bye, Lazy Daisy,” as if it were so clearly her name that he didn't even have to think twice before saying it.

“Arrgh!” Daisy groaned, before she stomped inside.

To make herself feel better, Daisy turned to her favorite things — words. She thought about alliteration and tried to come up with words that not only started with the same letter or sound but also fit well together. Soon she had a list called
Perfectly
Paired Words
.
Bouncy balls
and
chunky chocolate
were on the list along with
flying flags
and
summer sun
.

Daisy was so pleased with her list she decided to share it with Mrs. Bookman, her neighbor.

“Happy hello, nice neighbor,” Daisy said, waving her hand, when Mrs. Bookman opened the door.

“Hello, Daisy,” Mrs. Bookman said. “Would you like a snack?”

Daisy was always happy when Mrs. Bookman offered her a snack. Mrs. Bookman often had unusual foods to eat. Today, she passed Daisy a bowl full of edamame, which she said were soybeans.

Daisy opened one and munched it.

“Crispy and crunchy!” she declared.

Mrs. Bookman smiled. “I can't help but notice you are using alliteration today,” she said.

“Yes, I am,” Daisy said. “We learned about it at school.”

Then Daisy thought for a minute.

“It's fabulously fun!” she said.

Mrs. Bookman thought, too.

“And mighty memorable!” she responded.

Daisy gave Mrs. Bookman a high five and then explained the exercise Miss Goldner had done with them. Mrs. Bookman listened carefully, offering Daisy some grapefruit soda to wash down her edamame. Then Daisy shared her list of
Perfectly Paired Words
.

“Lovely list!” Mrs. Bookman exclaimed.

Daisy headed home with her mind full of wonderful word combinations and her tummy full of super snacks. She was in such a good mood that she didn't even mind when her mother asked her to finish her homework before dinner. After dinner, it took three long games of dominoes with her father before she finally won. To celebrate her victory, she did a happy dance.

But later that night, after she was in bed, her mind drifted back to Grant. She hoped he wouldn't remember Lazy Daisy the next day. She distracted herself by thinking about chewy chunky chocolate chip cookies until she fell asleep. But in her dream that night, her chocolate chip cookie crumbs attracted ants, and she couldn't figure out how to get rid of them.

When Daisy woke up, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling she had from her dream.

“That's silly,” she told herself. “It was just a dream.” But as she stepped onto the playground at school, Grant called out, “Hi, Lazy Daisy.” Then he did it again twice during recess. By the time school ended, Daisy needed a break.

“You go ahead without me,” she told her friends. “I want to help Miss Goldner.”

“I'll help, too,” Emma said. Daisy smiled. Emma always seemed to know when Daisy needed her. Daisy and Emma stapled handouts for the next day.

“I'll be sad when Miss Goldner gets married and moves away,” Daisy said.

“Me, too,” answered Emma. “But at least we have her until the end of the school year.”

Daisy nodded.

The girls said good-bye to Miss Goldner and headed home.

“Bye, Daisy,” Emma said — without any
lazy
, of course — as Daisy turned to go up her driveway.

***

Daisy plopped down on the stool at the kitchen counter and told her mom all about her day. As excited as Daisy was about the new animal sentences she had added to her notebook that day, she couldn't help hearing Grant's chant of “Lazy Daisy.” She even remembered how a few of his friends had kept it up on the playground at lunchtime.

“I wish I had a name that would stick better than Lazy Daisy,” she said.

“Well, I still like to call you Daisy Bug,” her mom said.

“Thanks, but that's not quite what I was looking for,” Daisy said. “I need a name that's so great it will make everyone forget Lazy Daisy.”

“Everyone's so busy all the time,” her mother said. “I think being lazy is nice once in a while.”

Despite her mother's words, Daisy didn't see how being called lazy could be anything but awful. A spectacular new name was definitely what she needed. Daisy thought about rhymes. Maybe she could come up with one that would make everyone forget
lazy
. But Crazy Daisy was even worse than Lazy Daisy, and Hazy Daisy wasn't any better. She went into the backyard and tried to skip rope 50 times in a row. She got to 37 before her foot caught and she barely stopped herself from falling.

Daisy lay down in the hammock to read over some of her favorite word lists from her notebook. She had recently made a new one called
Cloud Words
. She had
cotton candy, white, gray
and
floating
. Today, Daisy looked up and added the word
wispy
. She had just learned that
wispy
meant fine or feathery and thought it perfectly described the clouds above her.

Because she was still restless, even after some quiet cloud watching, Daisy decided to go inside to talk to Bubbles, her pet fish, who came when she called his name. Talking to Bubbles and looking at the clear water usually helped clear her head, which was feeling particularly cloudy today. But even Bubbles didn't help.

She played with the friendship bracelet on her wrist that Emma had made for her last week. Emma had used threads that were yellow, purple and turquoise, which were all of Daisy's favorite colors. The one Daisy had made for Emma was three different shades of pink. Just the way Emma liked it.

Finally, Daisy sat down and turned to her newest list,
Perfectly Paired Words
, and read some of the word pairs to herself. “That's it!” she said out loud. She quickly closed the notebook and called out to her mom, “I'm going to Emma's,” as she headed out the door.

Daisy raced on her bike to Emma's house. “I'm going to come up with a name that is so great everyone will forget Lazy Daisy,” she told Emma, who was practicing ballet pirouettes in the front yard.

“Dynamite!” Emma said.

“That's great,” Daisy said. “I love it!”

Emma looked confused.

“
Dynamite
Daisy,” Daisy explained. “I'm going to use alliteration, like we did in class, to come up with the perfect name. We should come up with one for you, too.”

Emma's pirouette kicked up a cloud of dirt. “
Dusty
Daisy?” Daisy wondered as she brushed herself off. She shook her head.

“I'm feeling a little dizzy,” Emma said, after her fourth pirouette in a row.

“
Dizzy
Daisy?” Daisy asked. No. She knew she could do better.

“We need to find some really good words,” Daisy said. “Let's try the library.”

“Mahatzi!”
Emma replied, using Daisy's made-up word for “let's go!”

The girls got on their bikes and rode to the nearby branch of the public library. They each took a book off the shelf and started looking.

“What about
drowsy
?” Emma asked.

“I think that means sleepy,” Daisy answered.

“How about
expensive
for you?” Daisy asked. “It starts with an
E
.”

“My dad says it costs a lot of money for my dance lessons,” Emma said. “But I don't think I want that in my name.”

“How about
dreamy
?” Emma suggested, looking at a different book with a sleeping bear on its cover.

“
Drowsy
and
dreamy
,” Daisy said, yawning. “You're putting me to sleep! I think we need to get out of here.”

The girls decided to head downtown on their bikes to see if a little exercise would wake them up. As they passed Sweetums, the best candy store in the world, Daisy got a good idea. “
Delicious,
” she said out loud.

Emma thought for a minute. “My mother calls my baby cousin
delicious
, especially after she's just had her bath. But I'm not sure it's right for a bigger kid.”

After a few more blocks, the girls locked up their bikes and set out on foot. The jewelry store was advertising
diamond
earrings. Daisy had been born in April, which made the diamond her birthstone. The girls pressed their faces against the store window to get a better look. The diamonds were pretty and sparkly but not quite right to be a part of Daisy's name.

At a clothing store displaying “Elegant Dresses for Special Occasions,” the girls stopped and looked at the pretty gowns. “You could be
Elegant
Emma,” Daisy said, sashaying across the sidewalk. “Nah,” said Emma. “I don't feel old enough for elegant.”

The girls walked and talked some more. Soon, they were in front of the movie theater. They stopped and stared. It was amazing! All the movie posters were full of wonderful words!
Divine
and
dazzling
were used to describe one coming attraction about a girl who suddenly becomes a pop sensation. The main characters of an adventure, a young girl and her talking puppy, were called
delightful
and
dependable
.

On the opposite wall, the beautiful star of a romantic comedy was
entertaining
and
enchanting
, while a drama set in outer space was
extraordinary
and
exciting
. Daisy quickly took out her notebook and wrote down each of their favorites:
extraordinary
and
enchanting
for Emma and
dazzling
and
delightful
for Daisy.