Daisy's Defining Day (5 page)

The next morning, Daisy got up a little earlier than usual. She risked going through Mrs. Bookman's bushes, which could be a little prickly, to get to Emma's house without going by Samantha's house. Today, she needed to talk to Emma alone.

She waited patiently until Emma came out.

“Hi, Emma,” she said, waving.

“Hi, Dais ...” Emma stopped. “I mean
Dynamite Dramatic Determined Dazzling Daisy
.”

“Thanks,” Daisy said, appreciating the effort Emma had made, “but I'm going back to using my regular name.”

“Really?” Emma asked.

“I wanted a new, special name to make everyone forget Lazy Daisy,” Daisy said. “But my new name was so special no one could remember it. And even if they did remember it, they got tired of saying it all the time.”

“Well,” Emma said, “I'll still use it if you want.”

Daisy looked at the friendship bracelet on her wrist.

“Thanks,” she said. “I know you would, but it seemed like you were talking to me less when you had to use my long name. I didn't like that.”

“I didn't either,” Emma replied.

Then Emma handed Daisy a piece of bright yellow construction paper, which Emma had hidden behind her back. On it she had written in violet-colored glitter glue Daisy's fabulous long name.

“I made this for you,” she said handing it to Daisy. “I figured even if I couldn't say it all the time, you'd still know that I thought it was a really great name.”

“I love it!” Daisy said. “And I know just what I'm going to do with it.”

That afternoon, Daisy decided to finish her homework after dinner. She carefully hung the sign Emma had made for her on the door of her bedroom. Then she went outside, lay down on the grass and looked at the sky. She added
fluffy
and
puffy
to her list of
Cloud Words
. She felt the breeze on her face.

Then she counted how many seconds it took each cloud to drift out of her line of sight. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,” she said, as a big, white, fluffy one went by.

Suddenly a shadow appeared. Daisy looked up to see Grant standing over her, staring.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I'm watching the clouds,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because it's nice and peaceful,” Daisy answered.

Then she smiled.

“I'm being lazy,” she said, stretching her arms up over her head.

Grant thought for a minute.

Then he did something surprising.

He lay down next to Daisy and watched the clouds, too.

“I like this,” he said. “It's
different
.”

“I think it's
delightful
,” Daisy said.

They watched a few more clouds go by.

“I guess I like being a little different and a little lazy,” Daisy said.

“Me, too,” Grant said. “Too bad
lazy
doesn't rhyme with my name.”

Daisy sat up and laughed — a full out, deep, belly laugh. All this time she hadn't wanted to be Lazy Daisy and now Grant wished he could be lazy just like her!

“I'd like to be lazy some more, but I have to go to basketball practice,” Grant said. He got up and walked toward his house. Then he looked over his shoulder at Daisy and waved.

As she lay down again, Daisy thought about her conversation with Grant. And she kept coming back to two words —
delightful
and
different
. That's all she wanted to be.

Delightfully Different Daisy
. Just right.

FAVORITE RHYMING WORDS

sweet — treat

flower — power

sun — fun

bright — light

look — book

ANIMAL ALLITERATIONS

Awesome Antelopes Are Athletic

Big Bears Behave Badly

Clever Cats Claw Couches

Daring Dolphins Dive Deep

Elegant Elephants Eagerly Eat Éclairs

Fluffy Fun Flamingoes Flutter

Glittering Golden Goldfish Glide

Handy Hippos Hammer Houses

PERFECTLY PAIRED WORDS

bouncy balls

chunky chocolate

comfy couches

flying flags

summer sun

CLOUD WORDS

cotton candy

wispy

white

fluffy

gray

puffy

floating

D WORDS

dynamite

delicious

dependable

dusty

diamond

dramatic

dizzy

divine

determined

drowsy

dazzling

different

dreamy

delightful

E WORDS

expensive

entertaining

extraordinary

elegant

enchanting

exciting

QUIET-TIME WORDS

good-night

sweet dreams

snuggle

dreamy

hush-a-bye

drowsy

lullaby

MADE-UP WORDS

coolio — super

Iska-biska — How are you?

Ilpa-dilpa — Fine, thank you.

Mahatzi — Let's go!

glubby — feeling blah

kersapped — confused

FRIENDSHIP WORDS

fun

laugh

share

Text © 2013 Sandra V. Feder
Illustrations © 2013 Susan Mitchell

ISBN 978-1-77138-169-7 (epub)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of Kids Can Press Ltd. or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright license, visit
www.accesscopyright.ca
or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

This is a work of fiction and any resemblance of characters to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Kids Can Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Ontario, through the Ontario Media Development Corporation's Ontario Book Initiative; the Ontario Arts Council; the Canada Council for the Arts; and the Government of Canada, through the CBF, for our publishing activity.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Kids Can Press Ltd. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial capital letters (e.g., Band-Aid).

www.kidscanpress.com

Edited by Sheila Barry and Debbie Rogosin
Designed by Marie Bartholomew

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication


Feder, Sandra V., 1963–

Daisy's defining day / written by Sandra V. Feder ; illustrated by
Susan Mitchell.


(Daisy)
ISBN 978-1-55453-780-8


I. Mitchell, Susan, 1962– II. Title III. Series: Feder, Sandra V., 1963– Daisy.


PZ7.F334Dad 2013       j813'.6       C2012-904397-4