School

Kindergarten, Age 4/5, Mrs. Ridgley

I threw up on the floor.

I learned what Yu-Gi-Oh was.

I met new people.

I learned what dollars and cents were.

Megan wanted all the long neck dinosaurs.

I had crushes on Brandon and Tyler.

We had a field trip to a farm.

On another field trip I stubbed by big toe and my toenail fell off, or got fractured. Christopher Reilly’s dad was a firefighter, and I sat on his lap on the bus ride home.

We took our school picture in the library.

First Grade, Age 5/6, Same Teacher: Mrs. Ridgley

I learned how to read.

I learned how to write.

I read every Junie B. Jones book in the library.

Sheri Lux was in my class and my best friend. She lived up the street so she came over all the time.

We got our dog, a black lab we named Reilly, in February.

I got a part in the play, I remember wanting to be “milk.” There’s a picture of me with a of a milk jug around my neck, and I’m wearing a white shirt and headband.

We had lessons in the teacher across the hall’s room, Mrs. Barns. She has white-gray hair and glasses.

I threw up again, but this time I made it into the garbage can as I walked down the hall on the way to the nurse.

I stuck up the middle finger while itching my nose during lunch and the monitor didn’t believe me when I said I had no idea what it meant.

We got separated into different schools. Smith Clove was just for kindergarten and first grade. Now we were going to one of three secondary elemenrary schools based on where we lived.

Second Grade, Age 6/7, Mrs. Quinn

Mrs. Quinn was absent on the first day of school because her mother died. She wore a locket around her neck with her mother’s picture in it.

It was the first year I would be in the elementary school that my mom also worked at. I went to her classroom in the mornings to do my hair because Grandpa put me on the bus, and he had three sons: he didn’t do hair.

I wore a white dress with a red flower on the first day of school.

We wrote acrostic poems.

Patrick O’Brien fell from the monkey bars and was absent the next day from school.

Mrs. Quinn sometimes got annoyed with all my questions.

There was a confiscation bin where items weren’t returned until June.

Jason Zambryski said I was pretty and cute.

I kissed Zach Gordon on Valentine’s Day. I was in my new red and pink outfit from The Children’s Place.

We raised butterflies as a science project and let them go outside.

We read under the tree out back when it was warm out.

Mckenzie Hintze was my best friend. She liked to draw cartoon characters and I did too.

At Mckenzie’s house she had two black cats that I loved.

Her room was purple, and she had dolls to play with that I didn’t have.

Her mom, Mrs. Hintze, loved me. She called me Maevey.

Third Grade, Age 7/8, Mrs. Reichelt

Micaela Rooney was in my class. She was automatically my best friend because we were already in the same girl scout troop.

I opened up a paper laptop business during indoor recess. The Coombs twins were my business competition. They always bragged about how many Webkinz they had.

Kellie Greenough and I got into a fight over a paper fan. Her mom called my mom. My mom was furious, and when I apologized to Kellie the next day, she shrugged it off like nothing happened.

I wrote a creative story about a leprechaun.

We learned about Martin Luther King Jr.

I made a picture book about manatees.

Fourth Grade, Age 8/9, Mrs. Giakoumis

Mrs. Giakoumis was tall, blonde, and had large facial features. She had big hands and feet and I thought she was beautiful. She was tall, like me! Her husband was Greek. She would tell stories about their arguments, about his home town in Greece, and his mother, her in-law.

My friend Delaney Wong was in my class. I was friends with her since I was three because her mom used to babysit me for my mom. In fourth grade, we fought and weren’t friends for a bit. I think one day I just decided I didn’t like her anymore. Maybe I wanted to feel in control over one of my relationships in my life.

I slid on my knees in gym class and I ripped a hole in my pants.

I was friends with Bryce Heupler, the class bad boy. He invited me to Gasho (a hibachi restaurant) for his birthday, along with Sarah Kyles, who the whole class knew he had a crush on. He made a joke about her dirty blonde hair: it was dragged through horse poop (She was the schools “Horse Girl”).

Mrs. Giakoumis had a marble discipline system, a “good” jar and a “bad” jar. When the “good” jar filled up, we would get a pizza party. When the “bad” jar filled up, we would get an extra recess taken away.

One time when there was a substitute, I hid a Captain Underpants chapter book inside the textbook and finished the book during the lesson.

In chorus, I hated when Mrs. Russell forced everyone to sing their names aloud. She would make me repeat it until sung to her satisfaction. Bryce and I added a “bs” sound to the end of a ghost song’s “Boooooo” note.

Micaela Rooney laughed at my 10 minute mile time.

I had a solo in the school play, School House Rock. I was jealous of the girls who got to dance in the “Conjunction Junction” number.

Fifth Grade, Age 9/10, Mrs. Morgante

Mrs. Morgante was blonde with blue eyes. I loved her so much and she thought I was so smart. On the last day of school she said I had the mind of a writer.

I slapped Jason Zambryski in the face to wake him up because he kept falling asleep.

I planned my wedding to Nick Jonas. Our colors were going to be hot pink and lime green.

Marissa Yunque’s favorite Jonas brother was Joe. She got me a special edition Jonas Brothers magazine.

I had a crush on Steven Theiss.

I had fake Ugg boots from Target.

There was a rumor that Britney Acosta stuffed her bra, so I volunteered to check it out. I bumped into her and reported back that her boob was definitely unnaturally hard.

I was in the advanced reading group.

There was a bathroom sign out sheet. It was to try and catch whoever the graffiti culprit was in the 4th and 5th grade bathroom. One of the graffiti defacements said “I hate Maeve Allen.”

We had math before recess which was before lunch.

I was Violet Beauregarde’s mom in the school play.

Katie Miale told me what condoms were.

Zach Gordon asked me to go to Uno’s with him and his family. I told him no, I couldn’t date because I was 10 years old.

We were threatened with the toughness of middle school.

6th Grade, Age 10/11, Mrs. Bucholtz, Mrs. Alessi, Ms. Minary and more

I met new people.

I was in “Blue House,” which was deemed one of the cool ones (The other cool one was Red House).

It was my first time experiencing switching periods and having different teachers in one day.

Caroline Read told Rob Ricci to shove a dildo up his ass. Everyone laughed at me when I said, “What’s that?”

One of my favorite shirts was a red long sleeved shirt with a panda on it I got from Kohl’s. I told my mom that I didn’t care about what I looked like because I didn’t currently have a crush on anybody.

Mrs. Knuth was my least favorite teacher. I purposely didn’t bring anything to write with for her math class. When she said, “Well, what did you come to school with?” Aidan Ludington piped up: “Her fingers!” He ended up getting detention.

7th period was “flex” period, but you had to get special permission and a pass to go to the library.

The middle school had a pool, so we had a swimming unit in gym. The swim coach had my sister on the swim team and he pulled me aside one class to show me a picture of his daughter, Maeve.

I started shaving my legs, even though my mother warned me it was something that once I started I wouldn’t be able to stop.

I learned about ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in Mrs. Alessi’s class. She showed us an article in the paper about her son’s football touchdown.

Grade 7, Age 11/12, Mr. Rechtorovic, Mr. DeFusto, Mrs. Ronzoni and more

I had a crush on John Gisonna. We were in the same social studies class and he looked so cute when he wore his glasses.

We read “The Most Dangerous Game” in English class.

Mr. DeFusto made American history enjoyable with his fun handouts.

I had a 96 in English.

I sat with girls I knew from Girl Scouts at lunch. A lot of them were on the same soccer team, and I felt left out when they all wore their jackets on the same day.

Brisk iced tea and french fries were my favorites things to get at lunch.

Ash Kiles was the new kid. He got in trouble one day for a shirt that said “This shirt would look better on your floor.” He had to put tape over the words and wear it like that for the rest of the day.

Mrs. Ronzoni our science teacher always had big armpit sweat stains.

In tech class we set off rockets.

Grade 8, Age 12/13, Mrs. Hodgkins, Ms. Godwin and more

One the first day of school I wore a black t-shirt and a black, blue and pink plaid shirt. I squeezed my feet into my sister’s converse sneakers.

I got side bangs for the first time.

Mrs. Hodgkins wore stacks of Tiffany charm bracelets. Her husband was a private pilot for a rich family.

We read The Outsiders and watched the movie in English class. I was so enamored with it that I asked for the DVD for Christmas.

I was jealous of Amber Brisacone’s big chunky neon Osiris sneakers.

I got a really bad grade on a science test and I went into Ms. Godwin’s office for help. She explained to me that just because you recognize one of the answer choices doesn’t mean it’s the right answer. She compared it to picking Snooki in a police lineup just because you recognized who she was.

I failed my math midterm.

I went to Dena Trieber’s bat mitzvah. The sweatshirt party favor was a hot commodity at school that Monday.

We all took Home-Ec and sewed boxer shorts and made apple turnovers.

Our 8th grade trip was to the Castle, a mini golf course and roller rink entertainment center. The whole grade wore tie dye t-shirts that said “Crusader Pride.”