The Dictionary

You what?!” An angry mother hollered. Her husband stood next to her, laughing. She gave him an angry glare. “Don’t encourage her!” she said coldly. Their daughter in front of them sighed and rolled her baby blue eyes. “It was really nothing, mom,” she said dully. “Of course it was something! You laughed when a kid threw a dictionary at your math teacher!” Her mother’s normally calm demeanor had withered away and was replaced by the angry-mom vibe that everyone hated. The vibe carried on through the entire house. Sara, her face unmoving, replied back, “At least I’m not the one who threw the book.” “But you laughed.” Sara’s dad stepped between them. “Ladies, ladies, calm yourselves,” he said. “Sara, please explain again what happened—exactly what happened.” Sara sighed and began. “We were in math class and Mr. Cloak—who everybody hates—asked Tommy to speak louder. Tommy, being the quiet nerd he is, spoke a little louder but used big, fancy words that barely anybody understood. Mr. Cloak got all irritated and asked him to use words he could understand. Brody threw a dictionary at Mr. Cloak. I laughed and so did other kids and Mr. Cloak issued half the class to a meeting with the principal. That’s all.” Sara’s mom still looked irritated. “I can’t believe my daughter is going down to the principal's office—again,” she muttered as she stalked away. After a long moment of silence, Sara’s dad put his hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it,” he said smoothly. “Your mom will get over it sooner or later. Have you finished your homework?” “You mean those meaningless pieces of paper that you have to do at home because seven hours of school wasn’t enough? Yeah,” Sara nodded. “Okay kiddo, go upstairs and get some sleep. It’s getting late and you have a big day tomorrow,” he winked. Sara smiled—something that was pretty rare—and started up the stairs. “Night!” she yelled from upstairs. “G’night Sara Beara!” “What a fun nickname,” she muttered under her breath as she took her warm honey blonde hair out of its messy ponytail. Sara Cross’s day began unlike anything you would see in a Disney movie. Her hair was in a tangled mop, her pajamas were twisted, if someone saw her, they’d probably think she had just risen from the dead. She hopped around trying to pull on her jeggings and flung on a T-shirt. She didn’t really care what the other kids thought of her, especially since it was a bunch of random kids on a Saturday. “Ready?” Her dad called from the car as she walked over to it. Sitting down with a sigh, she nodded, “Ready as I’ll ever be.” They drove to the school, only ten minutes or so away, and there he was. Mr. Terri. The principal. Walking up to the doors, he gave Sara a delighted smile. “Welcome, welcome,” he said cheerfully. “Hello again, Mr. Terri. Sara, I’ll be back to pick you up,” Sara’s dad shook Mr. Terri’s hand and headed back to the car. Sara nodded and Mr. Terri turned to her as they began to walk through the doors. “How was this past week for you, Ms. Cross?” He sounded way too cheerful. Maybe having talks with middle schoolers about their bad behavior made the guy happy. Sara shrugged. “I dunno,” she said. “Same as always, I guess.” Mr. Terri opened the door to the waiting room for her and furrowed his brow. “Throwing dictionaries is normal for you?” Sara knew that was supposed to be something to get her to laugh, but teacher tricks like that didn’t work on her. “No,” she said. “And besides, I didn’t throw it.” “Right, right,” Mr. Terri walked past her and to the door of his office. “You can wait here and discuss that with the rest of your classmates.” He gestured to the other kids in the room as if Sara hadn’t seen them already.” He then disappeared behind the door, which shut slowly with a squeak. Sara found a chair in the corner next to a plant. It was a fake palm tree that leaned over to the side, hanging its fake palm leaves dangle in Sara’s face. Next to her, she heard, “Hi.” She looked a couple chairs to her left. It was Claire Agustin, the smartest girl in their grade. She was thin and looked shy, but she was really nice when you got to know her. “Hey,” Sara replied. She smiled a little. Claire was someone she could tolerate. “Hey, when did you get here?” A kid shouted from across the small room. It was Liam Hanover. He was looking at Sara as if she was a big pink splotch on a white canvas. “You nerds didn’t notice Mr. Terri coming in the room with me?” Sara said in a moody tone. “Not really. We were talking about other stuff.” That was Tommy. His glasses were smudged. No wonder he didn't notice. “I mean, I noticed, so did Claire,” yet another voice said. It was Brody Hollinger, probably Sara’s favorite in the room. He was tolerable and they had a good amount in common. “Wonderful news. And why are we just waiting here? Isn’t Mr. Terri going to come talk to us?” Sara asked impatiently. Brody shrugged. “He said he would do one at a time in alphabetical order.” He looked away and looked back at her. “Can't wait until it’s my turn,” he said sarcastically with a laugh. “I’m about to get screamed at.” “It was funny though,” Claire said. “And Mr. Cloak could really use a new dictionary. You know, so he uses words other than ‘dipstick’, ‘multiply’, and ‘no’.” Sara had to laugh. That was pretty true. “You’ll be first, Claire. Your last name starts with A.” Tommy pushed up his glasses. “Woah, really?” Sara said sarcastically. Just as Tommy gave Sara a weird look, Mr. Terri came through the door. “Claire Agustin?” He looked around the room. Claire gave Sara a nervous look and crossed her fingers before heading into Mr. Terri’s office. “Dudes,” Liam looked at everyone. “What is going to happen after this? Will Mr. Cloak give us F’s for the rest of our lives? What are we going to do?” Sara watched him and replied quickly, “I say we all move to the Netherlands. Nobody will know us and we can say the words ‘bedankt’ and ‘tot ziens’.” Everyone looked at her oddly, except for Brody. “I was thinking more about Switzerland,” he said slowly, stroking his chin. “But the Netherlands will do.” “You guys are weird.” Tommy pushed up his glasses for the hundredth time. “Dude! I was thinking the same thing!” Liam’s eyes got wide as saucers. Sara rolled her eyes and tightened her ponytail. “Did I ask?” she muttered under her breath. Brody started laughing. He had obviously heard her. Sara looked up and chuckled. “Sara Cross?” Mr. Terri came into the waiting room again and Claire returned to her seat. Sara pushed away a couple hanging palms and stood up. She gave Brody a hopeful look and crossed her fingers behind her back to Claire. If Mr. Terri was going to scream at her about laughing, at least she had people with her on that boat