Daisy's Defining Day Read online

  To my mentor and first editor, Sheila Barry, who believed in Daisy from the start and made all my words better — S.V.F.

  For sweet Sadie and happy Holly — S.M.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Daisy’s Wonderful Word Lists

  Chapter One

  Daisy liked knowing all the words to a song and singing them loudly while she danced around the house. She liked making cookies and using at least three different colors of frosting to decorate them. She liked making friendship bracelets with her best friend, Emma, and swearing to Emma that she would never take hers off.

  Daisy especially liked riding her bike to the library to check out books. Books were full of words. And even more than making cookies or singing loudly, Daisy loved words. She kept track of her favorite words in a green notebook covered with purple polka dots.

  On this particular day, Daisy carried her notebook in her backpack on the way to school. Now that it was early spring, Daisy and Emma often walked with their neighbor, Samantha. They used to try to avoid Samantha because she had only wanted to use words like stop and mine. But now Samantha was a lot more fun.

  The only problem was that walking with Samantha also meant walking with Samantha’s younger brother, Grant. He and his friends used words like smelly and gross. Usually, the girls didn’t pay much attention to Grant, but today, Daisy found herself listening to his conversation.

  “We learned about rhymes yesterday,” he said.

  Daisy thought about her list of Favorite Rhyming Words. Sweet and treat were on it, as were sun and fun. Daisy was just about to share one of her favorite rhymes when Grant shared one of his.

  “Sister blister,” he said, sticking his tongue out at Samantha.

  “That’s not very nice,” Daisy said. Grant looked at Daisy, and then a not-so-nice smile spread across his face. “Lazy Daisy,” he said.

  “Don’t listen to him,” Samantha advised. “I never do.”

  Daisy tried, but soon Grant and all his friends were chanting, “Lazy Daisy!” Luckily, they were distracted by a trail of ants crossing the sidewalk. “Grant the Ant,” Daisy thought to herself, but swallowed the words before they came out. By the time they got to the school playground, Grant seemed to have forgotten about his new nickname for Daisy. But just before he headed to his classroom, he yelled, “Bye, Lazy Daisy!” in such a loud voice that many of the older kids turned and looked at her. Samantha mouthed, “Sorry,” to Daisy as they walked into Room 8.

  Daisy put her green notebook with the purple polka dots away in her desk and sat down. But she kept thinking about Grant’s chant.

  What if everyone in the whole school started calling her Lazy Daisy?

  There was only one word that could describe how she would feel then — miserable.

  Chapter Two

  Daisy didn’t have too much time to worry, because it was a demanding day for the students in Room 8. They had to write a story using all their spelling words from the last week, and then they had a math test on fractions. After the test, fractions were filling Daisy’s head so completely that she couldn’t think a whole thought. And Daisy wasn’t alone. All the students looked as though their heads were a little too full.

  So Miss Goldner, the best teacher in the world, put her hands on her hips and said, “You know what we need right now? A dance break! But this time, we’re going to add a twist.” Daisy and Emma wondered what kind of a twist. Would she teach them a pretzel dance? Would she make them hold hands, get all tangled up, and then try to untangle themselves without letting go of each other’s hands? But Miss Goldner didn’t say anything more. She just walked to the CD player and pushed a button. When “The Twist” came on, Miss Goldner demonstrated for the class. Pretty soon, everyone in Room 8 was giggling and twisting to the beat.

  After the dance break, Miss Goldner gave each student a blank piece of paper.

  “We’re going to have some fun writing sentences about animals. But the twist here is going to be that all the words in the sentence have to start with the same letter or sound as the animal’s name,” Miss Goldner said. “That’s called alliteration. Let’s have fun with all the letters, starting with A. For instance, you might write ‘Angry Alligators Ate Apples’ or ‘Bossy Beavers Bit Bark.’”

  Daisy thought the animal sentences were fabulous! She started with “Awesome Antelopes Are Athletic” and was all the way to “Handy Hippos Hammer Houses” when the bell rang signaling the end of the day.

  Emma and Daisy talked about the assignment all the way home. “I love how the words sound together,” Daisy said, sharing her favorite sentence of the day. “Elegant Elephants Eagerly Eat Éclairs.” Daisy couldn’t wait to enter the animal sentences into her notebook.

  Chapter Three

  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, Dais
y,” 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.

  Chapter Four

  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.

  Chapter Five

  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. The
y 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.

  Chapter Six

  The girls decided to skip Sweetums and instead headed for the frozen yogurt store, which had recently opened. It was the type of place where you could pick your flavor of yogurt and then add toppings. Emma chose blueberry yogurt with fresh strawberries and peaches on top. Daisy chose chocolate yogurt with cookie pieces.

  Daisy thought about bringing home some frozen yogurt for her younger sister, Lily, because she liked surprising Lily with little gifts, but decided against it. The frozen yogurt would just be a cup of melted yogurt soup by the time Daisy got it home. The girls sat down at a table to eat and chat.

  “We found some really good words for our names,” Daisy said.

  “But how do we put them all together?” Emma asked.

  “I’m not quite sure yet,” Daisy said. “Anyway, I think we still need a few more.”

  “More?” asked Emma. “Are you sure?”

  “Yep,” said Daisy. “I want a really great name that everyone will remember.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Emma said, as they finished up their yogurt and prepared to head home.

  ***

  That night at the dinner table, Daisy told her family about her day looking for words.