My Best Friend Is Extinct

My Best Friend Is Extinct — page 7 — Henry stop leaning on Koko said Mrs Zink Remember rule number three Keep your hands to yourself I wasn’t touching Koko with my hands I said It’s true Koko said He touched me with his shoulder That’s beside the point said Mrs Zink Koko’s not going to be able to concentrate with you shoulder-checking her I don’t mind Koko said Ever since I moved here in September Koko is the only one who has always been nice to me Thanks Koko I said My butt was getting pins and needles from all this carpet time She laughed You crack me up Henry Mrs Zink shot me her laser-beam look of fire and said Henry Do not touch Koko at all Perhaps if you can’t sit still you would rather go to the prin cipal’s office Jackson and his friends all said Oooooooooooh and started to snicker I stared out the window at the chunky snowflakes that were still falling They made me feel like I was floating happy and light When we lived in Victoria back on Vancouver Island it almost never snowed Mom said it was because the ocean created a temperate effect That’s 6 REBECCA WOOD BARRETT

My Best Friend Is Extinct — page 8 — why she had to cut the grass in January and why I’d never built a snowman Every year from November through March I would wake up hoping it had snowed in the night I’d roll out of bed hold my breath and creep toward my window And then I would see it Moss green apple green grass green sea green People talk about getting the blues when they’re sad I got the greens But now we live in this mountain town I wish we’d lived here my whole life My new home has a forest out the back door bike trails everywhere and only one big road through the middle of the valley And a whole lot of snow Yes or no Henry asked Mrs Zink Yes I shouted The class laughed I had no idea what she was talking about Are you sure No Mrs Zink looked out the window She smiled at me like she’d read my mind Try to hang in there Henry It will be lunchtime before you know it and then you can go outside again I don’t know if I’m going to make it Koko giggled 7 MY BEST FRIEND IS EXTINCT

My Best Friend Is Extinct — page 9 — I have confidence that you can do it said Mrs Zink But right now I need you to pay attention Yeah said Jackson I swung to my right Henry said Mrs Zink Take a deep breath Focus We can do this She gave me two thumbs up and tipped her head at me like she was beaming me a secret telepathic message I had no idea what she was thinking I nodded as if I had received her signal Then I took a deep breath and held on to it hoping the bell would ring before I exploded 8 REBECCA WOOD BARRETT

My Best Friend Is Extinct — page 10 — Two The snow never stopped Everyone agreed that it was really weird even for this town There were rumors going around the school that a new ice age was coming Well I was ready for it Mom had given me my own snow shovel for my tenth birthday It has a telescopic handle so I can shrink it down to stuff it in my backpack The shovel part is flat and has a square end that’s perfect for digging scraping and leveling Which was pretty much all we had been doing every recess and lunch break since it started snowing With this much snow we could build just about anything 9

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