Page 133 of Slumming It

I laughed at the image. "So what happened in the second grade?"

"Well, there was this girl in our class. Her name was Daisy Culligan, and her family was going through a really tough time. They had like no money, and Daisy always wore the same two outfits, alternating them every other day."

"And lemme guess," I said. "Morgan noticed."

"Weallnoticed," Emily said. "It was basically one pair of navy pants and two different shirts, but the shirts were really distinctive."

"How so?"

"Well, one of her shirts had a penguin on the front and the other had these big purple stripes."

I could picture it. "So they stood out."

"Exactly! And even worse, her family's furnace went out just after Christmas, and they were heating their whole house with this old wood stove, so Daisy always smelled like a campfire."

"And that was a problem?"

"Well,Ididn't think so," Emily said. "I love campfires. But Morgan wouldn't stop hassling her about it."

I hated shit like that.While I was at it, I also hated people like Morgan What's-her-face who had grown up spoiled rotten and had no idea what it was like to be hungry – and not only for food.

Yeah, these days I could afford the very best, but it wasn't always that way. And I wasn't so far out of the gutter myself that I couldn’t remember what it was like to be someone like Daisy, getting hassled for shit that shouldn't have mattered.

I asked, "Hassling her how?"

"Well, at first, it was just teasing. But then Morgon got this idea that it would be really hilarious if Daisy had onlyoneoutfit instead of two."

I felt my fingers flex around the steering wheel, but my voice remained steady. "Oh, yeah?"

Emily nodded. "So one day, we're all in line for lunch, and Morgan is right behind Daisy, you know? And do you wanna guess what Morgan does?"

"What?"

In the passenger's seat, Emily was looking a little pissed off. "She cuts a big hole in the back of Daisy's shirt."

Son-of-a-bitch. "Which one? The penguin or the striped?"

"The striped," Emily said, "which was really unfortunate, because it was the nicer of the two."

I had to ask, "So they gave you real scissors in the second grade?"

Emily grimaced. "No. Morgan took them off the teacher's desk."

"So what happened after? Did she get in trouble?"

"Morgan? Oh, please. Her mom was the president of the school board, and her dad had just donated a bunch of money for the new playground. And trust me when I tell you, their little princess wouldneverget in trouble."

The more I heard, the more pissed-off I felt. "So the school didn't do anything?"

"Morgan got a little talking to, but she claimed it was all just an accident. And then, Morgan's mom 'donated' a bunch of Morgan's old shirts to Daisy's family, so Daisy would have more things to wear. But everyone in the class knew that the clothes were Morgan's old hand-me-downs, which made it just as bad, especially when thenewclothes started smelling like smoke."

Emily sank lower in the seat. "I told my mom about it, and do you wanna know what she did?"

"What?"

"She offered to do all of Daisy's laundry so her clothes wouldn't have that smell, and she even bought Daisy a couple of new outfits, with the tags attached and everything, but Daisy's mom returned the clothes to the store and got a refund to buy other stuff instead."

What the fuck?"Like what?"