Daisy's Defining Day (3 page)

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.

“We found some at the library, but they weren't quite right,” she explained. “But the movie theater posters were full of wonderful words. Maybe I should be an actress.” Daisy considered this for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, she gasped loudly and let her head drop to the table, being careful to just miss the plate of food in front of her. She kept one eye open to see her family's reaction. The only one who looked a little alarmed was Lily, who asked, “Daisy okay?” Her mother just smiled and said, “Very dramatic, my dear.” Daisy lifted up her head and nodded. Hmmm.
Dramatic
might be a useful word to have in her name. If she were
Dramatic Daisy
, she could act out whenever she pleased.

After dinner, Daisy played checkers with Lily. But when Daisy got into bed, her head was so full of words beginning with the letter
D
that she didn't think she'd ever be able to fall asleep. She sat up, reached over to her nightstand and picked up her green notebook with the purple polka dots. She opened it to her list of
Quiet-Time Words
and smiled as she read
good-night, snuggle, hush-a-bye, lullaby
and
sweet dreams
. She added
dreamy
and
drowsy
.

Daisy smiled again. She loved it when she thought a list was finished and then, when she wasn't even thinking about that list at all, she came across new words to make it even better!

Daisy lay down and, instead of counting sheep, recited all the words beginning with the letter
D
that she had come across that day. As she said each one, she pictured the words jumping over a fence and dancing away. By the time she got to the word
dreamy
, she started to feel a little
drowsy
and soon fell asleep.

The next day was science day, so Daisy and Emma got to school earlier than usual. Miss Goldner always made science fun. But when they got there and put their backpacks away, they couldn't believe the mess they saw. There were strips of newspaper on every desk and table, big pieces of cardboard against the walls and bottles of all different sizes on the carpet at the front of the room.

“What happened in here?” Will asked when he came in. Daisy and Emma were wondering the same thing.

“Oh, nothing,” Miss Goldner said, coming into the classroom with her arms full of bottles of starch and a bright red apron on over her clothes. “It's papier-mâché day!”

“I want to make an elephant!” Samantha announced.

“Well, that would be fun,” Miss Goldner answered, “but today, we're going to make land forms. We're turning these bottles into mountains. But first, we're going to talk about them. And let's have some fun!” Then a little smile crept onto her face. “Perhaps they'll be
mighty
mountains,” she said.

“Or
mammoth
mountains,” Ben called out, picking up on Miss Goldner's use of
M
words.

“Or
ma
jestic
mountains,” Daisy offered.

“Exactly!” Miss Goldner said. “And let's not forget our oceans.”

“
O
p
e
n
oceans,” Emma offered.

“How about grasslands?” Miss Goldner asked. By now, the students really had the hang of it. They called out
green
and
graceful
, and for bays, the students added
blue
and
bright
.

“Now that we have described our land forms so well, let's get to work,” Miss Goldner said, handing out smocks to the class. One group made
beautiful bright blue b
a
ys
,
one made
majestic
and
mighty mountains
and one made
graceful green grasslands
. And absolutely everyone got covered with starch and had a marvelous time.

***

Daisy and Samantha had made plans to finish their handball battle at recess. So far, they had each won two games. The girls raced outside to make sure they got their favorite handball wall, and Emma stood off to the side to be scorekeeper. It was a fierce battle, and Daisy put up a good fight. The score was tied before the final serve. But Samantha triumphed by hitting the ball just outside Daisy's range. Daisy was exhausted, but she still gave Samantha a high five as they sat on a bench to catch their breath. Just then, Grant walked by and called, in a not unfriendly way, “Hi, Sammy and Lazy Daisy!”

Daisy couldn't believe it! Lazy? Hadn't she just played her hardest! She'd like to see
him
almost beat Samantha.

Daisy decided she had better choose her new name as soon as possible.

At home that afternoon, Daisy got right to work. When her mother offered her an after-school snack, Daisy just shook her head.

“You seem very determined today,” her mother said.

“I've got to decide on my new name,” Daisy said. “And it has to be just right.”

Daisy looked at the list she had compiled:

Dynamite
from Emma.

Dazzling
and
delightful
from the movie posters.

Dusty
and
dizzy
had been crossed out.

Dreamy
and
drowsy
had question marks next to them.

Delicious
had a picture of a slice of pizza next to it.

Dramatic
had a star next to it.

Lastly, she added
determined
.

She wrote down many combinations and practiced saying them out loud.

“
Dreamy Dynamite Delicious Daisy,
” she tried. No, not quite right.

Finally, after many more tries, Daisy felt certain she had it.

She put on her favorite red feather boa and ran to find her mother and Lily.

“Drum roll, please,” Daisy said to Lily, who obliged by playing air drums and saying, “Da-da-da-daaa!”

“Presenting me,
Dynamite Dramatic Determined Dazzling Daisy!
”

“Wow!” said her mother. “I certainly am dazzled.”

“Me, too!” said Lily, although she wasn't quite sure what dazzled meant.

“I've got to go tell Emma,” Daisy said, taking her boa with her as she ran out the door.

“Bye,
Dynamic Dazzle Daisy,
” Lily called.

Daisy frowned for just a moment. “That's okay,” she said to Lily. “I'll teach you the right way to say it when I get home.”