my ears are super-duper clean because I took a bath last night and a shower this morning because I forgot about my bath until I was in the shower The playground is so loud I’m not sure I heard what Donut said Miranda said quietly I am Maude said And without bothering to come to a complete stop and thus breaking rule fifty-two in the Official Rules of Mountain River Valley Elementary she flew off her swing and ran over to Desdemona 6
2 WE CAN’T STAND FOR THIS We can’t stand for this Maude shrieked to Desdemona Agatha and Agnes who were now all standing up Stand for what Desdemona dribbled her ball toward Agatha very slowly We’re playing sloth soccer For this unjustness Donut has forbidden you from playing tag Maude hollered Because you’re a girl Desdemona leisurely lifted the ball with her foot He did Yes When he ran past you Miranda heard it too Maude looked at Miranda who hesitated then nodded slowly Desdemona shrugged Oh That wasn’t nice but soccer is better And sloth soccer is the best In slow motion she kicked the ball to Agnes That’s not the point Maude said 7
What’s the point Agatha asked She kicked the ball slowly to Maude Maude climbed up on the soccer ball and promptly fell off Forbidding you from tag is forbidding forbidding us all from tag The poet Maya Angelou once said Each time a woman stands up for herself she stands up for all women I stand here now on behalf of all Three B girls to officially declare that we won’t tolerate not being allowed to play tag What a good speech Miranda thought Then she had another thought Do you want to play tag Maude Maude looked curiously at Miranda Not 8
at all she said But that’s not the point The point is that we should be able to play tag if we want to The girls nodded They could certainly do everything the boys did But unfortunately what they needed to do right now was line up since the bell ending recess had just rung The soccer girls kicked their balls toward the goal The boys still playing tag ran over to 3B’s line Maude ran back to the swings to grab her messenger bag which she’d brought outside even though it broke rule seventy-four Once in line Maude bent down to secure the leftover half of her delicious but super-stinky Limburger cheese sandwich which was in danger of falling out of her bag Unfortunately at that same moment Donut who was frantically frantically trying to not get tagged by Fletcher spun around and crashed into her Maude fell forward and knocked into Hillary Greenlight-Miller who bumped into Miranda You’re It Fletcher sounded victorious 9
