"Chiman. Zu Chiman," I answer him.
"Chiman. That's unique. Is it Xynese? Nyipone?" he asked. I shook my head.
"You wouldn't know my people if I told you. We're a very small ethnic group. Almost nonexistant." Then I turned around and dived back into my book. The rest of class was uneventful but interesting with Ms. Harding telling us about the books we will be reading and giving us our first homework assignment of the year.
The rest of the day went by in a blur. I was especially grateful though, that they had allowed me to have art class as my last period for the the day since I enjoyed art the most next to reading. Mr. Padgette was in charge and I was a little happy that there was a teacher I was familiar with as we worked with him in middle school. He told us that he had a little bit more funding working here than there so we would be able to do more interesting things in comparison to previous years, such as working with clay.
Before I knew it, it was time to go home. All my excitement from the day started melting away and I once again buried my head in my book on the bus ride home, cancelling out all the noises from the other kids on there. I'm almost done with this installment of the book and I'm a little anxious to get my hands on the next one. I was introduced to this author right at the end of summer and have fallen in love with her writing. Every time I read one of her books, it was like I was right there with the characters, experiencing exactly what they were experiencing. It was amazing! I've read very few books like this where I just fall in the way that I did with hers. All too soon the bus reached my stop. I closed the book and walk off the bus before opening it back up, stuffing my nose in it, and meandered home with my brothers.
Even with my slowed pace, the walk took less than five minutes. Then the evening home routine started with homework (I put those aside to read), preparing and then cooking dinner, shower, and then TV until bedtime, which was when I *actually* started doing homework, and then reading until I heard mom opening up the door to welcome dad home; that was when I would close my eyes and try to force myself to sleep, hearing mom and dad creak the door open to check in on us kids to make sure we were doing what we're supposed to do. Tomorrow is a new day.