(An excerpt from a draft of the novel, Tesali and Lisbet)

On the first day during morning recess, Tesali stood by herself on the edge of the school courtyard looking for a game to join or someone to talk to. She saw this girl with flyaway red hair and freckles also standing by herself about ten feet away. Tesali walked up to her and said, “I like your hair,” which was true.

The red-haired girl gave her the smallest possible smile, said, “Thank you,” and looked away back into the courtyard’s center.

Tesali asked, “Wanna play?”

“Play?” the red-haired girl repeated, looking back at her with arched eyebrows.

Even in that moment, Tesali thought, I like her freckles; maybe we can be friends.

And then the red-haired girl’s eyes moved to something behind Tesali. “Get this, the new girl wants to play.”

Tesali turned and saw a blonde girl with a tightly pulled-back ponytail and tiny gold heart stud earrings.

The tight-ponytail girl said in a high-pitched sneering voice, “Oh yeah? Does she want to have a tea paaaarty?”

Tesali didn’t like tea parties, pretend or otherwise. The sneer and the drawn out “paaarty” made it clear that the girl wasn’t really inviting her to one.

The red-haired girl continued her friend’s mocking tone, “Or maybe we could play family. We could be the parents and she could be the baby, since she likes baby games.”

Tesali winced, but she didn’t give up. “I’m not that into tea party and family games. What do you like to play?”

“We don’t play,” the tight-ponytail girl scoffed. “Playing is for little kids.”

“Why don’t you go to the little kids’ recess?” the red-haired girl said. Then the two girls joined shoulders and swooshed to the far corner of the courtyard where a group of fifth-grade girls were chattering and giggling.

Who doesn’t like to play? Tesali thought. But she didn’t let this snub deter her. Every school has mean girls, she thought. Then she looked around for some who did like to play. Most of the girls were standing or sitting and talking in clusters around the courtyard’s edges. On the far side of the courtyard, boys were kicking a soccer ball. In between, she saw a few scattered games of hopscotch, jump rope, and four square.

When Tesali approached the four-square group, a round-faced, brown-haired girl whom Tesali recognized from her class invited her to join the game. And then Tesali punched the ball so hard it bounced up into the round-faced girl’s face. When the girl lowered her hands, blood was running from her nose. Tesali apologized and explained that she was used to handball. Two of the other four-square girls hustled the bloody-nosed girl away to a bathroom.

After that, Tesali retreated to the monkey bars, the school’s only play structure. It stood on a grassy oval at the courtyard’s center. No one else was anywhere near it. She waited out the rest of recess sitting on top of the bars. She told herself she’d try again to make friends at lunch recess.

But when Tesali walked out into the courtyard after lunch, she saw even more unfamiliar faces. While the morning recess was just for fifth graders, the fourth and sixth graders also came out for this one. As she walked through the courtyard, she looked for, but couldn’t find, any openings in the groups. She ended up back on the monkey bars.

And that’s where the real trouble began. After climbing to the top, Tesali hooked her knees over a bar, slipped her body down between the bars, and swung upside down. She swayed back and forth a few times. Just as she was considering a flip down to the ground, she heard a squeal, “Oh my God, she’s showing everyone her underwear!”

With one hand, Tesali quickly grabbed at the hem of her plaid uniform skirt, which she’d forgotten she was wearing, and with the other hand, she pulled herself up on top of the bars. By this time, however, that whole corner of fifth-grade girls was chanting, “I see London, I see France. I see New Girl’s underpants!”

Tesali’s head exploded. What’s wrong with these people? Haven’t they ever seen underwear before? She squeezed back between the bars, swung down and let the uniform kilt, which she was only wearing because her mother insisted she wear it on the first day of school, billow around her head and expose her underwear and belly button. As she hung there and swung back and forth, the chanting grew louder. Tesali heard boys’ voices join the girls’. One boy yelled, “She doesn’t even know what day it is. Look, she thinks it’s Saturday.”

Tesali wanted to scream. Her mother bought her this stupid day-of-the-week underwear, each one with the day embroidered in pink on the back. She never paid attention to what day it was when she grabbed underwear in the morning. She swung a little higher. Soon a teacher’s voice broke through the chanting, “What is going on here?”

A girl spoke up in a sing-songy, teacher-pleasing voice, “The new girl is showing everyone her underwear, Mrs. Harker.”

Mrs. Harker, Tesali’s History teacher and the teacher on recess duty, said, “Alise Conner, get down this instant.”

Before obeying this order, Tesali said, “My name is Tesali.” Then she slipped her legs from the bar, tucked them into her chest, and landed perfectly balanced on two legs. The half flip momentarily quieted the giggling crowd.

But then tight-ponytail girl, who stood smirking behind Mrs. Harker, said, “Monkey Girl knows tricks besides showing off her underwear.”

The teacher swung around to reprimand the speaker, but tight-ponytail girl, now with wide eyes and a slight, worried frown, looked innocent.

Tesali filled in the teacher’s silence by shooting back, “At least I wear underwear!”

She enjoyed the girl’s sharp intake of breath and reddened face until Mrs. Harker narrowed her eyes at Tesali and snapped, “That’s enough. Prescott girls do not show off their underwear. Come with me.” Then the teacher grabbed Tesali’s upper arm and marched her across the courtyard to the lower school building.

Tight-ponytail girl shouted after them, “I do too wear underwear and I wear clean underwear, unlike you.”

Keeping a tight hold on Tesali’s arm, Mrs. Harker escorted her to the head of the lower school, Mrs. Walker, who delivered a lecture about the ladylike behavior expected at this school and threatened to call Tesali’s mother if she repeated these kinds of stunts.