My Life in Dioramas Read Free Page A

to write a response to. I liked an underwater seascape I saw, with a tiny scuba diver in a pink suit and a school of fish made out of some kind of shiny gold paper hanging by invisible wire. But then I saw it was Megan’s—she was always taking these spectacular vacations—so there was no way I was going to write about that one. I was impressed by the precision of a diorama that showed a family of four on the Walkway Over the Hudson—a pedestrian bridge that linked our town, Highland, with Poughkeepsie—but it was strangely lifeless and it was Sam Fitch’s. If I picked that one to write about, Stella would insist that I really did have a crush on him (I didn’t!) and never let me live it down.
    I kept finding myself drawn back to a diorama of a bear and a shark waging battle in a shallow body of water.
    I knew it had to be Naveen’s diorama, so I hadn’t even looked around for his name. Just last week, when we’d been sitting on the sidelines together after being eliminated from a game of elimination volleyball in Gym, he’d asked me, “Who do you think would win in a battle between a bear and a shark?”
    I always tried to give smart answers to Naveen’s questions. “Well, the bear could just grab the shark by the tail andthrow it out of the water and that’d be that. But, hmmm. I guess the shark could just bite the bear’s claws off.” Then I decided, “I’m going with shark.”
    Naveen had started talking and talking about each animal’s strengths and weaknesses, never actually answering the question himself.
    As I sat down, I heard Mrs. Nagano say, “But the assignment, Naveen, to be clear, was a scene from your life .”
    â€œIt is,” he said. “It’s a scene from inside my head, which is very much a part of my life.”
    Mrs. Nagano shook her head and smiled and moved on. Maybe Naveen would be a good person to ask for advice about how to maybe get my parents to change their mind.
    On a clean sheet of paper I wrote:
    The bear versus shark diorama makes me feel curious to know more about bears and sharks. It also makes me feel like there is a lot about the world that I don’t know. Who would win in a competition between a bear and a shark? I honestly have no idea. But I would be excited to find out.
    It wasn’t the most honest answer. The truth was that the diorama made me sad about the possibility of moving because of how much I’d miss friends like Naveen. But Mrs. Nagano didn’t need to know that.
    â€œHey, Naveen,” I said, as we were walking out of class. “Ifyou wanted to stop someone from selling a house, what would you do?”
    He faced me and crossed his arms in front of his chest and appeared to be thinking. Then he released his arms. “It would depend on why they are selling it, of course, but the most obvious way would be to stop anyone else from buying it.”
    â€œBut how?” I asked, and right away, an idea came to me. “Like by making it smell bad?”
    Naveen laughed. “That could work!”
    â€œYou’re a genius,” I said, and I almost hugged him. “Thanks!”
    â€œYou’re the one who—” he called out after me, but with everyone around me talking and shouting in the hall I couldn’t hear what he said.
    What if I was a bear and my parents were the sharks?
    Who would win then?

4.
    Stella’s mom picked us up after school on Mondays and Thursdays and drove us to dance class; my mom drove us home. I decided not to ask Stella’s mom to stop by Big Red for my dance bag but instead had asked Stella if she had extra stuff, which she did.
    Schwoo!
    I did not feeling like “talking more” with my parents just yet.
    At the studio, we got changed into leotards and footless nude tights and waited with the others—Madison, Allie, Nora, and Elizabeth—for the toddler class to come out of the back studio.