Mae Whitby was sitting at her desk preparing for the day. Jack Ferman walked in.
"Well, hi, Jack. You didn't need to come in. I just thought you should know about it. I know Otis can be a pest but...."
"It's John."
"John? You've been Jack since we were in first grade."
"I know, Chrysanthemum Mae, but we're in school."
"Jack! You know I hate that name."
"John. The name is John."
"What on earth is the matter with you?"
"Nothing. We're in school and I just don't want to be in bad taste."
"What are you talk...?" Mae Whitby's face reddened. She finally understood what Jack was getting at. "Does she hate her name that much?"
"Well, I'll grant you it's not Chrysanthemum but she's not fond of it and you'll have to admit that Mildred comes pretty close to Chrysanthemum. And when did you get so damned uppity. You had to carry water from the pump, take your bath in a wash tub and pee in the privy just like the rest of us."
"I wasn't trying to be uppity. I was trying to be proper but I can see how it would look uppity."
"Seems to me that a kid would learn better if his world in school was close to like his world at home. I never thought you'd get to be like the teachers we had. 'Member all those dumb rules? Walking on that fourth floorboard over from the desks and staying in line were more important than the multiplication tables. I haven't counted boards to walk on since eighth grade but I do multiply some."
"I take your point, Jack - and I do mean Jack."
Millie about fell out of her shoes when she walked into the room that morning and Mrs. Whitby said, "Good morning, Millie."
So that's where her dad had been during breakfast!
Everything was different after that. Mrs. Whitby got back to being just regular old Mae. Mae Whitby was Irene Ferman's cousin and Millie had known her all her life. At home or at Mae's house Mae was like a regular mom. Her kids were a little older than Millie and Freddy but they were pretty good friends. Mae's son, Duane, played on the Elkton basketball team and he was kind of Freddy's idol. He taught Freddy all kinds of basketball stuff. He said that Freddy was pretty good, and didn't that just puff up Freddy!
That was another dumb thing. When boys played basketball, they could go anywhere on the court. Girls had to stay on one side of the half-court line. If you were playing offense, when the other team had the ball you had to stand at the half-court line and could only watch. Millie hated it when they played basketball in the gym. It was boring.
When she and Freddy played at home, it was fun. She was as good as Freddy - well, almost. She could dribble and shoot and block and if Freddy charged into her and she fell down, she got up and when she got the ball, she charged right back into Freddy.
She couldn't beat Freddy anymore when they wrestled but that was because Freddy got to do "man's" work and he was getting stronger - not because he was a boy. Her mom said they shouldn't wrestle anymore. It wasn't ladylike. Millie hated that word. She might decide to be ladylike when she was a lady but now she was a kid. Well, a young lady, maybe, but a young lady who was still mostly a kid.
Anyway, she hated basketball in school. When the girls asked the teacher why they couldn't play basketball like the boys they were told that the boys' game was too strenuous for girls. That made Millie so mad. Everybody thought girls were wimpy.