Bailey doesn’t go to school here anymore. Those of us who understand why won’t tell. The rest of us think it’s mean to keep a secret. We’ve all agreed, though, that something changed when our teacher made her sit in the back of the class. One of our parents complained about her. They said she would be a bad influence on the rest of us.

            It’s been three weeks since she’s left, and we’ve started asking questions. We’re only in the first trimester of the school year. Who doesn’t like fifth grade? Some of us have decided to start knocking on her front door to see if she’s at home, but she hasn’t answered, and there haven’t been cars in the driveway, either. Hopefully she comes home soon; it would be nice to see her face.

            We had a class meeting yesterday to talk about our bodies. Mrs. Brinner told us it’s okay to tell adults when they can’t touch us—we can even say no to hugs!

“You can all practice on the playground,” Mrs. Brinner said. “When someone tries to poke, pinch, or grab you, say no. If they do it anyway, tell a grownup.”

            A few of us had to sit in the hallway during lunch today for not listening during class. They said they saw Mikey’s mom in the office. She was yelling at the office lady saying that she’ll get Mrs. Brinner fired if she keeps putting “that stuff” in our heads, and we’re “too young to understand” what’s going on. The office lady told her it was already decided that Mrs. Brinner was going to be placed on suspension for talking to us about something called consent. She would be back in a week and would be forced to stick to fifth grade curriculum.

Maybe mommies are allowed to tell us when we need to give hugs.

            Some of us have started to hear stories on our TVs about a girl our age that had to go on vacation because the law wouldn’t let her go to the doctor in our state. We have all agreed it would be nice to go on vacation. Maybe Bailey is on vacation.

            A few of us started asking our parents when we would see her again, but they said even if she comes back, none of us should talk to her.

            “She’s a bad influence,” they say. Whatever that means.

            We’ve had bad kids in class before, but we know it’s not nice to talk before raising our hand. We know we have to be quiet when Mrs. Brinner is teaching. We know we aren’t allowed to hit each other or yell or fight. Bailey never did any of those things. She was always nice to every single one of us.

            We are starting to think we might have something to do with Bailey being gone. One of us pushed her down in the second week of school. One of us bullied her for her big hand-me-downs. A few of us told her she had to sit with the younger kids at lunch since she was being weird.

            “If you’re going to act like a baby, go sit with kids your own age.”

            We feel bad about it now.

            Some of us have older siblings, and we’ve started to hear new rumors. It’s impossible to know if they’re true. These kinds of rumors spread every year. Some say Bailey’s family moved to Indiana. Others say her parents are getting divorced. Some say there was an argument at a PTA meeting and Bailey’s mom moved her schools. Others say she got in a car accident.

            Some of the rumors are worse.

            We’ve started wondering which of us will be next. Will one of us go missing? Whose parents are most likely to move one of us out-of-state? Which of our names will be the talk of the town next trimester?

            We aren’t allowed to talk about her in class anymore. Our substitute teacher didn’t even read her name on the attendance sheet. We made sure to tell him that Bailey was still our classmate, she just had been gone for a little bit. He told us her name was not to be spoken in his classroom.

            He said, “This doesn’t mean you have to forget your friend, but if you have any more questions, you need to go to the school counselor.”

            Bailey used to go to the school counselor during health class. Our parents had to sign for us to be allowed to learn about puberty. Bailey’s parents refused. Instead, she got to color and read Goosebumps with the counselor.

            Mrs. Brinner is finally back, and she also said we aren’t allowed to say Bailey’s name or ask any questions. She said that not only have the rumors gotten out of hand, but parents have started to complain that Bailey’s situation is taking over our class time.

            We’re finally into the first week of our second trimester. The past couple weeks have been quiet until today. We noticed a group of people outside our school at lunchtime. They were shouting and holding signs with unfamiliar words. We looked at Mrs. Brinner’s dictionary during free time. We had to look up a few words, but we finally figured it out. What does this have to do with us? Why was Bailey’s name on some of the signs?

            We got sent home with sealed manila folders to give to our parents. Mrs. Brinner said they have important letters for parents’ eyes only. She said we might not have to come to school tomorrow, so to tell our parents to look out for an email from the district. We should have left happy like we do when we think it will snow overnight. There’s nothing like waking up to a snow day. But today, we left class with our heads down. The shouting people were still outside when we left.

            Most of us said our parents had quiet talks when they went to bed. Others said their parents were angry. Some of us tried to ask about the things we saw at school, but we were told we were too young to understand, and we shouldn’t be worried about it at our age. Why won’t they tell us anything?

            There’s a new girl in our class now. Her name is Sarah, and she’s very nice. Mrs. Brinner let her pick where she wanted to sit since she didn’t know anyone yet. She always sits at the front of the class—just like Bailey did. She’s the new class clown. It’s been nice to have fun classes again. She even told us a joke about why nine was afraid of seven. She’s good at Wall Ball and Four Square, so everyone wants her on their team.

            We’re getting worried that Sarah will leave like Bailey did. What if Sarah’s parents find out about the shouting people? What if they find out that Mrs. Brinner got suspended? What if they don’t want their daughter to go to school where Bailey went to school? What if something bad happened to Sarah and she had to leave like Bailey did?

            We don’t know how it happened. We don’t know who it was or when it was. We do know that Bailey won’t be coming back; she would definitely be back by now. We just hope that she’s okay. We hope that her new school is nice to her. We hope that people don’t scream about her in front of her new school and her new friends. We’re trying to be good to Sarah. We didn’t know what was happening to Bailey when she left, but, by now, we’re pretty sure we understand why she had to leave to Indiana. Some of us say they don’t care about the protesting and Mrs. Brinner’s suspension; they just want Bailey back. Others say it’s a good thing she’s gone, and their parents would take them out of school if she came back. A few of us say she deserved it.

            We split up in health class today. The boys said they talked about hygiene. The girls, though, talked about something called abstinence. It’s important to stay pure so we can be like a fresh piece of paper when we get married.

            Our health teacher said, “Once a piece of paper is crumpled up, you can’t make it right again.”

            When the health teacher asked if we had questions, one of us raised a hand and asked, “What if someone grabs your paper and crumples it when you aren’t looking?”

            “You still can’t make it straight again.”

            We all nodded. None of us want to be a crumpled piece of paper.