All of us in the kindergarten class were sitting criss-cross applesauce with our hands in our laps, looking up and listening to the teacher.

She was sitting in a rocking chair, reading a book in an overdramatized voice, her puffy cheeks swelling under her eyes when she smiled.

She stopped reading, looked down at me, and ordered me aloud to stop picking my nose. All the other kids looked at me, with my finger still stuck up to the knuckle in my nostril.