Book Covers
Nancy Dyers, a Year 5 student at Croxley Primary School, took great pride in having been named after a great literary detective. That detective was her personal hero. So whenever she was on a bus going to or from her school, she liked to observe children she did not know (most of whom went to Croxley Green Primary School, which was a few roads away from her school) and try to figure out what kind of lives they had. Contrary to what adults often told her, in Nancy’s experience you absolutely could tell a book by its cover, if you just looked closely enough.
On this morning, she was looking (as casually as she could) at a boy sitting next to her but on the other side of the central bus aisle. This boy was a bit smaller than her, so probably in Year 4 of his school. He was Asian, so most likely Chinese, just based on statistic probability. Though short, he looked quite stocky, like he had some muscles – unusual for a boy his age. ‘He must be training very hard’, Nancy thought. Probably already a brown or black belt at karate or kung fu.
He was wearing a gold watch. A Year 4 kid, wearing a gold watch to school? Daring. His family must be quite rich, if they could afford for him to wear something like that to school, where it could easily be lost or stolen.
He had by his side his school bag. It was plain black, with the letters ‘JL’ stylishly written on the back of it in multiple colours. Clearly this boy was an artist, maybe a graffiti artist? But what did JL stand for? John Lewis? John Legend? Nancy decided there were too many possibilities to consider. But, satisfied that she had this boy pretty well figured out, Nancy moved onto her next person of interest, the tall blonde girl sitting in front of her.
(Authors note: John Lee was actually Korean, in Year 5, and was stocky because he spent his weekends working with his father on his farm, which was physically very taxing. He wore a gold watch as he had inherited it from his favourite grandfather, who had passed away the previous year. He never took it off. His mother had written his initials brightly on his school bag because his eyesight was not the best, so this helped him to find it at school more easily. John noticed Nancy staring at him on the bus and now thinks she fancies him. He will consider asking her out).
Does John ask Nancy to be his girlfriend? If so, how does she reply?
What could they talk about? Do they have any common interests?
Will they see each other again after they get off the bus?