1. Penpals (Grade Four)

Dear, Richard,

Hi, penpal! My name is Virgil Hawkins and I am in Mr Brooke's Fourth Grade Class. I like comic books, pizza and basketball. Do you have any favorite hobies, or favorite foods? I am excited for the Gifted Program, it will be fun.

I don't know what to say so here's a joke.

Two muffins are in the oven. One muffin says to the other muffin "Man it is getting hot in here" and the other muffin says, "Oh My God! A Talking Muffin!"

HAHAHAHAHAHA

your penpal,

Virgil

PS. You can call me V.

####

Dear V,

HAHA, that is the best joke ever.

I like comic books too! The Flash is my favorite, but I like Batman too. I wish I could run like that. Basketball is okay. I like running better. What do you think well do in the gifted program? I hope we get to learn about space and aliens.

I am in Ms Andersen's class. Right now we are learning about the pioneers. What are you learning about?

Here is my joke.

What is brown and sticky?

(a stick)

sinserely, Richie

PS. Sorry my joke is terrible.

PS2. You can call me Richie.

PS3. What kind of a name is Virgil?

####

Dear Richie,

I asked my Mom. She said Virgil is a Roman name. I think that's pretty cool. The romans have 25 pages in the ensiclopidia (how do you spell it?) and they built all kinds of stuff a really long time ago. Maybe we will learn about them in the program?

Green Lantern is my favorite hero. I have all his comics. Maybe we can trade comics? I don't have any Flash ones because Pops (that's my dad) only buys Green Lantern for me.

We are studying pioneers too. I thought they were boring but then we got to play Oregon Trail on the computer and my sister died from dissintary. (not really, only in the game)

Knock knock.

(you say, whos there)

Eiffel.

(you say, Eiffel who? Eiffel tower?)

No! Eiffel down! Call the ambulance.

Your penpal,

V.

####

It was the first day of the Gifted Program and the teacher told us to find our penpals by asking each other questions but not saying our names. It was a fun game and I was excited to meet Richie. We liked a lot of the same stuff and he even thought my Eiffel Tower joke was funny. In regular class nobody thought my jokes were funny.

Since we were supposed to ask questions, I decided to use our jokes, 'cause Richie would already know the punchlines.

"Knock knock," I said to a skinny blond white kid, probably the fifth or six person I'd talked to. He had glasses and a bandaid on one cheek, covering up a bruise.

"Who's there?" he asked, frowning behind his glasses.

"Owls."

"Owls who?" said the skinny kid, and then together we both said, "That's correct!"

Richie snorted and I grabbed his hand, raised it into the air. "Yo, teach! I found my pal!"

Richie pulled his hand out of my grip and stuck it in his jacket pocket, looking embarrassed. The teacher told us to pick a table and wait for the rest of the group to find their penpals and me and Richie sat down at table number four.

It turned out Richie was a lot shyer in real life than he was in letters, but fortunately I was prepared with two Green Lantern comics in my backpack. It was Mom's idea. I got out the comics and gave one to Richie, explaining why GL was so cool as he looked at the cover.

"You can borrow it," I whispered as the teacher called the class to order.

"Really?" Richie said, sounding surprised.

"For sure! You can give it back next class and I'll lend you the next one. You can't read this one and not the next one, 'cause it ends with GL trapped in this room full of lasers and-"

"Ten seconds!" the teacher shouted, meaning we had ten seconds left before we had to be totally quiet.

"Thanks," Richie whispered as the teacher started explaining our project for the day.