At playtime later that day, Arthur and his friends were playing soccer on the grass. Francine caught the ball with her feet, dodged the other kids, and ran as quickly as she could. She dribbled the ball, making Buster trip. She bumped into Muffy, making her cry out in disgust as she scraped her knees in the dirt. The tomboy reached the goal and just when she was about to score, Arthur – who was playing as the goalkeeper – pounced on her, snatching the ball away, laughing insanely. Francine moaned. She stood up, brushed the dust off her trousers. Arthur caught a glimpse of Daisy. She was sitting on the swing with a forlorn expression on her face. He bit his lip.
" Maybe we should ask the new girl to join us?" he suggested.
" No, that new girl is weird," answered Francine. " I asked her how to spell 'necessary' in English this morning, she gave me a dirty look and ignored me. It was like she wanted me to fail or something."
" When the Rat gave her the homework assignment, she had to ask five times about what to do. The instructions were right there in front of her," Muffy added. " Talk about dumb!"
" Well, we should at least try to be nice to her," Arthur said. " Remember Sue Ellen first moved here? We all thought she was weird when she was just a perfectly normal kid." Arthur walked over to her. To her, he was hovering over her, like she had done something she wasn't supposed to. She gulped and started to tremble. " Hi, Daisy. Do you want to play soccer with us? We need an extra player to make the teams even."
" No," she said and continued playing by herself, which she liked and felt comfortable with.
" A-are you sure? Well, join us if you feel like it." He ran back to the field and caught the ball when Buster threw it at him.
Daisy rested her head on the palm of her hand. She heaved a sigh as she watched the other children play their games. There was something deep inside of her that told her to join in, but because she was so clumsy, she didn't want to put it on display which had caused so much trouble for her in the past.