Chapter 2

My heart sank. Even if her drawing wasn’t perfect, a teacher shouldn’t tell her that to her face.

Especially not Daisy, who’s just a kindergartner.

A single comment from a teacher could easily kill a child’s interest in something.

But I also knew I couldn’t just take a child’s word for it.

Maybe the teacher didn’t say that at all, and Daisy just misunderstood.

I pulled out my phone and opened the SnapChat group chat for the class.

Just as I was about to private message the class teacher to get the full story, I saw the “excellent student works” she’d posted in the group that afternoon.

I clicked in and saw they were all luxury cars: Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, and the “worst” were BMWs and Mercedes.

And those drawings, far from being “excellent,” some of them had crooked, wobbly lines; you could barely make out the car’s shape.

Only the car logos were strikingly clear.

I suddenly remembered a few days ago, when Daisy pointed at the cars in the garage and asked me which one to draw.

She said it was school homework and needed a caption: “My dad drives this car every day to take me to school.”

Daisy had deliberated for a long time and ended up drawing the little pickup truck from a cartoon.

It all clicked for me. This teacher’s standard for judging homework wasn’t based on artistic skill, but on the car’s value.