True story. Mostly. I changed the teacher's name and a minor detail or two, but the story Ella tells here is something that really happened to me. I was kind of annoyed, too. That's why I remember it.
From the book:
He began to walk towards Main Street just to get them moving. They walked in silence for a block or two. It was actually a fairly comfortable silence.
“You know what this reminds me of?” Ella asked after a minute. She kept talking before he could answer. “I guess it doesn’t remind me of it. I just happened to think of it. Remember Mr. Fetterman’s 7th grade science? You had him, right?”
“You know what this reminds me of?” Ella asked after a minute. She kept talking before he could answer. “I guess it doesn’t remind me of it. I just happened to think of it. Remember Mr. Fetterman’s 7th grade science? You had him, right?”
“7th grade? Yeah, that was Mr. Fetterman.”
“Remember we had to do a big leaf project? Did you do the one where we had to collect leaves?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Like twenty or thirty leaves and identify them all in a scrapbook sort of thing.”
Ella nodded enthusiastically. “I think it was twenty, but it seemed like a lot at the time. I was having trouble finding that many that were different, and I heard someone say she found a ginkgo tree by the high school. Ginkgo leaves are distinctive, kind of fan shaped, and I wanted one of those.” She shrugged sheepishly. “I already had several maples that I wasn’t sure I had correctly… I thought two might actually be the same type and… I wanted one I was sure I’d get right. So I went on something like a quest.”
Sebastian smiled at the word. “That’s why it reminded you.”
“Uh huh. I went to the high school,” she said, “and I couldn’t find the tree. I walked farther away, several blocks and kept coming back in circles because I was afraid I missed it. You want to guess how long it took me to find that ginkgo leaf?”
“An hour?” he said.
She shook her head.
“Two hours?”
She paused a moment before shaking her head with her lips pressed against a smile.
Sebastian thought he might have been impressed by the determination if Ella didn’t look so amused by it. That was contagious. “Three hours?” he guessed.
Ella nodded and said, “Nearly. I spent nearly three hours wandering around town before I found that leaf.”
“At least you found it.”
She smiled. “But that’s not the end of the story.”
“You didn’t drop it, did you?”
“Oh, no. It was secure,” she said. “I was walking home, feeling triumphant, when I passed another ginkgo tree. It was in front of a house only two down from mine. And it had been there the whole time.”
“I’m guessing you felt a little less triumphant,” he said, smiling at the story and how comfortable she seemed while telling it. There had been at least a small shift in the relationship.
“The worst part,” Ella continued, “was that it was in the direction of the jr. high. I realized I’d been walking past that tree on my way to and from school. For the next two weeks, or however long we worked on that project, I felt like the tree was laughing at me whenever I passed it.”
“How about we head that way and give it a little kick for old times’ sake?”
“I think,” Ella said, “that would hurt me more than it hurt the tree.”
“Remember we had to do a big leaf project? Did you do the one where we had to collect leaves?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Like twenty or thirty leaves and identify them all in a scrapbook sort of thing.”
Ella nodded enthusiastically. “I think it was twenty, but it seemed like a lot at the time. I was having trouble finding that many that were different, and I heard someone say she found a ginkgo tree by the high school. Ginkgo leaves are distinctive, kind of fan shaped, and I wanted one of those.” She shrugged sheepishly. “I already had several maples that I wasn’t sure I had correctly… I thought two might actually be the same type and… I wanted one I was sure I’d get right. So I went on something like a quest.”
Sebastian smiled at the word. “That’s why it reminded you.”
“Uh huh. I went to the high school,” she said, “and I couldn’t find the tree. I walked farther away, several blocks and kept coming back in circles because I was afraid I missed it. You want to guess how long it took me to find that ginkgo leaf?”
“An hour?” he said.
She shook her head.
“Two hours?”
She paused a moment before shaking her head with her lips pressed against a smile.
Sebastian thought he might have been impressed by the determination if Ella didn’t look so amused by it. That was contagious. “Three hours?” he guessed.
Ella nodded and said, “Nearly. I spent nearly three hours wandering around town before I found that leaf.”
“At least you found it.”
She smiled. “But that’s not the end of the story.”
“You didn’t drop it, did you?”
“Oh, no. It was secure,” she said. “I was walking home, feeling triumphant, when I passed another ginkgo tree. It was in front of a house only two down from mine. And it had been there the whole time.”
“I’m guessing you felt a little less triumphant,” he said, smiling at the story and how comfortable she seemed while telling it. There had been at least a small shift in the relationship.
“The worst part,” Ella continued, “was that it was in the direction of the jr. high. I realized I’d been walking past that tree on my way to and from school. For the next two weeks, or however long we worked on that project, I felt like the tree was laughing at me whenever I passed it.”
“How about we head that way and give it a little kick for old times’ sake?”
“I think,” Ella said, “that would hurt me more than it hurt the tree.”
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