Hi. my name is Anthony, but in elementary school I couldn't get anybody to call me that, so I was stuck with Toe-Knee... for a long time. I went to St. Lawrence Elementary, and we students had all been in the same class since kindergarten. I had a bunch of friends at eight years old, but third and fourth grade especially stand out because of the shift in social dynamics that happened around that time.

Rather than boys and girls all playing together, some boys were going for walks with girls, and some were even holding hands. Around this time, there seemed to also form a division between some of the boys. That year was the first year the word "nerd" was spoken in my class. That word was not acceptable, so the terms evolved into "cool boys" and "school boys". As I was a bit chubby and scholastic, I was quickly labeled one of the school boys. I was also kinda gullible and totally trusting.

In third grade, our teacher was a prim and proper lady in her late fifties - early sixties. Mrs. D. wore her silvery black hair in a tight bun, and smelled heavily of talcum powder. I thought she was a pillar of majesty and looked up to her almost as I did my Nana. I worked hard every day, and cleaned erasers after school to earn the highly coveted lemon drops she kept right on her desk in front of us all. I earned a lot of lemon drops in that class, until...

Little Scooter is what they called the coolest boy in third grade, he had slicked back, blonde hair with shaved sides and a pretentious look in his eye. At the time I was trying really hard to fit in and limit the increasing name-calling coming my way, and again, I was gullible. One day, as Mrs. D. stepped out of the room for a minute, Scooter dared me to take one, just one, tiny little lemon drop, from the jar on the desk, in front of everyone. Of course I did it.