First grade had begun. I was placed in room 12 with the teacher I had wanted all summer long. The only problem was my two best friends were in the other classroom across the hall.

The school year had been going well. I had made new friends in my own classroom and fallen in love with my teacher and reading.

My two older cousins, Margee and Rachel, came over to my family's house with their father every Tuesday night for as long as I can remember. Naturally, as my older cousins, I adored them and always did whatever they said. They helped my sister and me with our homework and read to us every Tuesday night.

One rainy Tuesday afternoon, I came home with a challenge from my first grade teacher. The students were asked to list as many compound words they could think of. The student who had the most words would win a prize. So far, I was stumped...

While I was sitting at the dinner table stewing in a cloud of frustration, Margee came over and brought me my favorite book. She instructed me to look inside it. Inside was a bookmark. She told me to read the page.

As I started reading, I realized that the page she had marked had two examples of compound words on it. I excitedly wrote them down. Now I had a total of 5 on my list!