My extreme shyness has comic results

When I was in second grade, I was in a Brownie troop. At Christmas we were scheduled to sing carols at the local nursing home, after which we would be going back to the church hall for cookies and hot chocolate. A note had been sent home to our parents, asking them to provide each girl with three cookies to bring to the party after the caroling. Apparently my mother knew that there would be a 'pot luck' with the cookies, so she went out and bought Oreos instead of the El Cheapo brand of cookies we usually got. I was under the impression that the three cookies were going to be my snack with the cocoa.

So it was with some alarm that I watched my Troop Leader confiscate everyones' bags of cookies when we got back to the church. What the heck was I going to eat? My mother was going to be mad when she found out my cookies had been taken away from me. All the girls were sent into the hall to play and talk while some mysterious preparations took place in the kitchen. About fifteen minutes later we were told to line up for the cocoa, and then the line went into the kitchen-- where three huge trays sat on the table, containing all of the cookies that had been 'confiscated.' We were told to pick out three apiece.

I frantically scanned the trays-- and there were my three Oreos, one on each tray. I saw that I was the only one who had brought Oreos-- everyone else had brought fancy little tarts and pastries. I was really embarrassed about it-- my mother's attempt to buy a 'high-class' cookie had failed, because they were being outshone by all of these ritzier goodies. We STILL looked poor! She might as well have sent me here with the El Cheapo cookies, for all the difference it had made!

So what did I do? I grabbed all three Oreos and went off by myself to eat them as quickly as possible. I don't know why I did it-- it was a mixture of embarrassment and homesickness. I didn't even care about all the other appetizing choices on the tray, I just wanted 'my' cookies back.

Thankfully, no one commented on my odd behavior-- even as a kid, I was a loner and extremely anxious about everything. I think my Troop Leader was just happy that I had participated in the caroling-- she figured that eventually I would mix in with the other girls. That never happened, but I was glad that she didn't try to force me to socialize when I wasn't ready to do so.

I have only a vague memory of the actual caroling-- but man, do I remember those trays of cookies.