Cat & Deen: Name Names

His name was so strange, she had to become his best friend: the only guy she could never marry. Done deal. She approached him quickly, and certainly not as suavely as she intended but he didn't seem to notice. "Hi," she smiled at him, "uh, I'm Jane. I hear you're...new."
   He wasn't sure whether he should smile or walk away, but he liked the gap between her teeth so he said, "Hi Jane. I'm-."
   "Cera Agustin Tomlin."
   Cera nodded and smiled, but scooted a couple centimeters away.
   Jane continued, "I'm just Jane. Jane Dodeen."
   "Nice to meet you."
   "Can I call you Cat?"
   Cera was so surprised, he answered, "Only if I can call you Deen."
   They shook on it.

Cat had made several new friends at school, all of whom had names he considered strange, but he never said so out loud. He didn't want to hurt his new friends' feelings. He knew exactly what it was like being made fun of for having a weird name. A girl's name, but even weirder because it wasn't even spelled normally. But at this new school everyone had such different, strange names that they weren't so strange after all.
   He liked to write their names to practice his handwriting (his teachers' gave out gold stars for the students with the best handwriting). Soon, he realized that his name was nothing short of ordinary compared to his classmates' names.
   Some of his classmates' names meant something in different languages.
   Other kids were named after great heroes or events.
   Other only went by initials.
   As far as Cat knew, he was the only one who went by an animal.
   One day he tried to call (his new best friend) Deen, Dog, but a teacher scolded him for that. His teacher didn't explain why; he'd only said, "Don't call girls dogs." Cat never did again.

"I!" Deen declared during recess one day, "Have an! Idea!" She raised her arms high. "You are all! Going to! Love! My idea!"
   Most of the kids didn't pay attention. Cat did, but he had no choice, he was in the middle of playing Go Fish (which they endearingly call 'Go Cat') when she interrupted their game with this announcement. But Deen was undeterred, determined to get everyone's attention. "Excuse me!" she yelled. When they still didn't pay attention she recruited the help of a teacher.
   The teacher, amused, decided to help. She hollered, "If you can hear my voice, put your hands on your head!" All the children put their hands on their heads. "If you can hear my voice, put your hands on your shoulders!" Shoulders. "If you can hear my voice-!"
   "It's okay," Deen interrupted. "They can hear me now, Mrs. Hoven." She hemmed and knitted her fingers together. "I! I have! An idea! You are all! Going to love! My idea." Her classmates' looked at her absently, eager to return to their games and play. "We should all exchange names! Because we can't exchange shoes! That's gross. If we exchange names, we can know what it's like to be someone else!"