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samitv
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lordofthestars
Since: Sep, 2014

This is a short story I read sometime between 2005 and 2011. I want to say it was assigned reading or in an English textbook, but I have no idea what sort of teacher would assign a story as "out there" as this to a bunch of kids.
Body horror warning, I guess?
In the story, a grade school boy finds there is a small burrowing insect under the skin of his arm. It's been there for a few days/ weeks, and it's traveling around in a a spiral, so there's a pattern on his skin "like a burn from a hot stove top." He's not allowed to have pets at home, so he comes to think of the insect as a sort of pet. His class goes on a field trip (to either a museum or a botanic garden) and he meets a girl from another school. They have a conversation about growing up and emotions - the girl has a teenage sibling who doesn't have a handle on their emotions, and the sibling sometimes get so bitter and angry they can't say anything nice or see the beauty in the world around them. The boy sees this as a reflection of his own difficulties in growing up. Then he takes a pen and digs the insect out of his arm, leaving it in a nasty bloody mess on the carpet before rejoining his school group.
Any idea what the hell it is I read?