Natalie and the Bestest Friend Race

In case you don’t know this already, my name is Natalie 24. My friends, like Laurie, can call me Nat. Only not Sasha. Plus, my other middle name is Elizabeth. Only I don’t like that one on account of you can get teased and called Lizard Breath if you’re not careful.

I am running as hard as I can to the swings. But it’s not hard enough.

“You lose again, Natalie!” Sasha shouts.

“Sorry, Nat,” Laurie says. “I wasn’t fast enough to save you a swing. You can have mine soon as I’m done.”

There’s another swing, but a girl from the other kindergarten class is sitting on it. Their class always gets out to recess first, some of the times.

“That’s okay,” I tell my best friend ’cause I don’t want her to feel bad. “I like to watch.” Only watching is boring. As soon as a swing is empty, I will fill it with me.

Sasha turns her back on me and says to Laurie, “You’re a pretty fast runner.”

“So are you,” Laurie says back.

“I know,” Sasha agrees.

“I guess I have to be fast around our house or I’d never get to the bathroom before Brianna hogs it,” Laurie explains.

I laugh ’cause I know this is a true thing. Laurie’s big sister is a bathroom-hogging girl.

Laurie makes a smiley face at me ’cause she knows I know about Brianna.

“Laurie,” Sasha says, acting like I’m not here. “I hope we get to be on the same team in Kindergarten Olympics.”

“In what?” I ask. “I never heard about Kindergarten Olympics.”

Sasha keeps herself backwards to me, like Laurie is the only kid on this playground and Laurie is the one who asked about the Olympics and not me. “Oops. I’m not supposed to tell,” Sasha says.

“Tell what?” Laurie demands.

“I
know all about the Kindergarten Olympics because my mother is a volunteer parent. She’s in charge of everything. I’m not supposed to tell anybody about it. But I guess I can tell you. Only you have to promise not to tell anybody else.”

Laurie shrugs up her shoulders. She doesn’t promise anything. That’s what.

I shrug up my shoulders too. Only Sasha’s back of the head doesn’t see me do this.

Sasha goes on anyway. “Okay. We’ll have races and jumps and contests and trophies even.”

“Cool!” I shout. I saw some Olympics on TV. And Daddy and I cheered for the team that goes by the name of USA. They ran in circles. And other USA girls walked on boards and did tricks and jumped.

If I’m not a movie-star girl when I grow up, I might be an Olympic USA girl. I have very fast shoes. Sometimes. Sort of.

Sasha keeps talking to Laurie. “We should be on the same team, Laurie. We’re both super fast.”

Laurie leans around Sasha and gives me a great smile. “Nat, wouldn’t it be cool to be on the same team? I can ask Sarah all about it.”

Sarah is Laurie’s old sister, who knows everything and doesn’t hog bathrooms. Next year she can drive. Plus, she is mostly nice and wears lipstick.

“Hi, Farah!” Laurie calls, looking past me.

That’s how I notice that Farah is standing behind me in the waiting-for-a-swing line. “Hi, Farah,” I say too.

“Hello,” Farah says back. She is a nice girl. Plus, she has aunts and uncles who live in other countries.

“Time to change swings,” Laurie says. She hops off of hers and hands it to me.

Sasha hops off her swing. But she doesn’t hand it over to Farah, so Farah has to grab the swing herself. It takes her two grabs.

By the time Farah sits on her swing, I’m already swinging. Her hair is so long she has to sweep it in front of her so she won’t sit on it. I would love to wear Farah’s hair. My hair is too short to sit on.

Farah and I try to get our swings to go up together and back together. Only this is harder than you think it’s going to be.

Across the playground I hear a sound I usually love to hear. It’s the sound of my bestest friend,
Laurie, laughing. Laurie’s laughing sounds like jingly bells, ice cream, and the color purple all stirred up together. Plus angels.

Most of the time, I would stand on my head, or put a grasshopper on my nose, or tell one of my dad’s silly jokes just to hear that laughing.

Only this is different.

Laurie is laughing at something without me.

And mixed in with Laurie’s laugh is Sasha’s laugh.

So maybe that’s why that sound makes me stop swinging. And for the very first time since I started coming to this kindergarten place, I just wish recess would get over itself.

Chapter 2
Birds of a Feather

Our kindergarten teacher, who goes by the name of Miss Hines, is waiting for us when we come in from recess. She has spread out our reading blankets in the front, the back, and the side of our classroom.

We sit at our desks and wait for each other.

Then Miss Hines stands in front of her giant desk and shouts, “Time for reading groups!”

“Duh,” Peter says.

Some kids laugh. Like Sasha. She stands up and starts toward the blanket where her group reads.

“Not yet, birds!” Miss Hines calls out.

Sasha, Peter, and Bethany have to sit down again.

“Since it’s spring,” Miss Hines begins, “the birds have been migrating, haven’t they? I know I’ve seen large flocks of birds flying north.”

This is a true thing about seeing flocks of birds. My granny and I saw a gazillion birds fly right over Frank, our big tree that lives in the backyard. And some of them took a time-out on Frank’s branches.

“So,” Miss Hines goes on, “let’s all take our spots in our winter homes. Go ahead and sit in your regular reading groups. Red Birds! Blue Birds! Robins! You know where to go.”

Laurie and I go to the blanket in the back of our classroom. We are Robins. I wanted to be a Purple Bird, but our teacher said we don’t have any.

“Our books aren’t here, Miss Hines!” Sasha yells from the side of our classroom. She’s in the Blue Bird group, with Peter.

“Be patient, my little birdies,” Miss Hines says.

When we’re all sitting in our bird-group circles, Miss Hines says, “It’s time for birds to migrate to their summer homes.”

“I knew it,” Laurie whispers to herself.

“Knew what?” I whisper.

I don’t think she hears me ’cause she just keeps staring at Miss Hines.

“The birds you’ve watched flying north aren’t the only birds on the move!” Miss Hines has on her cheerleader voice. “You reading birds are on the move too! All new groups, all new birds. Won’t that be fun?”

I think it sounds fun. ’Sides, I’m tired of being a Robin. “I hope we’re owls,” I whisper to Laurie.

“They never do owls,” Laurie says. She knows things on account of Sarah and Brianna already did kindergarten. Laurie is still staring at our teacher. Plus also, Laurie is sucking in her lips, which is how my bestest friend does thinking. And sometimes worrying.

Maybe Laurie is doing worrying ’cause she likes robins and wants to stay being one.

“What do you hope we are?” I ask Laurie.

Laurie doesn’t answer. Maybe she didn’t hear me on account of she was looking so hard at our teacher.

“So,” Miss Hines says in her cheerleading voice, “good-bye Blue Birds, Red Birds, and Robins! Hello, Goldfinches!” She points to the old Red Bird group in the front of the room. “Bethany, Jason, and Farah, you birds come stand by me for a minute, okay?”

“Oh, no,” Laurie whispers.

“What?” I watch Bethany, Jason, and Farah move to our teacher. Jason hops on one foot and flaps his elbows like a hurt bird.

“I knew it,” Laurie says.

Now I’m doing worrying too. “Knew
what
?” I ask her. “What’s Miss Hines doing with them?” I whisper. Jason is my bestest friend who is a boy, and Farah is maybe my second best friend who is a girl. Plus, Bethany is in my Sunday school class.

“She’s mixing up our groups.” Laurie sounds chokey.

“You mean she might take us apart?” I ask. “And put us back together again with you and me in different groups?”

Laurie nods. I think I see tears leaking out of one eye.

It would be a very bad thing to be stuck in a group without Laurie, on account of I love being in reading group with her. But I don’t think it would

be a crying thing. ’Sides, we hardly even got to talk without getting yelled at when we were Robins.

I start to tell Laurie this, but she puts up her hand, like our moms do to shush us.

Miss Hines gives our group a big smiley face. “Instead of the Robins, on this reading blanket will be the home of the Mockingbirds.”

She turns her smiley face to the side of our classroom. “Over there, instead of Blue Birds, we’ll have Woodpeckers. So, we have Goldfinches, Mockingbirds, and Woodpeckers.”

“I never saw a mockingbird. What do they look like?” I ask Laurie.

She doesn’t seem to hear me again.

Miss Hines smiles over at our group. “Anna and Matthew, would you please trade places with Griff and Lisa?”

They trade places and bird groups.

“Okay. Now, Bethany, Jason, and Farah, go to the Mockingbirds. And Eric, Laurie, and Chase, come to the Goldfinch group.”

Laurie gasps. “I knew it,” she whispers.

And this time I see tears leaking out of her eyes.