Natalie and the Bestest Friend Race (4 page)

I can’t wait for recess to talk to Laurie. Only I have to. On account of there’s no whispering in kindergarten. Sometimes.

“All right, birds,” Miss Hines says. She is setting out our reading blankets for our three groups that are all smart. “Goldfinches, Woodpeckers, and Mockingbirds, fly to your summer homes.”

We do.

I keep sneaking peeks at the Goldfinches. Laurie still looks sad.

My Mockingbird home is so close to the Woodpeckers that I can hear Peter bragging about who he’s going to pick for his Olympic team.

“Hey!” Peter says with his mean laugh. “I should just pick our whole group to be on my team. Winners only in the smart group!”

Jason, my bestest friend who is a boy and also a Mockingbird, flaps his wings and scoots closer to the Woodpeckers. He whisper-shouts at Peter, “What do you mean, ‘the smart group’?”

“This
group!” Peter says, like Jason is a birdbrain for not knowing this. “
My
group. The Woodpeckers.”

Jason flaps his wings harder. “Woodpeckers poke holes in trees. They’re not smart.
Mockingbirds
are smart.”

“Oh yeah?” Peter says. “What page are you on in the reading workbook?”

“I don’t know,” Jason says.

“We are on page ten,” Farah tells him. She must hear Peter too, on account of he is a loud boy.

I look around to see why Miss Hines isn’t yelling at Peter and Jason. Then I see our teacher in the way front of the room with the Goldfinches. Sometimes we get helpers to help all of the birds read at the same time. Only not today. Miss Hines has to take turns at birdhouses today.

“We’re
on page sixteen,” Peter says.

“Yeah,” Sasha says. She’s a Woodpecker too, like Peter.

“And the dumb group probably hasn’t even found page one yet,” Peter says. Then he laughs his head off.

“Quiet down, Woodpeckers,” Miss Hines calls. “I’ll be over there in just a minute.”

Only I can’t wait just a minute. My heart is thumpy, on account of what that loud Peter said. I scoot closer to the Woodpeckers. “Peter!” I whispershout. “There’s no such thing as a dumb group!”

Peter changes to a whispering boy. “Oh yeah? There is too. Ask your buddy Laurie. She ought to know. She’s in that dumb group.”

“She is not, Peter!”

Peter acts like he didn’t hear this. “So that means she’s dumb.”

My hands turn into fists. I want to scream at Peter. Only it’s against a big school law. “You be quiet, you…you…you Peter the Not-So-Great!” I whisper so hard at him that spit comes out.

“Well, she’s Laurie the Not-So-Smart!” Peter spits back.

“Laurie
is
smart!” I whisper-spit.

“Yeah?” Peter whispers back. “So why is she in the dumb group then?”

“Because Laurie has ’slexia! That’s what!” Those words spit out all by themselves. I didn’t mean to say them.

It’s all Peter’s fault.

“Turn to page ten,” Miss Hines says, showing up to work with us Mockingbirds.

I turn to page ten. And I try to read the words. Only I keep losing my place. On account of Peter made me so aggravated.

At lunchtime, Laurie and I get our matching purple lunch boxes out of our cubbies. We smiley face each other ’cause being lunch eaters is a gazillion times better than being birds today.

The lunchroom is filled with noises. I see Brianna, but she always pretends she doesn’t see Laurie and me.

We sit at the same table at the back, where we always sit most of the time. I give Laurie half of my peanut butter sandwich. She gives me half of her cheese sandwich.

“I don’t like picking sides for a team,” Laurie says. “I don’t want to make anybody feel bad.”

“At least this way, you and I can be on the same team for sure,” I point out.

“That’s true,” Laurie says. “Should we pick Sasha? She’s really fast.”

This is a true thing. “But she’s also really Sasha.”

“That’s true,” Laurie agrees.

We talk about more kids we could pick for our
team.

Peter shuffles by our table and stops right behind Laurie. “Oooh, better not get too close,” he warns.

“Too close to what?” Eric asks him.

“Her.”
Peter points to Laurie. “Better be careful,” he says, looking around our table at Farah, Anna, Bethany, and a girl from the other class.

The other-class girl looks scared. “How come?”

“’Cause it may be catching,” Peter says.

My stomach is twitchy. Cheese is stuck in my neck.

Anna puts down her hot dog and frowns up at Peter. “What’s catching?”

“You’ll have to ask Laurie,” Peter says.

Peanut butter is pushing on the cheese in my neck. They want out.

“Me? What are you talking about, Peter?” Laurie says. “Why don’t you go bother somebody else?”

“Nobody else has what you have,” Peter says.

I want to slap my hands over Peter’s mouth. I want to shove him away from our table. I want to drag Laurie out of the lunchroom.

Only I can’t move.

“You don’t make any sense, Peter,” Laurie says. She lifts her cheese sandwich for another bite. “So what do I have that nobody else has?”

The lunchroom stops. The noises stop. The air dries up.

And Peter says, “Dyslexia.”

Laurie drops her cheese sandwich and runs for the bathroom.

I run after her.

She is standing at the faraway sink, crying.

Seeing her makes my stomach burn. I think my heart burns too. I walk over and stand beside my friend. Only I don’t know what to say.

“I can’t believe Peter said that!” Laurie cries.

“Me either!” I am so mad at Peter. He made Laurie cry.

“Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s not nice!” I have never been this much mad at
anybody
!

Laurie’s face is red and wet. Her curls are not bouncy. “But how did Peter know?”

“Huh?”

“Peter,” Laurie says. “How did he know I have dyslexia?”

I am staring into my best friend’s red eyes. I open my mouth, only words won’t come out.

“Miss Hines knew,” Laurie says.

“Our teacher would never tell Peter.” I know this
is a true thing. And I wish I hadn’t told Peter either. I didn’t mean to. “Maybe it was an accident,” I say. And this feels true.

“I know!” Laurie says. “Brianna. I’ll bet Brianna told one of her friends. And word got back to Peter. How could Bri do that to me?”

“You don’t—,” I begin.

“Girls?” Somebody else’s teacher sticks her head in. “Time to go back to your class. Come on now.”

I pull down a paper towel and hand it to Laurie.

She takes it and wipes her face. “Thanks, Nat. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Laurie and I walk back to class together. We get all the way to our cubbies, when Laurie shouts, “We left our lunch boxes, Nat!”

Only when we look in our cubbies, our lunch boxes are already there.

“I’ll bet Farah picked them up for us. Or Anna,” I guess.

Peter comes up behind us. We act like we don’t see him. He starts singing, “Here comes Queen Dyslexia! Here comes Queen Dyslexia!”

“You be quiet, Peter!” I shout.

“Queen what?” Jason asks, sticking something into his crammed-full cubby.

“Dyslexia,” Peter says. “I have a cousin who has that. He’s not very—”

“Peter!” Miss Hines storms out of nowhere. Her shoes
thunk-thunk
up to us. She leans down, face-to-face with Peter. “Apologize to Laurie right now!”

I have never seen our teacher so mad. I am mad right along with her.

Peter folds his arms in front of him, turns his eyes to lines, and doesn’t say anything.

“You heard me, Peter,” Miss Hines says. She is not shouting now. But I think she’s even madder than before. “Tell Laurie you’re sorry.”

“Why should I?” Peter asks.

“Because you hurt Laurie’s feelings,” she answers.

“Yeah!” I say. I totally agree with our teacher. Peter hurt Laurie’s feelings so much that tears came out.

“It’s true,” Peter says this with pouty lips. “She
does
have dyslexia.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Miss Hines explains. “That’s Laurie’s information. Not yours. You have no right to make fun or tease or whatever you think
you’re doing by talking about something Laurie doesn’t want to talk about. Apologize, Peter.”

I think this is a great idea. Peter hurt my friend, and he better say sorry.

“That’s not fair,” Peter says. “How come
I
have to apologize? Make
Natalie
apologize!”

Me? I
didn’t hurt Laurie. Peter did.

“Natalie?” Miss Hines asks.

Laurie and Miss Hines turn and stare at me.

My stomach goes twitchy.

Miss Hines turns back to Peter. “Why should Natalie apologize?”

My heart is thumpy.

Peter puts his hands on his hips. “Because Natalie’s the one who told me.”

“You
told Peter I have dyslexia?” Laurie says. Tears are dripping out of her eyes.

“No! Well, maybe. Kind of. But I didn’t—”

“You?”
Laurie won’t let me get my words in. About how I didn’t mean to tell Peter. And how
I
never made fun of her like Peter did. “I can’t believe you’d do that to me, Nat.”

“I – I—” Words are sticking to my neck.

I want to tell Laurie how it happened. I want to make her understand it was Peter’s fault. I only just said that ’slexia word to make him stop calling her “dumb.” I was sticking up for her.

But before my words get unstuck, Laurie runs to her desk.

I start to go after her. But Miss Hines sticks her arm out and stops me. “Wait, Natalie.” She squats down between me and Peter. “Peter, you and I will have a little talk about this after school.”

“That’s not fair!” he whines.

“Take your seat, Peter.”

Peter stomps back to his desk.

Miss Hines and I are still by the cubbies. Kids
are talking and laughing at each other. Plus, some kids are turning their heads to see what our teacher is doing with me back here.

Only Laurie has her head down on her desk. And some of the kids are staring at her.

“I didn’t mean to tell Peter,” I tell Miss Hines. “It just came out when I wasn’t looking.”

Miss Hines pushes her wire glasses up to her eyes. “Laurie’s very upset, Natalie. She didn’t want anyone to know about her business. And she had that right.”

“I know.”

“So why did you tell Peter?”

“’Cause he said Laurie was in the dumb group. And she’s not dumb. And I wanted to make Peter take it back. And that word just popped out of me, even though I didn’t want it to. And I only—”

Miss Hines stands up fast and points at Chase and Jason, on account of they are chasing each other around her desk. “Boys, sit down right now! Do you two want to miss recess again?”

Jason and Chase run fast to their desks.

“Everyone, get out your math workbooks, please.” Miss Hines crosses the room to her big desk.

I figure I’m one of the
everyone
who needs to get out a math workbook. So I go to my desk. Only what
I really want is to go to Laurie’s desk. On account of I want to tell her what really happened and how those words just came out of me ’cause I was so aggravated at Peter. I was sticking up for my bestest friend. That’s what.

Miss Hines makes us copy numbers off her whiteboard. Laurie looks up to copy the numbers. I wave to her, but she doesn’t see.

Sasha’s desk is next to Laurie’s. Sasha makes a frowny face back at me. Then she whispers something to Laurie.

The whole entire time we do math stuff, Laurie still won’t look at me.

We put away our math papers. Then Miss Hines comes around and sits on the front of her desk. “Principal Fritz has set Friday as the date for our Kindergarten Olympics,” she says. “That means we better get our teams together. We won’t have much time to practice. So, could we have our team captains come to the front, please?”

Peter is already out of his seat. “Me first!” he shouts. “First picks!”

Miss Hines makes Peter stand on one side of her. “Laurie? Would you please come up to my desk so we can pick sides for our Olympic teams?”

Laurie shuffles to the other side of our teacher.
She stares at her shoes that are just like my shoes, kind of. As soon as Laurie picks me, I’ll get to walk up and stand by her. And maybe I can whisper the stuff about Peter and about me sticking up for her. That should make her feel better. And me too.

“Since I pulled Peter’s name from the hat first,” Miss Hines explains, “he’ll get to pick the first—”

“Yes!” Peter cries. “Me first!”

“Enough, Peter,” Miss Hines says. “Unless you’d like Laurie to go first instead?”

I
would like Laurie to go first instead, so I can be on her team for certain sure. That Peter is so not nice that he might pick me just to make Laurie and me sad.

Peter pretends to zip up his mouth. But when Miss Hines turns away, he sticks his we’re-numberone finger in the air.

“All right, Peter. Go ahead,” says our teacher.

My heart is thumpy. I grab on to the side of my desk to help.

“Carlo!” Peter yells.

Yes!

Carlo zips to the front to stand beside Peter. Carlo is a very fast running boy.

I let go of my desk and get ready to run my fastest to stand by Laurie.

Laurie looks up from her shoes. She is not smiley faced or frowny faced. Slowly, she turns her head, like she is looking at every kid in our classroom. When her eyes get to me, I smile. Only she doesn’t. Her eyes keep going past me. And going. Until they stop on Sasha.

Then loud and clear, Laurie says, “Sasha.”