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Louisa gripped Daddyâs hand, her eyes wide. The hallway was grey and hard--echo-y and she was so small that she was sure that she couldnât open the door again without Daddyâs help. Once he left, she was stuck. Her lip trembled and she bit hard on her thumb to stop it. She was scared. Her uniform black pants and white polo were itchy new and her lunch box was too heavy and her backpack made her feel like a turtle. Last year, she had been so jealous when Will and Ian left for their first day of third grade. Today, they had raced ahead to find their fourth grade classroom, while Daddy showed her where to go. She felt more like a baby than a big girl, which was strange, because she was never scared. But today, if Daddy let go, she would run screaming away from kindergarten and the first day of school. Of course, her brothers had stayed up late last night warning her about the witches who taught the classes, how they sucked the souls out of all the children and slapped hands with a ruler if a child was naughty. Louisa hadnât really believed it last night, but now . . . âHere we are.â Daddy sounded pleased. Louisa gripped his hand tighter. âSee? Look at all the pencils on the wall. I think I see one with your name on it.â Louisa looked. He was right. There were pictures of pencils with big black letters taped at just eye height over the grey walls. She lookedâthere was the L -O-U-I-S-A for Louisa. She pointed at the right one and smiled up at Daddy. He nodded. She smiled. She and Mommy had practiced her alphabet and her numbers so that she would be ready. Will and Ian were always so much quicker than she was, but Mommy was always so proud when she remembered a new letter. But now, at the door, Louisa could see a lady with a big white nametag and a smile. She didnât look like a witch, but Louisa gripped Daddyâs hand just to make sure. âHello, Iâm Miss Litten. And you must be Louisa.â Louisa nodded. She didnât seem evil. âInside, thereâs a cubby for you to put your backpack and a table with your name on it. Can you find them?â Louisa nodded again. âIâll just talk to your daddy for a minute, and you go find your name.â Louisa looked up. Daddy was smiling. âHave fun, sweetie.â Her hand felt cold as she took the last few steps into the classroom. But inside, everything was light and color and noise. There was music playing and the sound of other children chattering. There were posters on the walls and a corner filled with books. Under the windows, there was a shelf of toys that one little boy was standing in front of and a row of cubbyholes with name labels. She walked over and found her name and put in her pack. Near the ceiling there was a long poster with the entire alphabet on it, even J, which she always had trouble remembering. In front of the teacherâs desk, there were tables and chairs. Louisa looked around for her name. There it was. There were four names, but only one boy was sitting there, coloring with a basket of crayons in the middle of the table. He looked scared-er than she was. She pulled out her chair, which was right next to his, and sat down. âHi, Iâm Louisa. Whatâs your name?â âJames.â He looked up and almost smiled, and then picked a different crayon. Louisa stared down at her paper and frowned. Linesâshe hated lines. They interrupted. But that was ok. She could work around them. Colors were the important part. She grabbed two crayons at random and started at the kitty-catâs ear, layering the colors over each other to see what would happen. As she got tired of one, she picked another. Green to blue to gold to red to orange to purple to green. At one point she heard Daddy call to her and she waved goodbye. But she was more distracted by the fact that James had the prettiest blue green that he was using on the collar. âMay I?â He nodded and handed her the crayon. âI wish I could do what youâre doing.â She looked at his page. His kitty-cat was brown and white, and colored inside the lines. âYours is more real. Do you have a cat at home?â âYes. His name is Lucky.â He smiled at her and she smiled back. It wasnât too long after, that Miss Litten stood in the front of the classroom and started talking. Not everyone paid attentionâin fact, some of the people in the front table were talking, too, but Louisa poked James in the arm and they both listened to the teacher. âWelcome to kindergarten. Weâre going to have a lot of fun this year. But first, everyone put their names on their pictures, and weâre going to display them on our picture wall.â She pointed to a space next to the door that Louisa hadnât noticed before. The children who had been wandering through the classroom went back to their desks. Miss Litten circled the room, helping write names. The boy at the toy shelf hadnât even found his table. Miss Litten walked over and talked with him for a moment, and he nodded. He came and sat on the other side of James. âEric, do you want me to help you write your name on your picture?â Miss Litten leaned over, but Eric just shook his head and grabbed a crayon. She patted his shoulder and moved on. âI like your picture, James. Youâre very good at staying in the lines.â At that, Louisa stared at her picture. She could barely see the lines under the layers and layers of color. Had she gotten it wrong on the very first day? Then Miss Litten came behind her and gasped. âLouisa, thatâs beautiful. I like it. We do a lot of things with art in kindergartenâyou know so much about mixing colors already, that I know youâll be one of my good helpers.â Louisa beamed. Just then there was a knock at the door. One of the office ladies came in with a little girl in tow. Miss Litten talked to them for a minute, and then brought her over to sit next to Louisa. âThis is Desiree.â The girl was biting her lip as though she were trying not to cry. Louisa smiled at her, and handed her a crayon. âHi, Desiree. Iâm Louisa, and this is James and Eric.â The boys looked up at their names. Desireeâs lip trembled. âMommy left me at the door because she had to go to work, and I got lost.â Louisa stood and gave her a hug. âItâs all right. Now you know where the classroom is, so you wonât get lost again tomorrow.â Desiree nodded, her braids bobbing. Louisa looked around. âWhatâs your favorite color?â âPink.â âLike your barrettes?â Louisa reached over and grabbed the pink crayon and gave it to her new friend. After a couple of minutes, Louisa looked over. Desiree was coloring everything pink, the kitten and the collar and the sun and the grass. The four colored in friendly silence until Miss Litten collected the pictures and called the class over to a corner of the room that had a chair for her and mats for the children to sit on. Louisa let Desiree hold her hand, even though she held on too tight. âThis morning I gave everyone a coloring sheet. Did you know, everyone had exactly the same cat to begin with?â She held up a cat that hadnât been colored. The children all nodded. âWell, then you got here, and you used your imaginations.â She held up each picture, tacking them to the picture wall and calling out the names of each child. âDo you know what? Every single picture is different.â The children gasped. She was right. Some were careful and stayed in the lines, some were scribbled, and Ericâs was blank except for his name written in block letters across the bottom. But no one had used the same colors or scribbled the same way. âArenât you glad weâre different? Could you imagine how boring it would be if everyone drew the same way?â Everyone laughed. âEven though weâre all wearing the same school uniform, we all have different hair and eyes and skin tone.â Louisa looked around her. Miss Litten was right. No one else had red curly hair like Louisa, or bunches of black braids in pink barrettes like Desiree. James was blonde and Eric was dark and looked as though he was an Indian like in Cowboys and Indians. âWeâre all different. But weâre here to learn and grow together. Weâre going to have a lot of fun this yearâreading books and learning our letters and numbers. Weâll exercise and do art and music. Weâll even get to play with toys.â Everyone cheered. âWhoâs ready to start learning?â Everyone raised their hands and shouted âMe!â Miss Litten had a big smile. âLetâs start by having story time. When itâs story time, we come here to the reading corner, and sit on your mats, and I will read to you.â She pulled out a storybook that Louisa had never seen before. Louisa looked around. On her right, Desiree still was clutching her hand, but had loosened her grip as she got into the story. On her left, Jamesâ eyes were wide as he listened to the story. Will and Ian were wrong about so many things. Kindergarten was wonderfulâshe already had made friends and Miss Litten thought that her picture was beautiful. She was not a soul sucking witch. She was the most wonderful teacher ever. With a sigh of contentment, Louisa settled in to listen to the story. word count: 1673 |