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The day that Cassie Novak walked into her kindergarten class, she had her favorite blue dress on. Perfect for the first day of school, her mommy said, it made her eyes look really pretty. She had her brand new pink backpack that had the really cute bumble bees on it. But best of all, her mommy up her long dark brown curls into pigtails and they bounced when Cassie walked over to her cubby. She loved it when her mommy put her hair in pigtails.
Cassie tucked her bumble bee backpack into her cubby. She could tell it was hers because her mom taught her how to read her letters over the summer. Mommy said it was a good idea to know what the letters were so Cassie would know how to write her name. So she put away her backpack, making sure it wouldn’t fall out. If it fell out then her peanut and jelly sandwich would get squished, and it was not very good when it was squished.
After that, she bounced over to where her teacher was standing. Mom said her teacher was called Mrs Singer, but that she didn’t sing. That was just her name. Cassie thought Mrs Singer would be old, but she’s not that old. She doesn’t look like Cassie’s older sister Gabriella’s teacher. She can’t remember what her name was but Gabriella called her a bad word a lot. But Mrs Singer doesn’t look like that teacher so maybe she’s nice.
Wiping her hands on her skirt, she waited and sat down on the carpet with the other kids in her class. There was a boy in front of her. She couldn’t see his face but she could tell that he had freckles because he was wearing a shirt with short sleeves and she could see some freckles on his arms. Cassie never saw boys wear pink shirts though. Mom said that boys don’t wear pink that often. Maybe this boy just liked the color pink. That’s good because Cassie likes pink too.
“I like your pink shirt!” Cassie said to the boy, tapping him on the shoulder.
The boy turned around and looked back at Cassie. But that’s when Cassie knew that she made an oops. The boy was actually a girl! A girl with short hair! Kind of like her auntie Zaria. Though auntie Zaria was old and didn’t have freckles. This girl had a lot of freckles and Cassie thought they looked like stars!
“Thank you!” The girl responded with a toothy, friendly smile. She looked down at it. “My daddy got it for me!”
“What’s your name!” Cassie asked. Mom said it was always polite to ask names.
“Deana!” The little girl exclaimed, and Cassie noticed for the first time that Deana had green eyes. Cassie never saw anyone with green eyes!
“I like your eyes!” She said, pointed at Deana’s face. “And your spots!” Cassie softly patted her own cheeks.
“My momma calls ‘em angel kisses.” Deana said with a shy smile and red cheeks. “I like your eyes too.”
Now it was Cassie’s turn for her cheeks to turn red. “My name is Cassie! My real name is Cassandra but all my family calls me Cassie!”
“Okay, Cassie!” Deana said with a big grin.
“Why do you have short hair?” Cassie asked.
Deana touched her head. “I want to be like my daddy because he’s awesome.”
“My mommy did my hair today.” Cassie says, pulling on her pigtails to show Deana. “I tried to do ‘em once but they did not come out so good. They fell out.”
“I really like ‘em.” Dean said, pawing at the one Cassie was holding. Cassie smiled as Deana grinned when she petted Cassie’s hair. “They’re really soft!”
“My mommy put some nice stuff it ‘em!” The got another big grin out of Deana and Cassie thought that she really liked Deana and hoped Deana wanted to be friends with her.
Cassie looked at Deanna’s shirt and saw that there were letters on them. Oh! Maybe she could see what they spelled! She practiced all summer! With her finger she pointed at the letters and began to say them out loud.
“A…” She knew the first one. That was really easy. “Um… C!” That one came after B, she knew. There was a line in the middle like on Harry Potter and even though it looked like a Z she knew it wasn’t. “Um… um… D!” She always forgot D a lot. “C!” That one had been before! “AC/DC!”
She looked up to see Deana staring at her with very big eyes. “You know the letters?!” Deana said in a quiet voice.
“My mommy and daddy gave me a book with all the letters in them!” Cassie said, nodding.
“Wow, Cassie, you’re really smart!” Deana said, her really pretty green eyes still really big.
Cassie was gonna say something else but then Mrs Singer started talking and Cassie knew that when the teacher was talking she had to be quiet. So she listened to Mrs Singer talk about what they were gonna do for today. They went through the weather and talked about colors. Mrs Singer even gave them a picture to color! It was a flower and it had a bee on it! After everyone was done coloring, Mrs Singer said it was time for lunch. And after lunch, they got to go outside for recess!
Cassie never got to play on a jungle house before! Daddy never had time to go to the park when he was home and mommy was always working. It was really fun to climb on it and go down the slides with Deana.
They were having a lot of fun and then Cassie heard the bell from the school ring. That meant that they had to line up to go back inside.
When they got in line, Cassie stood behind Deana. In front of Deana there was a girl with yellow hair like Cassie’s sister Rachel’s. Cassie knew her name was Alice and she didn’t like her. Alice seemed like a really mean girl. She had been throwing her crayons and no coloring nicely during color time. Mrs Singer had to take her picture away and Alice threw a fit. Cassie did not like her.
Alice walked really super slow when it was their turn to go back inside. Cassie wanted to run ahead and go in front but that was against the rules. Single file lines. Cassie pouted and dragged her feet all the way there.
Mrs Singer started writing on the chalkboard when they got back to the classroom. They all got to go to their cubbies to put their lunch boxes away. Just as Cassie zipped her backpack back up she heard Alice being mean to someone.
“Girls can’t have short hair! That’s for boys!” Alice said rudely, her finger pointing at Deana. Cassie frowned. Deana’s hair was cool.
“It is not!” Deana yelled, stamping her foot, her hands in fists.
“Yes it is! Girls have long hair, boys have short hair!” Alice says, crossing her arms like she’s a know-it-all.
Cassie threw her backpack down and stomped over to Mean Alice. “Leave Deana alone! Her hair is cool!”
Alice stuck her tongue out. “No, its for boys and that means it’s lame.”
“You’re lame!” Deana spat out.
“I think Deana’s hair is cool!” Cassie planted her foot. Alice was being mean for no reason. Cassie thinks that Gabriella would call her a bad word. Cassie wants to call her a bad word.
“Then I dare you to cut your hair!” Alice demanded, sticking her tongue out again.
Cassie storms over to her cubby again and takes out her new scissors that her mom got on sale. She walked back over to Deana and Alice. She put one pigtail in the scissors and chopped down. She felt it come off and then did the same to the other one. No questions and no hesitation. And then she threw the ends of her hair in Alice’s face.
“See! Short hair is cool!”
“Now you’re lame too!” Alice said.
And even though Cassie knew that she was going to get in trouble, she slapped Alice really hard. No one is mean to her or her friends. Cassie thought that if Mrs Singer had not grabbed her arms and brought her to the Principal’s Office, she might have kicked Alice too.
It was funny. Mrs Singer actually said that it was. But she also said that even if Alice is mean, hitting is not a good thing.
Her mommy was more mad about cutting her hair and took her to the hair cut place to fix it.
Even though she could not have dessert for a week, Cassie thought that Deana’s smile the next day when she saw Cassie’s new hair cut was worth it. Because after that, they became really best friends.