Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade (2 page)

“Last year you didn't drop me off,” Posey said. “You walked me to my class.”

“Last year you were no bigger than a minute.” Her mom smiled. “You're a big girl now.”

“I don't want to be a big girl.”

Posey got off her chair and squatted down. She wrapped her arms around her knees. “See? I'm as small as I was last year.”

Danny peered at her over the edge of his high chair and laughed.

“
S
it up and finish your lunch,” her mom said patiently.

Posey got back on her chair.

“Why aren't you leaving Danny?” she asked.

“I told you,” her mom said. “My new job has day care.”

“You
should
leave him.” Posey wrinkled her nose. “He smells.”

“I think he smells sweet.” Her mom buried her nose in Danny's neck. He grabbed her hair.

Posey felt the ends of her mouth turn down. “You love Danny more than me,” she said.

“Oh, Posey.”

Her mom came around the table. She put her arm around Posey's stiff shoulders. “It's going to be fine, sweetie. You'll see. We'll buy you something new to wear.”

“Why can't I wear this?”

Posey pointed to her pink tutu. It had a hole above her belly button. The skirt had a tear on one side.

Posey loved to wear it more than anything. She wore it every day, all summer long.

It made her feel special.

Posey never told anyone, but when she wore her pink tutu, she was Princess Posey, the Pink Princess.

Princess Posey could go anywhere. Do anything.

Even walk into first grade by herself.

“You can wear it when you get home from school,” said her mom.

Posey didn't want to wear it
after
school. She wanted to wear it
to
school.

Her mom untied Danny's bib. “You wait with Danny while I get some towels,” she said. “We'll go for a swim.”

“It's all your fault,” Posey said to Danny with a big frown. “I was the baby till you got here.”

Danny smiled and grabbed his toes.

“Mom thinks you're great because you're a baby,” Posey said. “But you wait.”

She leaned forward until their noses were almost touching. “One day she will leave you the way she's leaving me.”

Danny blew a bubble and laughed.

A
fter Posey went swimming, she ran to the playground. Tyler and Nick were on the slide.

They lived next door to Posey. They were brothers.

“Hey, Posey!” they called.

Posey went over to them.

“Tyler and me want to make sure you're ready for first grade,” Nick said.

“I'm getting new shoes,” said Posey.

“You know you have to walk into the school by yourself, right?” said Tyler.

“I can do that,” Posey said bravely.

“What about the hall?” asked Nick.

“What hall?” said Posey.

“The hall is long and dark,” Tyler said in a spooky voice. He banged his foot on the slide.

“You're all by yourself.”

Another boom.

 

 

 

 

Posey looked up at him from the bottom of the slide and shivered.

“If the monster grabs you, there's no one around to help,” said Nick.

“Monster?” said Posey. She looked from one boy to the other. “There's no monster at Middle Pond School.”

“Oh, yes, there is,” said Tyler. “Isn't there, Nick?”

He jabbed his younger brother in the side.

Nick nodded. “The Monster of the Blue Hall,” he said.

The blue hall was for the first grade. Tyler was in the fourth grade. He was on the green hall.

Nick was on the red hall with the other second-graders.

“Most first-graders don't make it to their classrooms,” Tyler said.

“The monster gets them first,” said

Nick. “It sucks out their blood. The rest get eaten by snakes.”

“Snakes?” said Posey.

Nick and Tyler loved to tease her. They teased her all the time.

Posey knew they were teasing her now.

Still, she tightened her grip on her stuffed giraffe.