Kelli

Kelli slammed the front door, stomped in to the living room, and threw her pink "Dora the Explorer" backpack on the floor.

"I hate school and I'm never going back!" she declared.

She plopped down on the sofa, crossed her arms, and sat there with her lower lip protruding and her blue eyes blazing.

"Kelli, it's only the first day," Mom sighed. "I'm sure you don't hate it."

"Yes I do," Kelli replied, nodding her head so hard that her blonde curls bounced. "The teacher is mean and she doesn't like me."

"Your teacher seemed very nice when I met her," Mom said. "Why do you think she doesn't like you?"

"She kept telling me to be quiet, " Kelli said. "I don't talk that much."

Mom turned away and coughed to hide her laugh.

"She read us a dumb old book I've heard a million times," Kelli went on. "She told me I had to listen anyway. And when we went out for recess, we each had to have a buddy and hold their hand. I wanted to hold Amanda's hand, but the teacher made me hold hands with a boy!"

She said the word "boy" as if she were saying "cockroach". At that moment, Kelli's two-year-old brother, Timmy, crawled up on the couch next to her and gave her a big, wet kiss.

"Eeew, he's yucky! Make him stop!" his sister protested.

"Kelli, if you really don't want to go to school tomorrow, you can stay home and help me take care of Timmy," Mom said.

Kelli considered that offer for so long that Mom began to worry. Finally, the potential kindergarten dropout sighed and said, "Okay, I'll go to school."