Natalie and the Bestest Friend Race

by Dandi Daley Mackall

  “Hi, Laurie!” I call to my bestest friend.

  Laurie looks up from her reading book. “Hey, Nat. Sorry I couldn’t come over.”

  “Are you still doing homework?” I ask.

  “I’m trying,” she says.

  “You should tell Miss Hines it’s not fair. We didn’t have to do homework in the Mockingbirds. She’s not playing fair with Goldfinches. That’s what.”

  “Yeah,” Laurie says.

  “You shoulda stayed with me,” I go on. “You shouldn’t have changed groups.”

  Laurie’s eyes turn to little lines. “Did I ask to change groups?” Her voice gets loud. “Did you see me ask to change groups, Nat?”

  I shake my head. Laurie is a little bit scary.

  “Did you see me ask if I could go and be a Goldfinch?” she demands. Before I can answer, she shouts, “No! I didn’t! Nobody asked me if I wanted to be in a different reading group!”

  I am so surprised, that I can’t talk. Laurie never yelled at me before. I don’t know what I did. But it must have been really bad to make her this mad. “I didn’t mean it, Laurie.” I just wish I knew what I didn’t mean. So I wouldn’t do it again.

  Tears are leaking out of Laurie’s eyes. She shoves her reading book away. “You didn’t do anything. I’m sorry, Nat.”

  “Are you mad at me?” Tears are trying to leak out of me too. “’Cause maybe Miss Hines will let me be a Goldfinch. I could ask her.”

  Laurie’s mouth tries to smile at me, but her eyes are still leaking. “Never mind, Nat.” She stares down at a reading book page my Mockingbird group did today.

  “Is that your homework?” I ask. “We did that one and the next page already.”

  Laurie slams the book shut. “Let’s go outside and play.”

  I think this is a very good idea. “Cool!”

  Laurie’s backyard doesn’t have swings like mine. Or Frank. But there are always fun things back here. Like a big hole. And a mole that digs tunnels.

  We find a rusty silver baton in a stickery bush. “This was Bri’s,” Laurie says, knocking dirt out of it.

  We take turns trying to twirl it until Brianna comes flying out of the house.

  “That’s my baton!” she screams. “Gimme that!” She grabs it out of Laurie’s hand and twirls it. Only she’s not so much better than we were.

  Laurie’s dad drives up. Then Sarah hollers out at us, “Natalie, your mom called. She’ll be by to pick you up in a few minutes.”

  Laurie and I slow-walk in.

  “This was fun, Laurie,” I tell her. I’m already forgetting about the yelling part.

  “Yeah,” she says. Only her voice sounds frowny.

  Inside, we sit at the table to wait for my mom. Brianna is sitting across from us. Her schoolbook is open, but she’s just drawing hearts on a piece of paper.

  “Is that your homework?” I ask her. On account of if it is, maybe homework isn’t so hard in the fifth grade.

  “Mind your own business,” Brianna says.

  Laurie opens her book to that page the Mockingbirds already did. She copies a word on a sheet of paper with many copied words on it. “Brianna, what’s H-O-U-S-E?” Laurie spells those letters out loud.

  Brianna doesn’t even look. She keeps drawing her hearts all over the place.

  “House,” I answer. I know this on account of the Mockingbirds learned that word. “Only your S is turning funny. And your E is backwards.” I pick up a pencil and draw those letters facing the right way.

  “How come Goldfinches didn’t do this page today at school?” I ask.

  “Because Goldfinches are in the dumb group,” Brianna says without looking up.

  “Brianna!” Sarah snaps. She bursts to the table, bonks her sister on the head, and sits down with us. “What’s the matter with you, Bri?”

  Brianna shrugs and keeps drawing.

  “She’s right,” Laurie whispers.

  “No she’s not!” I shout. “There aren’t any dumb groups in our kindergarten. Miss Hines says we are her smartest-ever class.” This is a true thing. She has said this to us many times.

  Brianna snickers. “Did she give you the bit about the birds? How it’s time to migrate to your summer homes?”

  “Yes.” I am amazed that Brianna knows this.

  Laurie is drawing snakes on the paper with her backwards S. “I’m in the group with all the kids who can’t read. The dumb group. So I’m dumb.”

  “No, sir!” I shout. “You’re the smartest kid I know. You know more stuff than me about everything. Plus also, you are the best colorer in our whole entire class. That’s what!”

  “If I’m so smart, then why did I get moved to the dumb group today?” Laurie asks.

  “It’s not a dumb group.” Sarah scoots closer to Laurie. “I was in that group. I ought to know.”

  “You were in the du—?” I stop before that “dumb” word makes it out of my mouth.

  “Everybody learns to read at a different pace,” Sarah says. “Some of us, like Laurie and me, take our time.”

  I turn to Brianna. “Did you take your time in that group?”

  “Not me,” Brianna says.

  “Bri also missed out on the good looks in the family,” Sarah says. “Right, Laurie?”

  Laurie doesn’t answer.

  I smile at Sarah. She’s right. She and Laurie are both full of beautifulness.

  “At least I don’t write backward,” Brianna mutters.

  I glance at Laurie’s backwards letters. “Do you write backwards?” I ask Sarah.

  “I used to. Sometimes. Not now. Reading used to be hard for me too. Now I read more than anybody in this house. I love to read. Laurie will get the hang of it. It’s just harder for her than it is for you.”

  “But why is it harder?” I ask.

  Brianna blurts out the answer, “She probably has dyslexia.”

  ’Slexia? This word makes my neck chokey and my stomach twisty. “What did you say?”

  “Dys-lex-i-a!” Brianna shouts.

  I look at Laurie, hoping she’ll shout back, “I do not!”

  Instead, she mumbles, “It’s true.”

  I cannot believe this true thing. My bestest friend in the whole world has ’slexia.

  Tears make my eyes burny. “Laurie?” My voice is crackly on account of tears are leaking in my neck too. “Are…are you going to die?”

  Chapter 5

  My Mistake

  Brianna busts up laughing.

  “Stop laughing!” I shout. “I can’t believe you don’t even care about your own sister. My bestest friend.”

  “And I can’t believe you thought she’d die from dyslexia,” Brianna says. She’s still laughing hard. “You better tell your teacher to bump you down to the dumb group too, Natalie.”

  “Laurie’s not dying,” Sarah says. She puts her hand on my hand. It makes my neck not so much chokey. “Dyslexia is a learning disability. That’s all. Mom has it too. Our brains connect sounds and letters different than most people’s brains.” She grins

  at Laurie. “But we do have great brains.”

  “Maybe Jason has it.” I’m remembering something about my other bestest friend, the one who is a boy. “He turned his S backwards before Miss Hines showed him frontwards.”

  “I doubt it,” Sarah says. “Lots of kids your age get letters backward and don’t have dyslexia. But it’s different with Laurie. She doesn’t see the letters the same way.”

  This does not seem like a fair thing. And right then, right there, I whisper this to God. I hope it doesn’t hurt God’s feelings, but I tell him I don’t like that he let Laurie have ’slexia. And that Brianna calls her dumb. And I wish he hadn’t made that mistake with my friend. That’s what.

  Laurie looks even sadder than she did at school.

  “Does Miss Hines know?” I ask.

  Laurie nods. “She called up my mom first. Then we all met after school last week.”

  “You didn’t tell me.” Best friends
are supposed to tell everything to each other.

  Laurie makes her eyes little at me. “And you can’t tell anybody at school, Nat. Not even Jason.”

  “Okay.” Only I still think she should have told me.

  “I mean it, Nat,” Laurie says. “I don’t want anybody to know.”

  “Natalie?” Laurie’s mom calls. “Your grandmother is here for you.”

  “Granny?” I get up and go to the front door, and there is my granny. “I’ll be right there,” I shout.

  I run back to my friend and hug her. There are many things I want to say to her. Only I don’t know what they are.

  “Bye,” I say.

  “Bye,” she says.

  Granny and I walk outside together.

  “Where’s Mommy? Why isn’t she here to get me? Is she still at the meeting?”

  “No, she’s home.” Granny takes my hand and holds it. I can feel her finger bones. “It’s such a gorgeous day. I wanted to walk over and fetch you myself. You got a problem with that?”

  “No.” I watch my feet while we walk and make sure I don’t step on any cracks. I don’t want to break my mommy’s back. I think about Laurie’s mom and that she has ’slexia too. And that makes me sadder.

  “What’s the matter, honey?” Granny asks.

  My granny can always tell when there’s a matter. Sooner or later, I always end up telling her what that matter is.

  So I vote sooner. “Granny, Laurie has a terrible disease.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  “I just found out. My bestest friend has ’slexia.”

  Granny gets very big in her eyes. “Slexia?”

  I want to explain it to my granny. Only I can’t think of the words Sarah used. “That’s when you read backwards and your mom and sister have it too.”

  “Do you mean dyslexia?” Granny asks.

  “Yeah.”

  Granny lets out air like she was holding her breath.

  “And our teacher moved Laurie to the dumb reading group on account of it.”

  “Nat, don’t call it dumb, you hear? And if any of those other kids call it a dumb group, you set them straight! You know good and well how smart that friend of yours is.”

  “That’s what I told her. She shouldn’t be in that…that group Miss Hines moved her to.”

  “None of those kids in that group are dumb,” Granny says. “They’re all smart. And they’re all God’s creations.”

  “Then why did God give Laurie ’slexia? How come God made that mistake with my best friend?”

  Granny stops walking. She stares down at me until I look up at her. Her eyes are not little lines. She is not aggravated. But she has thinking wrinkles on her head, like she’s going to say something really important.

  “Natalie 24, God doesn’t make mistakes.”

  “But—”

  “No sir,” Granny says, not letting me say anything. “That’s where you start. God does not make mistakes. No buts there.”

  I think about this. “Okay. Then why does Laurie have it?”

  Granny starts us walking again. “Now that’s a harder question.” We walk some more. “I’ve talked this over with God a lot, Nat, why some people are so sick and others can’t walk or talk or maybe do have horrible diseases.”

  “What does God say?” I want to know this answer.

  “I don’t think we’ll get the whole answer until we’re in heaven and can ask God face-to-face. But I’ve come up with part of an answer.”

  Part is more than I’ve got. “Like what?”

  “Well, when Adam sinned, the whole earth fell with him. That’s where we get weeds. The garden of Eden didn’t have any before. But now we’ve got weeds, and we’ve got disease, and even dyslexia. So sometimes, things just happen, honey. Weeds grow. Diseases come.”

  I know about Adam and Eve being bad in that garden. So this kind of makes sense. Only not so much in my head. “I wish it didn’t happen to Laurie.”

  “Laurie will be just fine. You know, she might even end up a better person with dyslexia than she would have been without it. And you might be a better person knowing her, with her having dyslexia. You wouldn’t change your friend, would you? You like Laurie the way she is?”

  “She’s my bestest friend in the whole world! I would never change her.”

  Granny nods. “And I guarantee you this: God is right there with her, helping her through it.”

  Thinking about Jesus sitting beside Laurie, even when she makes S backwards, makes me feel better. Only not all the way. “Granny, I’m not sure I get it all the way,” I admit.

  “Well, join the club, Nat. But don’t forget. God gets it all the way. And he doesn’t make mistakes.”

  Chapter 6

  Questions and Answers

  Mommy is in the kitchen putting dinner in the microwave. I run up and hug her hard. On account of it feels like I didn’t see her for so long.

  She hugs me back. “How was school today, Nat?”

  “First, it was okay. Jason stuck his finger in Ham the Hamster’s cage and acted like he got bit. Only he didn’t. And Miss Hines told him not to cry about wolves. And Anna lost her tooth—this one right here—only hers. Plus, Sasha said she already lost all of her teeth. But then we were birds, only different birds with different homes. And Laurie isn’t a Mockingbird. She’s a Goldfinch, and that made her really sad. Only it’s not a dumb group, on account of she’s so very smart and so are all of God’s creations ’cause God doesn’t make mistakes. Granny said so. Only I didn’t ask her about cockroaches. ’Cause those guys sure don’t look like God did that on purpose.”

  I have more stuff about my day, but Mom has to take things out of the microwave and put other things in there. This is how my mom cooks.

  Granny goes to her home. Then Daddy comes home for dinner. And I tell him all the stuff about Laurie. So I only eat about four spaghetties ’cause I’m not allowed to talk with food in my mouth.

  “Do you know about ’slexia, Daddy?” I eat a spaghetti while he answers.

  “I know what dyslexia is. A buddy of mine in college had it, but he loved reading. He was a good writer too. I think most people work their way around it.”

  “Marge told me they were taking Laurie to see someone about it,” Mom says. Marge is Laurie’s mom.

  “And you didn’t tell me?” I say. “You should have told me.”

  Mom knows Laurie’s my best friend.

  Mom is all done with her food. “If Laurie wanted you to know, Natalie, she would have told you. I didn’t have the right to tell you. Marge talked to me in confidence.”

  I don’t feel like eating. I push my plate away. I still think everybody should have told me.

  Daddy and I go outside to play. Sometimes he is a good player.

  “Want to race?” he asks.

  And that makes my head remember. “Daddy! I forgot the other big news.”

  “What news is that?” Mom is coming outside too.

  “We’re going to have a Kindergarten Olympics, that’s what!”

  “Yeah?” Daddy says.

  “Cool,” Mom says. She sits on my swing.

  I run over and sit on Laurie’s swing. “Only we’re not supposed to know about it yet.”

  “So why do you know about it?” Mom asks.

  “Sasha’s mother is in charge of the whole thing. And she told Sasha. And Sasha told us. Only really just Laurie. Only I heard. And Sasha said we’re not supposed to tell.”

  “When is it, Nat?” Daddy asks. He tosses the ball in the air and swings at it. He misses. But he tries again.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What events?” Daddy tosses the ball, swings, and hits the ball. He is a good player all by himself.

  “I don’t know.”

  Mommy and Daddy have other questions about Kindergarten Olympics. Only I am all out of answers.

  The next day at kindergarten, I get some of those answers.

  “Class!” Miss Hines shouts. “I need y
ou to quiet down. Jason, sit down! Bethany and Kate, no whispering.”

  This works pretty good and makes us quiet.

  “I have an announcement,” Miss Hines says.

  This works even better, on account of we love ’nouncements. They are like surprises you don’t know yet. Only I’m pretty sure I know this one.

  I look over at Laurie, but Sasha is talking in Laurie’s ear. And Sasha’s big head is blocking the way.

  “As part of the national health program, West Side Elementary will participate in this year’s Kindergarten Olympics!” Miss Hines waits for us to be excited.

  We are.

  Jason jumps out of his desk and screams, “Yahoo! Me first!”

  “Jason, sit down,” Miss Hines says, only not mean.

  “My mother is in charge of it,” Sasha says without raising her hand.

  “We have several parent volunteers who will be helping out with the different events,” Miss Hines says.

  “What events?” Peter asks. He looks more frowny faced than most of the boys in our class. Except for Brandon, who hates outside recess.

  “I don’t have the list, but we’ll have relay races, hurdles, and other running events,” Miss Hines explains.

  “What if you do not want to run in a race?” Farah asks.

  “Yeah,” Brandon agrees.

  “What’s the matter, Brandon?” Peter has on his mean teasing voice. “Are you chicken?”

  “No talking. Raise your hand if you have a question,” Miss Hines says. “This will be fun, everybody! We’ll divide into teams, and everyone will participate and get an Olympic T-shirt.”

  “Teacher! Teacher!” Jason waves his hand like it’s on fire.

  “Yes, Jason,” Miss Hines says.

  “How do you decide teams? Can we race to pick teams?” Jason stays in his seat, but his legs are running. His shoes are untied. “Or jump to pick teams?” He jumps up and crashes down in his seat again.

  “We’ll select two team captains, and the captains will choose their teams,” our teacher explains.