Absolutely Alfie and the First Week Friends

by Sally Warner

  “Hey,” Suzette said, welcoming her.

  “We need marshmallows,” Hanni announced, staring at the sandy area in front of her.

  This was a good sign, Alfie thought, excited—because marshmallows were one of the three ingredients in s’mores! And s’mores were her private symbol for what might become her three-girl, second grade friendship with Hanni and Lulu. “Yeah, but they’d never let us build a fire here,” Suzette said, shaking her head.

  Hanni shrugged. “We could eat ’em raw,” she said.

  “I love s’mores all three ways,” Alfie chimed in. “Raw, toasted, or burned. They’re the perfect food.”

  “Yeah,” another girl said. “You can’t wreck ’em unless they plop in the dirt.”

  “But I think marshmallows are supposed to be bad for you,” Suzette said, frowning.

  “Maybe, if that’s all you ever ate,” Alfie said, hoping to make everyone happy.

  Lulu had been busy fiddling with her flowered headband, trying to get it just right. But now she spoke, changing the subject. “I don’t like the way Mr. Havens sneaks up on you,” she said.

  Alfie was startled. Was Lulu talking about her meeting with Mr. Havens during recess yesterday?

  Don’t talk about the Cardboard Challenge. Don’t talk about the Cardboard Challenge, she reminded herself.

  “Sneaks up on everyone,” Lulu said. She had been scolded that morning during Writing Workshop for peeking at a little round mirror she had tucked into her notebook, Alfie remembered. It was clear that Mr. Havens’s words—a mild correction—still stung.

  “He’s so strict,” another girl agreed.

  “It’s strange how Mr. Havens sees and hears every little thing,” Alfie admitted.

  “Yeah. That’s what I was saying,” Lulu told her. “And it’s weird, because he’s so big! How can Mr. Havens be sneaky and gigantic at the same time? That’s not fair.”

  “I bet he eats a ton of food,” Hanni said, thinking aloud.

  Mr. Havens “bit off more than he could chew,” Alfie thought. He said so himself!

  “A ton,” she replied as if she were seconding a motion during a class election.

  Around them, kids were swinging, sliding, climbing, or pretend-crawling like crabs up the grassy slopes that surrounded the sunken play area, Alfie saw. Her legs almost twitched, they wanted so much to run and play with them. But she stayed put. “Your headband looks good,” she told Lulu, who immediately adjusted it again.

  “Thanks,” Lulu said, granting her a smile. “It’s new.”

  “We should run,” Hanni announced, as if she had been reading Alfie’s mind. Alfie could have hugged her, she was so happy to hear those words. After all, she thought, the weather was perfect! A breeze was blowing, and puffy white clouds skidded across the sky.

  “Or we could hold hands and skip,” Alfie said, inspired. “We used to do that in the olden days.”

  Last year, she remembered. In first grade.

  “What, all of us?” Hanni asked, a smile and two dimples appearing on her face.

  “Because I’ve skipped with one girl before,” Lulu said, as if finishing the same sentence. “But not with a whole bunch of girls. Is that even possible? It sounds dangerous.”

  “It might be awesome,” Alfie said, tempting her. “And you and your headband would look really cute doing it, Lulu.”

  By now, the girls were on their feet, shaking their legs in preparation for the group-skip. Alfie reached out her hand, and Hanni took it.

  Lulu took her other hand, to Alfie’s delight, and within moments, a few other girls had joined them.

  “Somebody’s gotta yell ‘Start,’ or we’ll just drag each other down and mess up our outfits,” Suzette said from somewhere down the line.

  “I think it should be Hanni,” Alfie said, because of her friend’s leadership skills. Sure, some girls called Hanni bossy, but—

  “Start!” Hanni cried, and she took off skipping, right leg first.

  There were a few early stumbles, but then the line of girls was off and skipping—across the sand, past the swings and the two slides, one straight and one curly, and then up the sloping path.

  Skippety-skip! Skippety-skip! Skippety-skip!

  The hill slowed the laughing girls down a bit, and a couple of them staggered and let go as the girls neared the picnic tables.

  By the time they started heading down the slope again, skipping faster now, it was just Alfie, Hanni, and Lulu.

  This was awesome, Alfie thought, her heart soaring. Yes-s-s!

  And when they were on flat ground again, Alfie felt as if she were rising higher into the air with every skip that she took. It was as though she had no weight at all! She seemed to hover in the air at the top of each skip—like an Alfie balloon.

  All three of them were floating like balloons, Alfie thought, awed.

  It was perfection.

  And then, of course, the buzzer sounded, and the magic moment came to an end. But Alfie knew that her first week, second grade wish had come true—and the three ingredients finally had come together to form the perfect s’more.

  Their friendship could survive anything, Alfie thought.

  “If we can get through the decorating session this afternoon, that is,” she whispered to herself.

  15

  No Harm, No Foul

  “Finally,” Scooter Davis said as Alfie, Hanni, and Lulu bounced into class moments before the final buzzer sounded. “Our parent helper lady already brought over the projects, only you guys weren’t here. She had a funny look on her face, too,” he added. “And she said Mr. Havens wants to talk to us.”

  “About what?” Hanni asked, frowning as she fiddled with her cardboard computer.

  “How should I know?” Scooter asked, shrugging.

  “I have arrived,” Mr. Havens announced to Alfie’s table. His deep voice was easy to hear over the room’s buzz, buzz-z, buzz-z-z, the excited sound of kids making art—with three parent helpers to assist them today.

  Great, Alfie thought, listening to her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Now she had to pretend to be surprised by what Mr. Havens was going to say.

  Life was getting complicated.

  “Is this about Alfie not starting her project until really late yesterday?” Lulu asked Mr. Havens. “Because we tried to get her to start earlier, but—”

  “No,” Mr. Havens interrupted. “It’s about all four of you getting off track with the Cardboard Challenge. This is a teamwork project, guys. One project per team. Open your eyes. Look around.”

  Lulu, Hanni, and Scooter stared at the other kids’ projects, but Alfie gazed down at her small cardboard picture frame. It was as if she were hoping the picture of Princess inside the frame might start meowing at her—telling her that everything was going to be just purr-fect, and not to worry.

  “Shoot,” Scooter said, scowling at his ATV. “We did it all wrong.”

  “You are not being graded on this assignment,” Mr. Havens assured them. “And it was my fault there weren’t enough helpers yesterday. But today, you will have your own parent helper—just for this table alone.”

  “But what for-r-r-r?” Hanni said, turning the last word into a wail of despair. “It’s too late to make things right! And Back to School Night is tomorrow!”

  “I know,” Scooter said, getting an idea. “We could glue all our projects together and make, like, a giant float! Because Hanni’s computer could go on top of my ATV, see? And Lulu’s glitter box could go on the computer, and Alfie’s little picture could—”

  “I don’t want my jewel box glued to anyone else’s stuff,” Lulu said, stamping her foot—which wasn’t easy to do, sitting down.

  “I’ll let you work that out with your assigned parent helper,” Mr. Havens said. “You kids can either finish up your projects as they are, or you can
find a way to turn them into a team project. It’s entirely up to you. No harm, no foul,” he added, confusing at least three of the kids.

  And then he was gone.

  Lulu turned to Alfie. “Don’t you dare say ‘I told you so,’” she said, frowning. “Even though I guess you did.”

  Alfie’s body grew stiff. “I would never—”

  “Alfie didn’t say a word, Lulu,” Hanni said, sticking up for Alfie. “And she did the project wrong, too.”

  “Only because we made her do it wrong,” Scooter said, thinking about it.

  “I decided that’s how I wanted to do it,” Alfie said, not explaining why.

  “And here I am again,” a grownup lady said, almost skidding up to their table. She was so full of energy that she nearly fizzed. “I’m Mrs. Lewis,” the woman said, brushing at some glitter that was stuck to her cheek. “Alan’s mom. So, what’s the final decision about these projects?” she asked. “Mr. Havens said there was talk of sticking them together. And I’m pretty good with a hot glue gun.”

  “But I don’t want to do that,” Lulu said. “Mr. Havens told us we’re not getting graded on them, didn’t he? And I want to take my jewel box home once Back to School Night is over. I can’t do that if it’s in the middle of some weird art sandwich.”

  “So that’s that,” Alfie announced, even though Hanni still looked worried. She was probably thinking about what her persnickety mom was going to say, Alfie guessed.

  “That’s not really that,” Scooter argued. “We could still glue three of the projects together.” He pointed to Hanni’s computer, to his ATV, and to Alfie’s picture frame. “I mean, look at the other guys’ stuff,” he added, gesturing around the room. “At least then, our project would look right. More like teamwork, I mean.”

  The robot construction was now being painted bright blue by four kids.

  Phoebe and Alan’s team’s castle had a drawbridge and turrets. Pointed flags were being strung up.

  And Bryan’s team’s space weapon looked ready to take on all hostile alien enemies. The five team members swarmed around it like ants at a picnic table.

  The last team had made a hamster run, it looked like. It featured tunnels, a connected rest area that even the fussiest rodent would enjoy, and a ramp leading up to what one boy was calling the invisible hamster’s “media room.”

  Maybe there would be a real hamster inside the run on Back to School Night!

  “So cool,” Alfie couldn’t help but say, admiring it.

  “Be quiet, you,” Lulu said to Alfie. “And you too, Stephen,” she added.

  “That’s not necessary,” Mrs. Lewis said, her voice friendly but crisp. “Mr. Havens says you are each free to make your own decision.”

  “So we won’t really get blamed,” Alfie said, half-explaining things to Hanni.

  “We’ll get a little bit blamed,” Hanni murmured.

  “Decision time,” Mrs. Lewis said, tapping her watch.

  Lulu cradled her arms around her jewelry box. “I could use some pink paint and silver glitter, maybe,” she told Mrs. Lewis.

  “And I need some shiny yellow paint for my ATV,” Scooter said, as if he had just made up his mind to keep his project separate from the rest. “And I gotta have something to draw stripes with,” he added. “Or maybe flames?”

  “I guess I need silver paper and glue,” Hanni said. “And a black marker that’s not gonna smear on shiny paper.”

  “And what about you?” Mrs. Lewis asked Alfie. “What do you need, honey?”

  I need not to cry, Alfie thought, watching Hanni and Lulu work together—and picturing the expression on her dad’s face on Back to School Night. “Just a little paint for the frame, and three dabs of glue for the back of my kitty’s picture,” she said.

  They were now so far behind that kids at other tables were looking at them, Alfie noticed, her cheeks hot with embarrassent. Arletty and Phoebe were trying to catch her eye. They smiled, encouraging her.

  “Time to finish,” Mr. Havens said, looming over them again as suddenly as Bigfoot popping up in a forest, Alfie thought. She had seen a TV show about this mysterious creature last summer and been much impressed.

  Fake, EllRay had announced. But Alfie didn’t care. She loved poor lonely Bigfoot. She hoped he had lots of forest friends—and that they never quarreled.

  “Good,” Mr. Havens said as Mrs. Lewis hurried to their table with the needed art supplies. “Now, the four of you may have five extra minutes to complete your projects while your classmates begin their afternoon recess.” he continued in a that’s-that tone of voice. “So, finish up, All-Stars.”

  “Thanks a lot,” Hanni muttered, but not quietly enough.

  Whoa.

  But Hanni was a tiny bit scared of her mom, Alfie knew. Maybe that was making her reckless and rude.

  “Don’t worry, Hanni,” Mr. Havens said quietly, in spite of the girl’s display of bad manners. “I’ll explain to the parents and guardians just how proud I am of every single project. It has been a memorable first week, hasn’t it?” he asked. “Full of learning experiences, too—for us all,” he added before stalking off to another table on his long, basketball-playing legs.

  The week had been a little too memorable, Alfie thought with a shaky sigh. In fact, it had been like a roller coaster. Up, up, up—and then down.

  What had happened to lunch-time’s dream-come-true?

  Gone, as if it had never existed. Just like a real dream.

  Poof.

  And where was that perfect s’more she had imagined?

  It had vanished.

  Or had it?

  16

  A Field Trip down the Hall

  After lunch on Friday, Mr. Haven’s All-Stars hurried to get their projects ready for that afternoon’s art show, and for Back to School Night. Their guests this afternoon would be Oak Glen Primary School’s kindergartners—and Principal James.

  Great, Alfie thought, making a face. Now, their principal—king of the school, basically—would think she was a kid who did not know how to follow instructions.

  He would probably put her name on some list.

  “Mr. Havens,” Arletty said, raising her hand even though they were all standing around the long display table at the back of the classroom.

  “Yes, Arletty?” their teacher said.

  “Is this art show really supposed to be a treat for those little kids?” she asked, worried. “Because I heard some of them talking at lunch, and they think they’re going on a field trip.”

  “Yeah,” Scooter said, cracking up as he poked Bryan in the ribs with his elbow. “A field trip down the hall. That’s so lame!”

  “This is more like a field trip rehearsal for them,” Mr. Havens said after giving Scooter a look that quieted him at once.

  “Like a visit to ‘the bigs’?” Bryan asked, and he stood a little straighter, proud.

  “Something like that,” Mr. Havens said, arranging the fancy labels in front of each project—even the four from Alfie’s team.

  But Alfie couldn’t even think about her project. Instead, she found herself brooding about her friends.

  No one was mad at her, true. And no other disaster had occurred.

  But abracadabra! And not in a good way. Because Hanni Sobel, Alfie’s neighbor and late-summer friend, had wanted to hang out with Lulu and Suzette instead of Alfie this morning, even though Alfie and Hanni had chattered like two colorful parakeets during the ride to school.

  And Lulu Marino, Alfie’s best friend in first grade, seemed to be drifting away from her forever—like a polar bear on an ice floe.

  There went the three perfect ingredients, Alfie thought—gloomph, right down the garbage disposal.

  “Your project looks so cute,” Suzette Monahan was whispering to Lulu.

  “Thanks,” Lulu said. She
drew a finger under her perfectly-straight bangs, making them swing like shiny fringe. “I like it.”

  “C’mon, Alfie,” Phoebe Miller said, moving in to give her a gentle nudge. “The kindergarten kids are here, and we’re supposed to sit down and look friendly. Or not scary, anyway. Arletty saved us some seats.”

  “Okay,” Alfie said, wondering if Hanni, Lulu, and Suzette would be sitting nearby.

  Awkward.

  The kindergartners trooped in two-by-two, many of them holding hands. They looked so small!

  Principal James followed, looking enormous in comparison.

  “Now, don’t knock over the art,” the kindergartners’ pretty teacher sang out.

  “What art?” a little boy asked. He looked around the All-Stars’ room, puzzled.

  “Hands in your pockets, Marty, if you don’t want to hold Sasha’s hand,” his teacher told him as he spotted the space weapon with its ammunition—cotton balls, today—piled nearby.

  Again, probably not very useful in outer space battles, Alfie told herself, shaking her head.

  Mr. Havens caught her eye and grinned.

  “Co-o-o-l,” Marty was saying, his eyes wide. He clearly wanted to get his hands on it and start blasting aliens from other galaxies left, right, and center.

  Ka-pow! Blam, blam, blammo!

  “Watch him, or he’ll wreck it,” Bryan muttered under his breath.

  “I don’t want to hold his hand, either,” the tiny pigtailed girl who must have been Sasha said. “He’s gwoss!”

  Principal James cleared his throat—probably trying not to laugh, Alfie thought.

  In spite of herself, she smiled. She used to talk like that, she remembered. Well, she didn’t remember, exactly, but she’d been told.

  “EllWay,” her parents said she used to call her brother.

  “I’ll bet he is gross,” Arletty whispered to Alfie, giggling.

  “I think I saw him pick his nose yesterday near the curly slide,” Phoebe reported.