Mary and Laura slowly made their way to the front of the classroom. Some of the kids stared, but some were still putting their things away at the front door of the school.
"Hello, I'm your teacher Miss Beadle!" Miss Beadle was very kind looking and upbeat. She seemed really cheerful.
"Ma'am, I'm Mary," Mary tried to look happy, but she began to feel as nervous as ever.
"I'm Laura," Laura rarely got too nervous, but right now she was. But, all she had to do was think of Nellie Oleson, and it made her have that spunky feeling again for some reason.
Mary and Laura went to Miss Beadle, received some new books, and then told her how much they new about things. Neither Mary nor Laura new much about math, but Mary could already read, write, and spell, while Laura couldn't yet. But Laura knew she would learn quickly.
Mary and Laura took their seats. Miss Beadle began to teach arithmetic. Mary was learning a lot, but Laura wasn't. It was all so confusing with all those signs that really meant things, and those numbers that were forever changing into higher or lower ones. Laura felt a bit upset, she had thought that she would learn everything right away, she couldn't even remember what math signs she should use to write her arithmetic problems.
Finally they moved on to writing. Mary could write a whole lot of words. She got to move up to book two, and she was learning to write things called paragraphs. Laura was on her first page of her writing guide book 1. Laura could barely write the word dog, but then Miss Beadle taught her an easy trick. Really, words were just letters put together. Soon, Laura was spelling cat, rat, and mat. She had done three words in just one day!!
Reading was just as fun. Once you learned to read those words, you could find out everything you ever wanted to know.
Mary was reading an advanced book, and she was on to memorizing a poem about a frog and a bird. Laura had a whole page in her speller listing all the words she was to practice. Some were hard, but some she surprisingly knew! It was so fun, and for the first time that day, she was enjoying school a whole lot!
Laura thought her teacher was so beautiful. She had such wonderful hair, and she smelled of lemon verbena. Laura knew that school was going to just get better and better.
Mary really admired her teacher. But not for the same reasons as Laura. Mary thought that her teacher was so smart. How could she know all that? Mary knew that one day, she would be teaching up there just like Miss Beadle. She hoped her students would think highly of her just as the students thought highly of Miss Beadle.
At the end of the day, Nellie started making faces behind Laura's back. When Laura turned around and she saw her doing that, she did it right back.
Mary however was not pleased. Especially after almost getting told off this morning after Laura and Nellie's fight. Mary wished that Laura would just mind Nellie and let the whole country girls thing drop. But Laura was one to keep at things for a while.
But at last, it was time for recess and lunch, and then after that they would be dismissed to go home!
At recess, Mary tried to act sour about what had happened that morning, but school was going so good, that it was hard to act upset. She decided to speak with her sister about it once and then let it all drop.
"Laura, you better not be eyeing up Nellie or making faces at her!" Mary said as she saw Laura staring at Nellie who was over by the swing.
"You are right Mary, I guess I shouldn't look for a fight," Laura said as she took her eyes off Nellie.
"That's right you shouldn't, and you should stay out of them too! I'm upset about this morning, because suppose Miss Beadle would have come a second earlier, then we would've been in trouble. We can't get in trouble, Ma will be upset, and we want to be good girls," said Mary as she let everything out.
Laura nodded her head and stared guiltily at the ground. Mary could see she was sorry, so she let it all go.
Mary suggested that they sit down and make grass whistles. Laura loved to do this, and Mary did too!
Samantha the new girl was standing by herself over at a tree. The breeze was blowing through her dress and her hair, and she didn't care one bit that she had a small tear in her stocking, or that she had lost her bow. She was growing up with her Grandmary in a wealthy town nearby. She was supposed to be proper, but she wasn't usually unless she was with her Grandmary. But right now, Samantha did care about something, making friends -- good friends that didn't lie to you and didn't tell you mean things. Those were the kind of friends she found at the school in her town.
Maybe she would go say hi to those girls in the grass that were making grass whistles.
Samantha walked over and said hi. They talked for about three minutes and they learned stuff about each other. Samantha was three months younger then Mary. Still, Laura didn't care about the age difference, she liked Samantha Parks. Sam seemed really nice, and she didn't seem to be stuck up like Nellie Oleson.
As they sat down and made whistles, they saw Nellie come over. She looked nicer and kind this time. Laura was surprised, and so was Mary. Samantha looked happy that another friend might be coming her way.
"Hi, I'm Nellie Oleson, and I LOVE your dress! My family owns The Oleson Mercantile! Your dress is one of the latest fashions and I think it is darling. We are getting those dresses in later I believe! Want to come over and see later today?" Nellie still had a snooty and stuck up edge to her voice, but she was still much nicer then before. Laura knew it was only an act, just because Samantha had a nice dress.
Samantha politely refused, and then they all went to sit over by the tree.
Before they knew it, Samantha was already starting to climb the tree. Laura cheered her on, and Mary watched in amazement. Someone that seemed so proper was actually climbing in a tree!
Laura was soon climbing high in the tree along with Samantha.
"Come on Mary, it is really fun up here!" Laura called down to her sister.
Mary wasn't too fond of climbing. She was a little scared to be climbing on a shaky tree, but why not?
Soon Mary was up in the tree studying away. Plant roots were very interesting. She would have to experiment with roots out of some weeds while she did her chores!
Finally Laura and Samantha reached the top of the tree where Mary was. They all began to help her study for tomorrow's Spelling Bee!! Mary just had to win!
Soon, Samantha's carriage came and she had to go. Mary and Laura went on their way home too. It had been a great first day of school, but now they had to go do their homework and chores.
The End.
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