Thanx so much for all of the reviews for Positive! Means so much. If I had 5 more it would be 200. Haha.
Well here's the "long-awaited" sequel. Haha.
It's called "Additions". And I now realize if you think of math, addition is positive. Haha Weird.
Summary: These are the adventures of the Potter Family. Little Arabella goes to preschool and meets her first friend. The Potters await their new baby. Picks up right where "Positive" left off. Weaselys don't exist in this story!
I think I almost got carpal tunnel symdrome yesterday. If no one knows what that is, its where you use your wrist and arm too much and it starts to hurt really bad. But im cool. Its fine. Haha.
Here's ch.1 (no prologue! That was "Positive"! haha.)
Chapter One
Preschool
Three-year-old Arabella Charlotte Potter, as she was now called, sat on her bed reading her favorite story, The Velveteen Rabbit. Her parents had recently gotten married and they changed her name on her birth certificate from "Granger-Potter" to "Potter". She was a "Potter" now and she loved it. It wasn't that she didn't love her mother or her maiden name, she just thought "Arabella Charlotte Granger-Potter" was a bit of a mouthful. Although "Arabella Charlotte Potter" was still a bit of a mouthful, but it was better than her previous name. Plus, she now officially felt like part of the family.
She had a few passions, and rabbits and reading were two of them. Reading was most definitely her favorite. She was told she had inherited it from her mother, who loved to read. Arabella especially loved her to read to her. She loved the sound of her angelic voice. When she was in her mother's tummy, she would hear her muttering to herself. And she would kick. She would kick for her voice. It was especially beautiful when she sang to the little girl her favorite song, In My Arms. It was the tune, her voice, and the words that made her love it. Her mother had copied it on a CD for her to listen if she was ever at her grandparents' house. It was pretty, too, but it wasn't the same.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and a moment later, it opened. Arabella grinned and put her book down at the sight of her parents. "Mummy! Daddy!" They smiled back to her and walked over to her, sitting down on her bed.
"Hey, Arabella," Hermione Potter kissed her forehead tenderly.
"Hey, princess," Harry Potter did the same.
"We have something to tell you. Well, one thing to tell you and another thing to ask you," her mother said.
"Okay," Arabella nodded listening intently.
"Well, how would you like to go to preschool next week? There's a preschool just down the street and you'll get to meet friends and learn more," Hermione asked.
At the word "learn", Arabella perked up. "Learn?!" she smiled and nodded vigorously. They laughed. Learning was another one of her passions, just like her mother.
"Now, listen, Arabella, there are rules to go to preschool. You can't speak about magic," Harry said.
"Why?" she asked curiously.
"Because some people aren't magical, like Grammy and Gramps, and they can't know about magic," her Daddy explained.
Arabella nodded but asked, "Why doesn't someone tell them then?"
They chuckled. "We don't know, but promise that you won't say anything. Not even about house elves."
She nodded and said, "I promise."
"And you can't tell anyone you can play the piano very well without mistake," Hermione said. She regretted saying that, however.
Arabella looked confused. She loved the piano. "Why?"
"Because then people will know you're different," Hermione told her.
"I thought it was good to be different," Arabella said. She would never understand the adult world.
"Yes, it is very good to be different, Arabella, but some people won't understand that. They'll think you're a bad different and discriminate against you. You must promise me that you won't say anything," Hermione asked of her.
Arabella nodded and repeated, "I promise, Mummy. I won't say anything."
They smiled at her. "Now, we have some news. Happy news," her mother said smiling at her father. He grabbed her hand and interlaced their fingers. Arabella loved them like this. They were more loving to each other, like Aunt Luna and Uncle Nev were. She could feel the love radiating off of them to her.
"We're going to be having another baby," Hermione said.
Arabella widened her eyes and smiled slightly, but then frowned. "Will you still love me?" she looked fearful.
That broke their hearts. "Of course!" Harry said incredulously picking her up and holding her close.
"We'll always love you, Arabella. We're just going to have an addition to this loving family. You're going to have a little sister or brother. You're going to be a big sister!" Hermione tried to raise her spirits.
It worked. She gasped and grinned. "Big sister?" They nodded and she hugged them tight.
Everything was going to be fine.
That night, Kit had made a wonderful dinner of spaghetti for the young family. Arabella was so over her high chair and was sitting in her booster seat in a big girl chair with her parents. They talked about preschool arrangements. Hermione was going to take Arabella back-to-school shopping the next day. They would get some school supplies and go by the school to apply her. The preschool didn't have a waiting list. It was only for children in the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods that couldn't go to school somewhere else. It wasn't a big preschool, there wasn't a lot of kids, but that didn't mean it wasn't a good preschool. It was the best in the village of Godric's Hollow and in the town of Dorchester. But not many people knew about it.
It was called "Godric's Hollow Preschool" because it was in the village. It was on the street they lived on so they didn't have to go far.
Hermione and Arabella hopped into the SUV Hermione's parents had given them as a wedding gift and went to a shopping department store to buy her cute new clothes for school. Hermione and Harry had gotten their liscenses earlier that year. They bought five pairs of jeans, several shirts, new sneakers, and since the winter was coming soon, they bought some zip-up hoodies and coats. They went to a supply store to get supplies for school.
Arabella picked out the sixty-four crayon box. Hermione smiled when she put it in the basket, thinking back when she taught her the colors. She had only been one or two, then. She was becoming more intelligent everyday. They bought pencils, a pencil pouch, a folder to put her "homework" in, a small backpack that was pink with a bunny on the front, and an almost matching pink lunchbox with a unicorn on the cover.
After shopping, they went to the preschool. There were janitors around, cleaning and getting everything ready for the new schoolyear. Hermione took Arabella's hand and they walked to the main office.
A nice, kind-looking lady was sitting behind the desk. She had glasses and looked to be about in her forties. She was thin with dark hair and dark, red lipstick. She smiled when she saw the two walk in. "Hello," she said politely.
"Hello," Hermione replied.
"Are you you here to apply her?" she asked looking at the three year old.
Hermione nodded. "Yes, ma'am and she's very excited!"
Arabella wasn't paying attention to her, she was instead looking around the office in wonderment. There were so many colors in one room. She smiled as she saw a butterfly painted on the wall. It was purple, yellow, and green.
The secretary, Mrs. Polly Reynolds, as it said so on the nameplate, smiled and pointed down the hall. "To apply her, you must see the headmistress. Her office is down the hall, last one on the left."
"Okay, thank you," Hermione pulled Arabella along and they went to the headmistress's office. The door was open and they saw a lady, who also wearing glasses. She had stringy, blonde hair, and looked to be about in her thirties. Her young face was comforting to Arabella. It reminded her of her mother's a bit. Hermione knocked on the door and the woman looked up.
"Hello, are you here to apply for school?" she asked Arabella, who nodded excitedly. "Sit down, both of you."
The two Potter females sat in the two chairs in front of the desk. Hermione crossed her legs politely, while Arabella slightly swung her legs a bit.
"I'm Headmistress Genevieve Justice. What's yours?" she asked the three-year-old.
"I am Arabella Charlotte Potter, miss. How do you do?" she asked politely, shocking the woman slightly.
"Whoa, you are very polite, young lady," she said with a soft smile.
"Thank you, ma'am. Mummy always told me to be polite," she said smiling up at Hermione, who blushed as the headmistress looked at her.
"She's quite intelligent for her age. She just...knows things sometimes. It's...extraordinary. You'd be lucky to have her, ma'am," Hermione said with a confident smile.
"I'm sure we will." She asked them a few more questions. Most of them were about what their address was, how old she was, who to contact if something happened. Headmistress Justice had Hermione fill out a form for application, and Hermione gave her Arabella's birth certificate so that she could copy it and keep it in a file, like she did for the rest.
"Well, since we had plenty of spots open and school is just about to start, she's in," the headmistress said making mother and child smile. Hermione wrote a check for the whole year's tuition.
"Thank you," Hermione said as she handed the check to her. "Thank you very much."
"You're very welcome. I'll put her in Mrs. Taylor's class with the rest of the three-year-olds. You'll like Mrs. Taylor, Arabella," the headmistress said.
"Thank you again," Hermione said and the two left with Arabella telling her, "Thank you, Headmistress Justice. I'll see you next week!"
It seemed to be that Headmistress Genevieve Justice found Arabella Charlotte Potter very intriguing. The little girl was only three but she seemed like she was an adult. And her mother seemed to be almost a child herself, like she wasn't even in her twenties yet. But that didn't matter to her. Her passion was children. Teaching children. Making sure they got a good education. But it seemed to her that Arabella Potter may have already had an education. 'Her mother probably taught her a few things at home. She did say she was quite intelligent.'
"I'm going to school!" Arabella cried as they got home. Harry was outside, weeding the garden. He still loved doing manual labor like that. He turned around at his daughter's outburst. He smiled as he saw her run to him. "Daddy!" He picked her up as she ran into his arms. Hermione was taking the shopping bags out of the back of the SUV, smiling at father and daughter.
But she dropped the bags and began to feel queasy. Harry and Arabella noticed this.
"Hermione? Hermione, are you okay?" Harry asked walking to her.
"Mummy?"
She covered her hand and ran into the house, just making it to the half bathroom downstairs to empty the contents of her stomach. Harry and Arabella were close behind. "Hermione, are you okay?" came Harry 's voice on the other side of the bathroom door.
His voice always soothed her. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said shakily. "Just morning sickness."
"Oh," he replied remembering exactly what that was. "Do you need anything? Chili and bananas?" he suggested with a smile, remembering her favorite dish when she was pregnant with Arabella.
"Please, and put some cream cheese in it," she asked of him.
He furrowed his brow and left to go cook it as he heard the toilet flush and the sink turn on, signaling that she was brushing her teeth. Arabella followed her Daddy to the kitchen. "I remember chili and bananas!" she exclaimed happily. "Could you make me some, too, Daddy?"
"Sure, princess," he replied smiling.
Kit, their cooking house elf popped into the kitchen. He saw his master turning the stove on. "Oh, Mr. Harry, you don't needs to be doing that! I can cooks whatever you likes!"
"That's okay, Kit. I'm cooking something special for Hermione. She likes it the way I cook it, no offense. She likes my chili with bananas that I made her when she was pregnant with Arabella. And now she wants some with cream cheese," he said chuckling.
The house elf looked confused, but shrugged and said, "Okay, then, sir, call me if you needs."
"Will do." And Kit popped away.
"Arabella, could you get two bananas for Daddy, sweetie?" Harry asked.
Arabella replied, "Sure, Daddy." She skipped to her step-stool, which was in a corner, out of the way. She brought it to the counter and stepped on it. Reaching, she grabbed the banana bowl and pulled it to her. She ripped off two bananas, scooted the bowl back and stepped off of the stool.
"Thank you," he said as she gave him the bananas. "Put your stool back," he reminded her.
"Oh, yeah!" she always forgot to put her stool back. She ran back to it and brought it back to the corner, out of the way. Hermione came in, saying, "Smells good. I'll be right back. I'm going get the bags from the car. Arabella, you want to help me?"
Arabella loved to help her parents. It wasn't like a chore, it was a hobby, more like. Helping them made her feel happy and useful. She nodded and they went get the bags out of the SUV. They took them to Arabella's room and unloaded them, putting her new school clothes in the dresser. "Mummy, where is the new baby going to stay? Am I going to have to move out of my room?" she asked fearfully. She didn't want to leave her nursery. It was her safe haven.
"Well, do you want to?" she asked.
Arabella shook her head. "No, I like my room. It's my sanctuary. As much as I would love to give up my room to my little brother or sister, I don't think I will be able to. I don't want to leave it. I know you you already have a room for me for when I grow up a bit, but maybe that could be the nursery?" she suggested.
Hermione thought about this. The other room was closer to their bedroom. She still couldn't get over how many rooms were in this Manor. It was like a big castle with nine bedrooms. The only room they didn't touch, unless to clean it was the master bedroom. It was Lily and James Potter's bedroom, Hermione's late parents-in-law, and they felt it was too sacred to touch. They had thought about this when they moved in. And before the two got married, Hermione brought up the idea, since they were going to be married if they would like to move into it since it was bigger. Harry had thought about this, but then said with a disgusted face, "It would just be too weird because I was conceived in that room."
Hermione had smiled. "Who knows? You probably weren't conceived in there. You were probably even conceived on the couch or maybe even in your room."
"Or maybe in the library," he had countered with a smirk. Hermione had lightly hit him. And they had just laughed.
So in the end, they had decided just to enlarge Harry's bedroom since it could be done. It was about the same size now as the master bedroom and they were happy that way.
Hermione nodded. "That's a great idea. I'll have to tell Daddy. And we'll move your old crib and the baby changing station in. There's not much to take out of there anyway."
The chili with bananas and cream cheese was amazing to Hermione. Arabella tasted her first favorite food for the first time since she'd been in the womb. She couldn't stop eating it. It was like her and the red velvet cake at Uncle Remus and Aunt Tonks' wedding. Harry just sat at the table looking at them in almost pure disgust. 'How could they eat that?' he thought. But he just shrugged, thinking the Granger women had a bit of a strange appetite.
Hermione told Harry Arabella's nursery idea and thought it was brilliant.
Over the rest of the week, Harry would take Hermione and Arabella out for walks. Hermione needed it in her condition. Although, Arabella wouldn't walk, she'd pedal her tricycle her Daddy gave her for her third birthday last year. She had a blast going up and down the street, circling around her parents.
"Not too far, Arabella!" they would call if she got too far ahead of them. She would obey and turn herself around, making cute noises and flicking the bell that was on the right handlebar.
Brinnnggg! Brinnnggg! they would hear and smile as she giggled and said to nobody, "Excuse me, coming through!" People who were outside would look at the young family. Seeing a little girl on her trike, and a young married couple holding hands and walking. It was a perfect family, even though they thought the parents were a little too young to be having children. The other children in the neighborhood gazed at Arabella, or rather at the shiny red trike she was riding so gracefully. Oh, they wanted it, but still thought the rider was interesting.
Arabella would smile at them as she passed, being her polite self. They would smile back and she would wonder if these were her future classmates.
"Looks like the other kids are jealous of Arabella," Hermione whispered in Harry's ear as she saw one little boy stare greedily at the tricycle.
"Because she has a beautiful mother?" Harry asked smiling at her.
She blushed, but smiled, loving his compliment. "I meant because of her tricycle. They all look like they want to ride it. I hope she finds a friend in school." She looked a little worried. Harry kissed her lips briefly and said, "She will. They'll get over it. It's not like she's going to trike her way to school every morning and park it in the parking lot." Hermione giggled at his joke.
"You're right. It's just...I never had many friends when I was in preschool and primary school. You were my first friend. You were the only one that accepted me for what I was. A bookworm and a brain. Harry, she's smarter than me and you combined and she reads eight-year-old level books. She plays the piano! I'm just afraid someone won't accept her," she said crying, hormones kicking in.
Harry held her against his side. "It's okay, shh. She's going to find a friend, I promise you. Someone will accept her. Because she's also really sweet and has great manners. And for the record, you weren't just a bookworm. You were so much more than that." She kissed him again, but were broke off by, "Mummy, Daddy, stop!" Arabella was looking at them and giggling. They laughed and Harry said, "You're going to have to get used to it."
Arabella just shrugged and continued on, "WHEEE!" as she went down a slight hill.
Harry, Hermione, and Arabella stood at Mrs. Taylor's door in the preschool building. There were already children in there, saying goodbye to their parents and talking to Mrs. Taylor. Arabella Potter was nervous as she saw the other kids. She practically battled a Death Eater, why was she afraid of preschool? There weren't many three-four-year-olds there, about ten. Hermione figured Headmistress Justice wouldn't give Mrs. Taylor a lot of children as it would have been a handful.
Arabella was wearing her new, blue jeans; her new, light purple polo shirt with a long-sleeved white shirt under it; her new, white hoody; with her new, blue sneakers. Hermione had pulled her straight, brown hair out of her face and held it with a dark purple barrett that matched her shirt. On her back, she carried her pink backpack, filled with her crayons, pencils in her pencil pouch, her folder; and her pink lunchbox filled with an apple juice box, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that Kit made, and a bag of frosted animal crackers. Her clothing and accessories were new, and so was she.
She looked up at her Mummy and Daddy, who were in between her. They looked down at her and smiled. She reached up and grabbed their hands for support. They took them and together, they walked into the classroom.
It was full of toys and crayons and colors. Arabella really liked the many colors. On the dry-erase board, in red was "Mrs. Taylor" written in print. Mrs. Taylor was a lovely-looking young woman, about in her thirties. She was tall and had dark hair and pretty blue eyes. She smiled a lot at the parents as she talked to them. Arabella thought she reminded her of Miss Honey from the book Matilda by Roald Dahl, a book her mother read to her a while back. Ever since her Mummy read her that story, that was her interpretation of a teacher. She didn't know what a teacher was supposed to look like. But Mrs. Taylor was the closest thing to Miss Honey.
In the classroom, there were about six new-looking plastic desks that could fill two three-four-year-olds a table and on the top of the desk was a nametag taped. There were cubby holes that already had coats, lunchboxes, and backpacks in them.
In the back of the room, there was a blue carpet that had several pillows on it stacked in a corner. There was a bookshelf filled with children's picture books. There were plenty of toys scattered around the room. Dolls, trucks, stuffed animals. Arabella smiled slightly at the room. It was perfect.
Mrs. Taylor said goodbye to the parents she was talking to. They knelt down to say goodbye to their son. Mrs. Taylor walked over to the three and smiled. "Hello, welcome to preschool. Who is this?" she looked at Arabella who was smiling at her.
"This is Arabella," Hermione said. "Arabella Potter."
"Ah, you were the last one to sign up. I'm Mrs. Rebecca Taylor." She held out her hand to shake. Hermione shook her hand, "Hi, I'm Hermione Potter and this is my husband."
"Harry," he said letting go of Arabella's hand to shake her offered hand.
"It's nice to meet you both. Do you live around here?"
"Yes, just up the street in the big Manor," Hermione said.
"Oh, you live there? I've always loved that home," she said with a smile. She looked at Arabella. "Are you ready?"
Arabella looked at her parents uncertain. They nodded encouragingly. She looked back at Mrs. Taylor and nodded. "Yes, ma'am."
"Alright, then. Come here, I'll show you your cubby." Mrs. Taylor turned them around and lead them to the back to the cubby holes. She went to one that had "Arabella" on it, just like with the tables. "This is yours. You can put your backpack in it, your coat, your lunchbox. Whatever you want, although you should have your school supplies with you at your table."
Arabella nodded. She held on tight to her backpack, not wanting to let it go. If she let it go, she would have to leave her parents. Hermione knelt down to her and took her lunchbox from her hand and put it in the cubby. Then, she helped her with her backpack. She noticed that she was reluctant to let it go, but she didn't say anything. Yet. Next came the hoody. Hermione unzipped it and pulled it off of her, giving it to Harry who put it on the low hook for Arabella to reach it at the end of the day. It was September, but there was a slight breeze in the air every now and then.
"I'll leave you three to say your goodbyes," Mrs. Taylor said and walked away.
"Thank you," Harry said to her retreating back. He knelt down next to his wife to talk to his daughter. She looked nervous. "What's wrong?"
Arabella looked at the other kids in the room. They seemed to be making friends already. She was scared that she wouldn't make one friend. "What if they don't like me?"
"Don't say that, princess," Harry protested kissing her forehead.
"What if they don't?" she asked again.
"Just...be yourself, okay?" Hermione said encouragingly. "Can you do that?"
Arabella nodded. "I think so."
"That's my girl," she wrapped her arms around her waist, pulling her into a hug.
Arabella hugged her back, trying not to cry. "I'm going to miss you, Mummy, Daddy."
"We're going to miss you, too," they said back. Harry hugged her back and it was a three-way family hug. Arabella felt safe in between her two parents. Hermione whispered in her ear, "Remember not to say anything about magic and piano." Arabella nodded. "I promise, Mummy."
Hermione kissed her cheek and they let her go. They stood up and the morning bell rang startling Arabella. "Ma'am, sir, you need to go, class is about to start," Mrs. Taylor told them. The Potters nodded and walked out of the room. At the door, they turned back and saw Arabella still standing there looking at them. With a teardrop rolling down her cheek. It broke their hearts.
But then the door shut and they saw their daughter no more. Hermione wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his chest. He held her close soothing her. "I hope she's okay."
"She'll be. She's strong. She took down a Death Eater," he whispered in her ear and kissed the top of her head. But he couldn't help but worry for his daughter.
"Arabella!" the teacher called. Arabella Potter looked up at her new teacher. She was still standing by the cubby holes. "Time to take your seat." Mrs. Taylor helped her take her pencil pouch, her crayons and her folder out of her backpack and lead her to her seat. Her table was the last one on the left. Her nametag was taped on the right of the table. She sat in her seat and put her supplies under the table in the compartment. Sitting next to her was a boy with brown hair and blue eyes. He was a thin, but healthy-looking boy, dressed in a light blue polo shirt like her and blue jeans. He smiled when she looked at him. She smiled back shyly.
"Hi," she said nervously.
"Hello," he replied back. "Wass your name?" He was just as nervous as she was.
"Arabella Potter. What's yours?" she asked perfectly.
"Tad. Tad Harrow," he answered quietly.
"Tad? I've never heard that name before. It's nice," she said with a soft smile.
"Tank you, 'Arabella' is really pwetty, too."
Arabella was really liking this boy. He didn't seem to notice her good pronunciation, and if he did, he didn't seem to care. "Thanks."
"How old are you?"
"I'll be four in December. You?"
"I turned four in August." He held up four fingers to show her.
They couldn't continue their conversation as Mrs. Taylor began to speak. "Hello, class, my name is Mrs. Taylor. Why don't we go around and say our names? Starting with...Walter."
"Walter," a blond boy said in the first desk. It went around the room and Arabella heard all of her classmates' names.
"Michael."
"Allison."
"Madeliene."
"Tad."
"Arabella," she said.
"Olivia."
"Emma."
"Daniel."
"Josh."
"Tyler."
"Andrew."
There were five girls and seven boys. Arabella seemed to be the only one who was seated with a boy. She didn't mind. He was nice enough.
After they introduced themselves, they went to story time, where they would go to the blue carpet and sit on the pillows to listen to Mrs. Taylor read a story. All of the children rushed to the carpet to get a pillow. Arabella took her time, however. Rushing wouldn't solve anything. The little boy, Tad, had two pillows. One was blue, the other was green. He saw her and gave her the green one. "Here, Arabella, I saved you one. It green, wike your eyes." She smiled and took it, noticing that his was blue, like his beautiful eyes. "Thank you, Tad." They sat together behind everyone else and listened to Mrs. Taylor read the story.
She read, to Arabella's excitement, The Velveteen Rabbit. The three-year-old would mouth out the words along with her. Mrs. Taylor noticed this and smiled. When the story was over, they had to go back to their seats.
"Today, class, I would like you to take out your crayons and I'll pass out a sheet of paper and I want you to draw a picture of your home," Mrs. Taylor said.
The children all smiled at each other and grinned, taking out their crayons from the compartment under the table. Arabella was proud of her sixty-four crayon box. She looked at Tad, who only had twelve. He smiled shyly at her, emptying his crayon box. Arabella felt bad for him. His mother probably didn't see the sixty-four pack.
"I'll share with you, if you like," Arabella said politely.
He nodded. "Tank you."
Mrs. Taylor came around and gave them each a sheet of white paper. Arabella immediately got to work, setting her crayon box in the middle of them, so he could borrow one he didn't have.
Tad noticed that he kept bumping her elbow. He looked and saw that she was using her other hand. He had never seen that before. "Why are you using that hand?" he asked curiously.
Arabella looked at him. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"You are using this hand," he held up his left. "I've never see dat before. I use this hand." He held up his right.
"Oh, well, I'm left-handed. A lefty. You're a righty. Not many people can write their left. Mummy told me some people use both," she explained.
"Dat's cool!" he exclaimed laughing.
They both got back to work. Arabella was the first one to finish. Mrs. Taylor saw that she was just sitting there and walked over to her. "You done already, Arabella?" she asked looking at her picture. She widened her eyes.
"Yes, ma'am. This is my home. Do you like it?" Arabella asked a little shy.
Mrs. Taylor was a little shocked. Her picture was amazing for a three-year-old. It would have been amazing for a nine-year-old. There was so much detail, and Mrs. Taylor drove by the home everyday to get to the preschool, so she knew what it looked like. Exactly like Arabella's picture.
She saw the vines colored in dark green, the Manor was straight, not crooked like some of the other houses she'd seen, the lion fountain was spouting out water. Mrs. Taylor thought Arabella had put exactly the right number of bars on the black wrought-iron gate. And the gold "P" was in cursive exactly like the real gate had.
Mrs. Taylor knelt down next to her. "This is really good, Arabella. How long have you been drawing?"
"About a year or two. Ever since I was two years old," she answered truthfully.
"Well, keep up the good work, Arabella," she said standing up still a little shocked.
"Thank you, ma'am." Arabella looked over at Tad's picture. Apparently, he had a very blue house, with a mailbox in the lawn. She wanted to laugh, but thought that wouldn't be polite. She still thought it was cute. "I like your drawing," she said.
"It's not as good as yours," he said stating the obvious.
"I still like it," she said trying to lift his spirits.
He smiled and nodded.
At noon, Mrs. Taylor called everyone to go and get their lunchboxes for lunch. Tad had a black and blue Batman lunchbox that he was proud of. Everyone sat at their tables and ate their lunches, conversing with each other. Tad had pototo chips, an apple juice box, and a peanut butter, and jelly sandwich, like Arabella, except for the chips. He shared his chips with her and she offered him some of her frosted animal crackers.
"Tank you, I wove da white ones," he said as she offered him some.
Arabella's fears of not finding a friend were slowly dissipating. She had found a friend in Tad Harrow, the shy, quiet, brown-haired, blue-eyed, cute boy; who liked her as a friend back.
After lunch, they let their food settle for about twenty minutes and then they were let loose to go outside. Ten children ran outside, while Arabella and Tad took their time. The three-year-old girl took his hand and said, "Come on." They ran out to the playground following everyone else. No one really talked to them. Walter, who was the troublemaker, was friends with Michael and Josh. They didn't really like Tad. They thought he was just a weird boy who didn't talk. Daniel, Tyler, and Andrew liked him, but didn't really talk to him. The four other girls immediately became friends. They thought Arabella to be a bit of a suck-up rich girl. Everyone except Madeliene. She seemed nice, but would only smile at her.
Arabella and Tad played tag until it was time to go inside. They were sweating a little bit, but no harm done. It was now naptime and they slept on mats on the carpet. Tad next to Arabella. They were inseparable. Tad was happy to find a friend and so was Arabella.
When it was time to go home, Arabella put on her jacket, zipped it up, put her folder back in her backpack, put it on her back, and then grabbed her lunchbox. The class left the room and went outside to the front to wait for their parents.
Arabella saw hers immediately and ran to them. "Mummy! Daddy!" Harry picked her up and hugged her, happy to see her again.
"Hey, princess, how was school?"
"Fun!" she responded happily. She looked behind her and saw Tad smiling at her from a distance. She smiled back and waved. He waved back shyly.
"Who's that, Arabella?" Hermione asked smiling.
"That's Tad," she stared at him.
Her new friend.
TBC...
Phew! That was long! Haha. Well there's the 1st chapter of "Additions". I know it may seem like it's all about Arabella, but it's not. I may accidentally do that, but I won't mean to. Haha.
Well, Arabella's got her 1st friend. I kept debating on whether it was going to be a boy or a girl. I wanted Madeliene to be her best friend, but I chose Tad, because Hermione's first friend was Harry. So it's like continuing.
Next chapter: parent-teacher conference. Uh oh! Haha.
Pleez review!
DREWHHR
