"No!" The small blonde-haired girl cried, reaching out for her doll. "Give it back! It's mine!"

The boy laughed. "You're such a baby! If you want the doll, Amber, you're going to have to get it." He held the doll up high above his head, and Amber jumped, trying to snatch it away. But the boy was so tall!

"Jerome, that isn't fair! Give me my doll!" She was close to tears, and had felt like giving up.

Jerome laughed again. "Ha ha! You can't reach!"

Amber stamped her foot and pouted, then she looked around the classroom to see if Mrs. Evans, her teacher, was around. Instead, she saw her small black-haired friend, sitting with her nose stuck in a book.

"Mara!" Amber called out. "Come here!"

Mara walked over to Amber and Jerome, tucking the book, entitled 'Kipper's Diary', under her arm. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Jerome looked this 'Mara' up and down curiously. He thought she was really pretty.

"Jerome's not giving me my dolly, Mara! He's being so mean to me," Amber flicked her waist-length hair over her shoulder and crossed her arms. "Tell him to give it back!"

"That's not nice, Jerome," Mara scolded, wagging her finger at him. "Give the dolly back to her."

Jerome complied, and when Amber had her doll back, she went running off to play with her.

"That was nice." Mara commented.

"Yes, but now I have nothing to do," he whined.

"You can play with me if you want." Mara told him, not wanting him to be alone. That wasn't a nice thing to do, and Mara loved to be nice.

"Okay," said Jerome. "What should we do?"

"We can look at books!" Mara said enthusiastically, waving the one in her hands at him.

"Can you read?" Jerome asked her. "I can't."

"No. I like looking at the pictures. When I'm big, I'm going to read lots and lots of books!" she told him.

"Uh, let's do something else," Jerome suggested. He thought reading was boring. He was only five, and he couldn't even do it yet, but he did try with help from the teachers.

"Then we can-"

Mara was cut off by Amber's call. "Mara! Jerome! Let's play weddings!"

Jerome shrugged. "We can play with everyone else," he told her, tugging on her hand.

Mara agreed, and he led her over to the other kids. He knew them as Amber, Alfie, Fabian, Patricia, Mick, and Joy.

"Me and Mick will be wedding-ed first!" Amber announced. Mick ran over to Patricia who was on the other side of the classroom.

"Everyone else, you have to sing the wedding song when I go to Mick, then Patricia will make us married," Amber informed us.

"Duh, duh duh-duuuuh!" The children sang together as Amber walked over to Mick, holding her doll as if it were a bouquet. When she reached Mick, they held hands, looking at each other shyly.

"Amber," Patricia began. "Do you want to marry Mick?"

"I do," Amber replied, giggling.

Patricia turned to Mick. "And do you want to marry Amber?"

Mick smiled. "Yes." Mara thought that he was handsome. Too bad he was married now.

"You can hug now," Patricia announced. They did, giggling the whole time. Then when they broke apart, they ran over to the others.

"That's not fair!" Alfie, the dark-skinned boy whined. "I said I wanted to marry Amber first!"

He did, in fact, but Amber really wanted to marry Mick. She still felt guilty, though.

"Okay, okay. Um, you can marry me at the end," she said, trying to appease him.

It worked. Alfie agreed happily. "Okay!"

"Next, we can have... Mara and Jerome's wedding!" Amber squealed.

"No!" Joy cried. "Do me and Fabian first, me and Fabian!" She jumped up and down, pulling on Fabian's arm. She really wanted to marry him; they were a perfect couple.

Unfortunately for her, Fabian didn't agree. He didn't want to get married yet, it was such a big step. He wanted to get married when he was really big, like fourty years old.

"I don't want to get married," he said shyly. "I'm too small. My mummy and daddy won't like it."

At the mention of 'mummy and daddy', Jerome had gotten sad. His mummy and Daddy didn't love him. They wouldn't care if he got married. He sniffed, and Mara turned to him.

"Are you okay?" she asked, giving his hand a squeeze.

"I'm fine," he told her.

She nodded, and Jerome had a thought. Maybe, if he got married to someone as kind and pretty as Mara, his parents would love him! It was a good idea.

"Me and Mara will get married first!" He announced, running over to Patricia. Mara giggled. She wouldn't mind getting married to Jerome, they were friends now.

"Yay!" Amber cheered

Joy stamped her foot, but didn't protest further. "Duh, duh duh-duuuhh!" The children sand again, and Mara shyly walked over to Jerome, stumbling a few times. When she had reached him, Jerome proudly took her hands.

"Mara," Patricia said, turning to her. "Do you want to marry Jerome?"

"I do," she answered softly.

"And you, Jerome?" Patricia asked.

"I do," he told her.

"Good. You may now hug each other."

Mara opened up her arms to hug Jerome, but he thought that a hug wasn't official enough. He quickly planted a kiss on Mara's unsuspecting lips before she could object. As he did it, there was an audible gasp.

"Jerome!" Amber gasped. "You... kissed her!"

Jerome shrugged. "So?"

"You're going to have babies!"

Jerome gasped too, and put a hand to his mouth. He wasn't ready to be a father! He looked over to Mara apolegetically.

"I'm sorry, Mara. I just wanted the wedding to be real," he told her.

Mara shrugged, and took his hand. "I don't mind," she assured him. "It's going to be like having a doll! We'll be the best parents ever."

Jerome grinned at her. Yes, they would be. Much better than his own parents, anyway.