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The air in the classroom felt different, as it had the previous two days. Neviril had been absent, and today marked the third day. For the most part, things didn't change. Paraietta had been lost without her best friend, but Kaimu had teamed up with her. The teacher had told them that Neviril had been sick, but would probably return tomorrow.

Dominura surveyed the classroom, taking everything in. She stood alone near the tables. She'd brought a box of crayons and some paper to the table. Despite having been in kindergarten a couple of weeks, she had yet to make a good friend. Mostly, she kept to herself, and the other girls had been content to leave her alone.

Sitting at the table, she pulled a black crayon from the box. She gripped it and began drawing on the blank piece of paper. She drew a picture of herself, surrounded by the other girls in the class. In the background, a small figure with pink hair watched. Dominura placed her crayons back into the box. Satisfied, she took the picture to her cubby. She wanted the attention Neviril got. Now seemed like a good time to try it.

After putting the crayons and paper away, she walked over to one of the groups playing. Paraietta was sitting in a row of chairs, and at the very front was Kaimu, hands held in front of her.

"Vroom Vroom! Beep! Hey watch it!" called Kaimu. "I'm trying to drive a bus here!"

Paraietta sat in the back of the bus, not saying a word. She looked straight ahead, a small smile on her face. She was amused by Kaimu's actions.

"I want to play too," announced Dominura.

Paraietta looked at her and Kaimu turned around. "Sure you can," replied Kaimu. "You have to wait until I get to the next bus stop. Then you can get on."

"Why can't I get on now?"

"Because I'm driving on the road still, silly and—" She turned back around quickly, pretending to swerve. "That's not where you walk, stupid!"

Ignoring what Kaimu said, Dominura sat in a chair in front of Paraietta. Kaimu didn't see her, but Paraietta spoke up. "You're not playing right."

"But I wanted to get on the bus."

"That's why you wait for the bus stop. You can't get on a moving bus."

Dominura rose from her seat and walked away. She bit her bottom lip. It didn't make any sense. What did make sense was that that was not the way to get attention. She was sure that Neviril would have followed the rules. Dominura decided to try again. She looked around for another group. She spotted Morinas, Aaeru, and Alti playing with the blocks. She watched them for a few moments, and then walked over.

"We need more on top!" called Aaeru. "Get more of the little blocks."

Alti did as Aaeru asked, taking many colorful squares and placing them on top of the tallest building. Morinas was working on a set of smaller buildings, carefully studying where to place each piece.

"I want to play," called Dominura.

Aaeru looked at her. "Okay! You can get the long blocks and build another tower."

This time, Dominura did as asked. She carefully placed the blocks together, making a building half the size of the tall tower Aaeru had worked on. She was adding a square block on top to make the roof when Aaeru spoke up once more. "Okay, we're ready. Everyone move back!"

Before Dominura could protest, Aaeru held out her arms "Rawr! I'm going to destroy the city!" she growled, waving about her arms. She walked directly into the buildings, and they came tumbling down.

Dominura got to her feet. "That wasn't fair! I was still building!"

Aaeru blinked and looked at her, confused. "That's how the game was played. We built the towers and then they got destroyed by a bear."

The teacher interrupted, gently taking Aaeru by the hand. "Come with me, Aaeru. I think we need to talk about the rules for the block center again."

"Let's build more towers that don't need to be destroyed," said Dominura, getting back on her knees.

Alti and Morinas stood in their spots. "It's not as fun that way. Aaeru's way is more fun," replied Morinas.

"Yeah," added Alti. Together, the two of them began picking up their blocks. Dominura didn't want to play with the blocks by herself, so she helped put them away too.

After the blocks were stored back on the shelves, Dominura decided not to try to find another group. How did Neviril do it? She thought about this as she went over to the library center and plopped onto a beanbag chair. Yun was in her favorite spot, reading. She didn't say a word. For awhile, Dominura tried to think of ways to join the groups and make friends.

"You can't be Neviril," spoke Yun matter-of-factly to her.

"Huh?" asked Dominura, looking up.

"Don't try to be Neviril. Just be you." Yun never looked up from her book and continued to read.

Dominura nodded. "Okay… I'll try to do that." Yun seemed like she was right. If she tried to get attention from everyone, she wasn't being herself. She was only copying Neviril. Next time, she'd play differently.