Anna awakened to her mother's gentle shaking.

"Wake up, Anna. You remember what day it is, don't you?"

Anna rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Oh, yeah! It's the first day of school, isn't it?"

"That's right! Come have your breakfast, now."

Anton was just finishing his sausage and eggs before heading to his office. He smiled as his daughter came to the table.

"Good morning, big girl!"

"Mornin', daddy." Anna rubbed her eyes and yawned again as she sat in her usual place at the table. Patty placed a bowl of cereal and a cup of orange juice before her, then went to awaken Simon.

Anton finished his coffee and then stood up. "I am off to work now. I hope you have a wonderful first day of school,Anna." He kissed the top of Anna's head. Patty re-appeared, holding her still half-asleep son. She and Anton embraced and kissed, and then Anton left the house.

Anna finished breakfast and put on her new red and black checked dress with the frilly white collar and her red socks with her new saddle shoes. Patty put Simon in his stroller, and they began the walk to school.

It was still early morning, and the grass was wet with dew. After awhile, they met up with Max and Laura. Laura was going into third grade, and Max was going into sixth. It would be his last year in elementary school before moving up to junior high.

"Hi, Laura!" called Anna. "Want to walk with us?"

"OK." Laura fell into step beside her friend. Embarrassed to be seen walking with two younger girls and a woman pushing a baby stroller, Max walked a little ways apart from them.

"You're gonna like Miss Barlow," Laura told Anna. "She's nice."

"What's your new teacher's name?" asked Anna.

"Miss Nelson."

Soon they reached the school. It was made of red brick and was two stories high. Anna clung tightly to Laura's hand as the children entered the building together. At Miss Barlow's door, Patty said goodbye to her daughter and left pushing Simon in his stroller.

Anna felt very small as she entered the classroom alone. Miss Barlow sat at her desk in front of a large blackboard with the letters of the alphabet posted over it. Anna, who already knew how to spell her name, recognized some of them. Four rows of desks filled the classroom. Miss Barlow led Anna to a desk about halfway down the fourth row. Anna saw that her name was taped to the top. She sat at the desk and opened the drawer beneath it to find her books and school supplies inside. She glanced around the room nervously. A little girl with shoulder-length brown hair and blue eyes smiled at her, and she smiled back.

When all the children had arrived, Miss Barlow called the class to order.

"When I call your name, say 'here'," she instructed them.

Most of the morning was occupied with learning the pledge of allegiance and morning prayer, and that 'A' is for 'Apple.'

"A is for Anna, too!" Anna burst out, without thinking.

Miss Barlow smiled. "That's right, Anna, but when we want to say something in this class, we raise our hand and wait for the teacher to call on us."

"I'm sorry," Anna muttered, staring at the top of her desk.

"That's all right. Just please, try to remember from now on."

Anna was so embarrassed she hardly heard anything else for the rest of the morning, and then the children were let outside for recess. Anna was headed for the swings when she heard a voice behind her.

"Your name's Anna." She turned to see the brown-haired girl who'd smiled at her that morning.

"How'd you know?"

"I heard Miss Barlow call you that."

"Oh, yeah." Reminded of her earlier blunder, Anna felt her face heating up again.

"Mine's Mary Lou." The girl climbed onto the swing next to Anna's.

"Your name's longer than mine." Anna was thinking of the name tags on the desks and wondering how the teacher had had enough room to write Mary Lou's name.

"It's really Mary Louise, but I'm called Mary Lou. Do you like ice cream and candy?"

"Of course I do!"

"My parents own Susan's Sweets," Mary Lou bragged. "It's named after my Mommy. Her name's Susan. It sells ice cream and all kinds of candy, and me and my sisters eat it every day!"

"Wow!" Startled, Anna stopped swinging. "You mean you can have as much ice cream and candy as you want, every day?"

Mary Lou slowed her swing, too. "Not as much as we want. Mommy only lets us have one ice cream and a few candies a day, but we get to choose, and if your Mommy says you can come over and play with me, you can have ice cream and candy, too!"

"I'll ask her when she comes to pick me up," said Anna.