It was the first day of school and children from all over the area were trekking to the one room schoolhouse that had served the community for many years. It was Ami's first day and she was very excited skipping circles around her cousins. She was finally getting to do something her brother Wil couldn't do, at least not for another two years and she was quite happy with that. Crale rolled his eyes at the girl's excitement. "You know it ain't all that fun, we don't get to be outside at all and the desks give you splinters."

"So I get to go to school, you guys already taught me my letters and I can count to 10. 1-2-3-5-6-7-9-10." Ami looked very proud with her self even though she had missed a couple of numbers.

Craig felt it was his duty to point that out. "Hey Stupid you didn't do it right. It is 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Mr. Larson makes you sit in the corner if you don't learn your lessons, I bet you'll be there a lot."

Ami stuck out her lower lip, "I'm telling Aunt Rose you called me Stupid, and Mr. Larson won't make me sit in the corner, he likes me."

"That's only at church, at school he is a really mean guy." Craig decided that it would be fun to frighten his little cousin. "If you talk out of turn in class he slaps you with a ruler or if you are really bad he'll take you outside and switch you."

Ami's eyes got huge and filled with tears, Crale had enough, "Craig stop it she don't need to go there scared. If you keep this up I'll tell Pop then you will get it."

Ami looked up at Crale as she moved closer and grabbed his hand. She smiled huge showing off her small white teeth. She was very lucky she had a big cousin like Crale to protect her from the bullies and no one not even Craig, was going to be able to hurt her. Craig looked ashamed and reached out a hand to Ami.

"I am sorry I was just playing with you, okay? You ain't gonna tell Ma are you?"
Ami looked as if she was considering then slowly said, "I guess I won't tell Aunt Rose, but if you do it again I will."

"Good." He would have said more but the sounding of the bell cut him off.
Crale reached down and grabbed Ami's "You better run fast or we're gonna be really late." They took off running and made it in just as Mr. Larson was closing the door.

"Well good morning Crale, Craig, it is so good that you made it on time." Some of the other children snickered, a look from Mr. Larson stilled them. "Well you know your seats please take them." Both boys hung up their hats and placed their lunch pail on the shelf. "So Ami Oberg, you can put your hat there and go sit next to Angie. She is going to be your seat mate."

Ami nodded and stood on her toes to put her bonnet on the peg next to her cousin's hats. She then walked over to where Mr. Larson had indicated and sat next to a girl she assumed was Angie.

"Now class I want to welcome you back to a new school year, as many of you know this is my last year here. I have been called to go teach in Manitoba, as the school board hasn't found a new teacher yet those of you who want to continue your education will be able to do so in Lincoln. Let's begin. We will say the 23rd Psalm and the Lord's Prayer."

Ami was a bit confused, neither Craig nor Crale had said anything about having to recite something before class even stated. She stood with the rest of the class discretely as possible turning her head to glare at Craig for not warning her of this, then turning her eyes to the front and slowly reciting the required passages along with her classmates. After Mr. Larson had prayed a short prayer he motioned for all the students to sit down.

"First class please come forward the rest of you take out your spellers and begin to memorize this weeks list of words on page 6." Ami and the other 4 children in her class slowly made their way up to Mr. Larson's desk. "Since this is your first day of school I am going to tell you a couple of rules that will make everything go a lot smother for you.

First; if you are late you will be kept inside at recess, today is an exception. Second if you don't finish your lessons for the day I expect you to either; stay after and finish them, or to take them home and finish them there. Third I do not accept misconduct, there will be no note passing, you can whisper but only to your seat mate if they are done, failure to do obey this will mean you have to sit on the other side of the class room.

Today we are going to see how much you already know. I want you to take your slates and write out as many letters, numbers and words that you already know. You can go back to your seats."

Ami and the others slowly filed back to their seats and Ami reached for the slate her mother had giving her. Just before she could get it though, Angie picked it up and started using it. "Hey that's mine."
"It's mine now."

"Give it back, my mama gave it to me. She used it when she was my age." Ami grabbed the slate and pulled on it.
"Have her get you another one princess this one is mine." Angie pulled harder not giving Ami and inch.

"Give me back my slate." Ami's voice rose with each word. Angie resisted and a small scuffle broke out.
Mr. Larson came over then, pulling the pair apart as he cleared his throat. "Girls what is the meaning of this?"

Ami looked at him, "Angie took my slate and says it's hers now."
"She's lying my pa gave me this slate it was my ma's when she was my age." Angie protested throwing in a few fake tears.
"Ami? Is this true?" Mr. Larson raised an eyebrow.

"It's my slate, my mama gave it to me. She scratched her name onto it when she was in school, see there it says Sarah Joanne Michelin." Ami pointed to the back of the slate where in very shaky letters the name was scratched.

"I see well then Angie I believe we need to have a small talk about taking other's property." Mr. Larson motioned for Angie to stand and then walked over to his desk. They spoke in low tones then he led Angie to her new seat in the boys' section.

Ami finished her lesson very quickly, she had remembered all of her letters and had even gotten all the numbers straight. She began to write out the simple words her mother had taught her over the summer and soon began to doodle on the back of the slate. She decided that school wasn't as much fun as she had thought, maybe she could get Mama to teach her at home.

Ami was brought back to the classroom by Mr. Larson clearing his throat, "Miss Oberg, I dismissed the class for recess, will you be joining them?" Ami blushed and got up from her chair and went outside to the playground.

"Short stuff what did you do now? I thought everyone liked recess." Craig walked over to Ami as she stepped out of the schoolhouse. She gave him a dirty look and went over to sit in the shade of the building.

"I didn't do nothing. I just didn't hear Mr. Larson say it was time for recess that's all." Ami tried to brush it off like it was no big deal.
"Oh okay well don't miss the bell ending recess or it means trouble for you." Craig said trying to be helpful.

"I know that," Ami wrinkled her nose at her older cousin leaning against the building. Two older girls walked up then, both giggling behind their hands.

"Can we sit here?" The older one asked.
"Go ahead." Ami glanced at them before closing her eyes.

"How did you get Craig Swanson to talk to you?" The younger girl asked, as she looked at the boy in question.
"Get him to talk to me? He is my cousin." Ami looked at the two girls skeptically.

"Oh, well I am Kristy and this is Jenny. So what are they like? Craig and Crale." Kristy asked.

"They're boys, they like hiking and swimming and finding bugs and stuff." Ami said matterefactly. The other two girls paled a bit but before they could respond a cry of "Heads up" was heard and a ball hit the wall near Ami's head.

"Hey can you throw that over here?" Ami looked to where the boys were playing ball and picked up the ball as if to toss it to the guy coming near her, but suddenly she whipped the hand with the ball and neatly got it out to Crale who caught it with a smile. The boys looked at the pint sized girl in surprise as Mr. Larson rang the bell to end recess.

The boy who had been coming for the ball came up to Ami as they trouped toward the building, "How fast can you run?"
Ami shrugged, "Pretty fast."
"Can you catch as well as you throw?"
"Yeah, Crale taught me over the summer."
The guy whistled low in appreciation, "You wanna play ball with us at lunch."

Ami thought for a moment then broke into a huge grin, "Sure."
"Jeremy Olson."
"Ami Oberg."
"Okay well you're gonna be on my team." Ami smiled as she sat back in her chair. Maybe school wouldn't be all that bad after all.