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For the first year of her life, Josephine lived a fairly normal life. Whatever Rachel could scrape together from her paycheck, after buying food for herself, was put towards Josephine to feed her and get clothes for her to wear. She even saved up a bit of her money to buy some yarn and knitting needles to make a doll for the little girl. Though, she found that her skills were a little rusty, and that she moved much slower than she used to. Eventually, Rachel felt bad enough to steal a little of Nathanial's money to go out and buy a doll for little Josephine, who had grown greatly since the cold, winter night she was delivered on.
The next year was the year of the big snow storm. Over two foot of snow fell in one night, boxing everyone in the neighborhood in. Neither Rachel nor Nathanial could go to work, and because of the broken heating unit, they were forced to wait it out by the gas stove to keep warm. During that time, Josephine became sick and forced Rachel to take the baby to the hospital, where she was treated for hypothermia. Because of the hospital bills, Nathanial and Rachel were forced to sell his house and move to a cheaper one in an even worse neighborhood. That was the year she signed Josephine up for preschool, so she could be safe while her aunt was working.
Josephine scampered ahead of Rachel towards the door of the preschool, her already long red hair flying behind her. "Auntie, Auntie! Hur-ry!" she squealed, looking back.
Rachel smiled and walked slowly after her. "I'm coming, Josephine. Your auntie's back is hurting."
The little two-year old didn't hear what she said and stopped at the colorfully painted doors, bouncing on her feet. She grunted with the effort, trying to push open the door with her shoulder, but couldn't until Rachel walked up beside her and helped her push. The door opened and Josephine grinned, running inside.
Immediately once she went in, Josephine's eyes widened in wonder. The walls were covered in a multitude of papers, colored in crayon or glued together with other paper. There were pictures with glitter and string and sequins and even noodles, of make believe animals and houses and families. Other kids sat at tables making more pictures or playing with all sorts of toys, more than the little girl had ever seen before. She smiled widely and attempted to run over to them, but was stopped when Rachel grabbed the back of her shirt. Josephine tried to pull out of her grasp, but huffed when she couldn't.
Rachel talked to the lady who came up to them, and after a bit, Rachel crouched down in front of Josephine and held the little girl by her shoulders. "I'm going to leave for a bit, ok? I'll be back to pick you up later. Be good, and be respectful to the other kids."
Josephine nodded. "Yes, Auntie."
Rachel smiled. "Alright. Have fun." She went to slowly stand up before Josephine rushed forward and hugged her. The woman smiled warmly and hugged her back. Josephine soon pulled out of the hug and grinned at her aunt. "Bye bye, Auntie!"
"Bye, Josephine. I'll see you soon." The toddler ran off and Rachel slowly stood back up, thanking the lady and leaving.
Josephine first ran over to the collection of toys on the other side of the play area. She saw a group of girls playing with little dolls and went over to them. "Hi! I'm Josephine!" she told them.
The two little girls looked up and the younger one of them smiled. The older one frowned slightly. "Hi. I'm Riley. This is my little sister, Tiffany." She pointed to her younger sister.
Tiffany grinned. "Hi! Wanna play?"
Josephine nodded and plopped down on the ground. Tiffany grabbed one of the dolls they had and tried to hand it to Josephine before her sister snatched it away.
"That one's mine," Riley snapped, setting it beside her pile of other ones.
"What one hers?" Tiffany asked.
Riley looked over Josephine, taking in her faded striped shirt with a small stain on the sleeve and her short jeans with rips in the knees. She looked over her collection before picking one out, its hair halfway cut. "She gets this one."
Josephine smiled and accepted the doll. "Thank you!"
"Tell her what we do!" Tiffany said excitedly, bouncing a little.
Riley rolled her eyes. "They're having a tea party. My doll, Molly, started it."
"Mine named Wendy!" her sister squeaked, holding up her blonde Barbie doll.
"I name mine?" Josephine asked.
"Mhm!"
The redhead looked over the doll in her hand. It was a lot prettier than the one she had at home, so she wanted to think of a very pretty name for it. She scrunched her nose in thought. "Her name… Flower."
"Flower? That's not a name," Riley told her matter-of-factly. "A name is like Sarah or Jenny."
"But she pretty. Flower is pretty," Josephine replied innocently.
"It's not a name. Her name will be… Lily. See? That's a kind of flower. It's almost the same."
"Ok."
"So have Lily come over to Molly and Wendy."
Josephine nodded and moved her doll over to the other ones. She saw the other two dolls sitting and made hers do the same.
"Now you take the cup and make them drink," Riley explained, showing her.
Josephine picked up one of the tiny cups and looked in it. "There nothing in mine."
"It's for pretend," Tiffany told her.
The two-year old didn't quite understand. "I go get som-phing." She set her cup down and quickly got up, running over to the table where the other kids were crafting. She saw someone with a little cup of water for painting and took it off the table, not hearing the kid she stole it from shout at her. She hurried back over to them, some of the water splashing out, but didn't realize her shoelace had come untied. Just before she made it to her two new friends she tripped on the shoelace and fell forward with a squeak. The cup fell out of her hands, and as she landed on her stomach on the carpet, the water splashed out to hit the two girls and the dolls.
Riley squeezed her eyes shut as she was splashed, her mouth open and catching some of the water. She opened them and spat out the water, looking down at her now ruined dress. She let out a high pitched scream, causing all of the other kids to look over and for Josephine to wince. Riley looked over at Josephine and glared at her furiously. "You ruined it!" she shouted angrily.
Josephine sat up a little and cowered away from the girl. "I didn't mean to…"
"You got water everywhere! Tiffany said to just pretend! And now you ruined Molly!" She held up her wet doll before throwing it to the ground childishly. She got up to her feet and ran over to the lady at the front, crying the whole way there.
Josephine looked over at Tiffany who hadn't reacted much. It surprised the redhead, since her dress was ruined, too. "You mad, too?"
Tiffany looked down at her dress and then at the wet carpet and dolls. She shook her head. "Not mad. Just wet."
Josephine smiled a little at that before she felt herself be pulled up by her arm. Once on her feet, she turned and saw that the lady from earlier had grabbed her. "Come on, you two. Let's settle this, ok?" She spoke softly, which made the toddler feel a little better. The lady took her hand and led her over to where Riley was sitting on a chair and trying to wipe away the water on her dress. She stopped beside her.
"So, can anyone tell me what happened?" the woman asked.
"She spilled water on me!" Riley exclaimed loudly.
"On purpose?"
"Yes!"
"Josephine?"
The little girl looked over at the lady and shook her head. "I went for tea."
"We were pretending to have a tea party and she brought water and spilled it everywhere!"
The lady looked at Josephine. "Did you mean to spill it?"
She shook her head. "I falled."
"Riley, I think this was all a misunderstanding. She didn't mean to spill water on you; it was an accident."
Riley huffed and crossed her arms, looking away with her chin raised. The lady looked at Josephine again. "Could you apologize to Riley for accidentally spilling the water?"
Josephine nodded, scuffing her heel on the carpet a little. "Sorry, Riley."
Riley made a hmph! Noise, but otherwise didn't respond. The lady sighed softly. "Alright. Why don't we all have a snack?" she asked, raising her voice so the other kids could hear. They all cheered and ran over to a set of clean tables, talking to each other excitedly.
Josephine saw Tiffany get up from the ground, holding her doll, and started to walk over to her. She felt Riley shove past her, making her stumble, and walk over to her sister. She grabbed the younger girl's arm and pulled her away to one of the tables. Josephine went after them and attempted to sit down next to Tiffany when Riley glared at her, silently telling her she couldn't sit there. Feeling a little sad, she moved over to another table with no one at it and sat down, resting her head on her arms.
The lady walked around with little Dixie cups full of animal crackers, giving one to each kid. She gave Josephine a sympathetic look as she set her cup down in front of her before walking away to give the other kids theirs. The little girl looked down at her cup and sighed softly, picking one up and munching on it.
She heard someone come over to her and looked up to see Tiffany at her table. She had an animal cracker in her hand.
"I'm sorry," she said, handing Josephine the elephant shaped cracker.
Josephine smiled and took the cracker. "Thank you." Tiffany smiled back and was about to say something when she was called back by her sister. She waved to Josephine before retreating back to her table with Riley.
Josephine looked at the little elephant animal cracker before looking over at where Tiffany was sitting, smiling. Even though Riley didn't like her very much, she was happy that she found a friend in Tiffany. Eating the cracker, she thought of what she was going to tell her aunt later when she picked her up, and thought of how the future would be with her new friend.