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Josephine's first year of preschool went very well, for both Josephine and for Rachel. For Rachel it was a way to know that Josephine would be safe from her father and safe from having to be left at the house alone while she worked. For Josephine it was a way to learn things she had never even thought about, like how to write her name. The other kids didn't think it was as cool or interesting as her, though; they much preferred to craft and play games all day than learn. The toddler soon grew to love school and all of the things she learned that she could go home and show Rachel after she picked her up. She also learned what it was like to have a friend. Riley would try and keep Tiffany away from Josephine as often as she could, but because she was older, Riley would get taken back to a room with the other older kids to learn more things like shapes, numbers, and how to read.

When Josephine had heard about Riley learning how to read, she begged the older girl to teach her, but she always refused or ignored her. She begged her Aunt Rachel to teach her, but she claimed that she didn't know how to read very well herself and wouldn't be able to teach her. Josephine even asked if Tiffany could teach her, but she told her she didn't know how to either. It seemed no one knew how, nor wanted to teach her how to read.

One day she asked the lady who ran the preschool if she could teach her how to read, but the lady just laughed and told her it was only for older kids. Of course, Josephine protested and said she was old enough. She was almost three, for goodness sake's! That's old enough to read! But she still told her no, that she was still too small to read. Josephine reluctantly left it at that and didn't ask her about it until a year later.

Since Riley was five the next year, she left the preschool to go to kindergarten at a different school, which left Tiffany to be able to play with Josephine whenever she wanted to. Josephine couldn't have been happier. They started playing every day at the preschool, and even over at Riley and Tiffany's house. Tiffany asked a few times if she could go over to Josephine's house, but every time Josephine asked Rachel if she could, she always made an excuse as to why she couldn't. Josephine didn't mind, though; Tiffany's house was really nice, and it had a lot more rooms to play and hide in than her own.

Now that she was three years old, she thought she was finally old enough to start reading. The lady, who she found out was named Ms. Kennedy, still told her she was too young to read, but both her and Tiffany thought the redhead was old enough to read. So, they made a plan to take a book from the back room where they were kept so she could try and read it.

It was the day Josephine and Tiffany had planned to steal the book, and the three-year old was anxiously shifting in the car seat in Rachel's car. "Are we there?" she asked for the tenth time since they started driving.

"No, Josephine," Rachel replied tiredly, rubbing her chest a bit. It had started hurting when she woke up.

Josephine kept shifting in her car seat, making Rachel sigh loudly. "Josephine, could you please sit still?"

"Can't help! I am excited!"

"Why is that?"

Josephine quickly covered her mouth with her hands, realizing she had said too much. "Nophing!"

Rachel briefly looked over her shoulder at Josephine, smiling. "Are you sure?"

"Mhm!"

"Well, ok. If you change your mind, I'll be here." She looked back out at the road.

Josephine turned and put her hands on the car window, looking out. She watched the other cars, buildings, and streets go by, following the path Rachel took every day to drop Josephine off at the preschool. They soon made it and the little girl tried to unbuckle herself, grunting in frustration when she couldn't. Her aunt came around and unbuckled her, and she darted out of the car, her fiery hair flying out behind her. She barely looked back to yell a 'Bye, Auntie!' to Rachel before she was in the building and running over to where she and Tiffany would meet.

Josephine didn't see her friend there yet, which happened a few times, so she waited impatiently for her to show up. After a grueling five minutes, Tiffany walked into the preschool with her mom behind her. Josephine bolted up to her feet and scampered over to her friend, grabbing her hand and pulling her over to their spot. Tiffany giggled and followed her, sitting down when her friend did.

"Ok. You remember plan?" Josephine asked her, exaggerating her whispering.

Tiffany nodded. "Mhm! When we do it?"

"Nap time."

"Ok. What we do now?"

Josephine thought about that. "We play dolls."

So, for the next couple of hours, the two little girls played dolls. They stopped halfway through to paint with the rest of the class (they had to paint their favorite animal; Josephine painted a dog), ate a small snack, and then went back to playing.

One short hour later, it was nap time, and time for the plan to go into place.

Ms. Kennedy put out the mats and blankets for them to nap on, and as planned, both Josephine and Tiffany asked for extra blankets, claiming they were cold. The lady gave them an extra blanket, and the two girls laid down with them and pretended to sleep. Ms. Kennedy checked on all of them before sitting in the chair behind her desk and starting to read. Josephine waited a couple minutes until she knew Ms. Kennedy would be too focused on her book to pay attention to move. She took the extra blanket off of her and put it under the other blanket, rolling out of it. She tried making it look like there was a person sleeping under it and looked over to Tiffany who was doing the same thing. They nodded to each other and slowly crawled away from their mats and the other sleeping kids.

Once they made it to the snack area, they both stood up, grinning widely. "We did it!" Tiffany exclaimed excitedly.

"Shh! She hear us!" Josephine told her, whispering. She pointed to towards the back room where Ms. Kennedy taught the older kids, and they ran back there.

Josephine slowly opened the door and poked her head in, making sure the coast was clear before going in. Tiffany followed behind her, bouncing on the balls of her feet and still grinning widely.

"Where are books?" Josephine asked her friend.

"Riley said in box."

"In box? What box?"

Tiffany shrugged, making Josephine sigh. "We look at all boxes then." The two girls split up and checked half of the room each for the boxes of books. Knowing they had to hurry before Ms. Kennedy noticed, they quickly searched the room.

After a few minutes, Josephine found a blue box in one of the craft closets and pulled it out, grinning when she saw what was in it. "Found them!"

"You did?"

"Mhm! Come see!"

Tiffany ran over and sat down next to Josephine, smiling when she saw the books. "What one you gonna take?"

"I don't know…" Josephine pulled a couple of the smaller books out and looked at the pictures.

Tiffany pointed to one with two bunnies on it. "This one?"

Josephine shook her head. "No."

She pointed to another one with a kid with red head on it. "This one?"

The little girl shook her head again. "No." Josephine continued looking through the books until she found one with a big, red dog on the front. She grinned. "This one."

Tiffany looked over her shoulder and smiled. "I like doggie."

"Me too. Let's go back."

The two toddlers put the box back and hurried back to the nap area. Josephine grabbed her coat from her cubby and hid the book under it so Ms. Kennedy wouldn't find it. She snuck back over to her mat, took the extra blanket out, and laid back down. Two short minutes later, a small ding! went off, signifying that nap time was over. Josephine grinned excitedly. Only one more hour until she could go home and read!

Josephine waved goodbye to her friend Tiffany when she left, sitting by her cubby with her jacket on and holding the book to her chest under it. Her feet hung off the ground from where she was sitting, occasionally tapping against the wood of the cubby. She was waiting for Rachel, as she did every day, but she was more excited this time. She didn't notice that a half hour had passed by until Ms. Kennedy walked up to her.

"Josephine? Where's your aunt?"

The little girl looked up at her, her blue eyes shining with excitement. "She coming!"

"She's late, though."

"She is?"

"Mhm. Would you like me to call your dad?"

Josephine scrunched her nose and shook her head. "No."

"Well, ok… I'll be calling him soon, though." After saying that, she walked back over to her desk.

The more Josephine thought about what she said, the more she wondered where her aunt was. She looked at the bright yellow clock on the wall, and even though she couldn't tell time, she could tell it was later than she usually picked her up at. She was confused, since she didn't tell the little girl that she'd be late. Where was she?