Pearl met me in the school lobby the next morning.
As soon as she saw me,
she started jumping up and down.
“You’re a star!” she cried. “A shining star!”
“What are you talking about?” I said.
She took my hand and pulled me down the hall,
all the way to the bulletin board
outside the music room.
Mrs. Quaid had posted the cast list.
“Mama Rabbit: Eleanor Kane,”
the list said.
And,
“Bunny Son: Nicholas Rigby.”
Lots of other kids got parts, too.
Katie and Nora and Adam
which made me happy.
Because I could spend those afternoons with them.
But I was a little worried about my part.
“You don’t think I have a solo, do you?”
I asked Pearl.
“You might!” she said, very excited.
“Your part is the first one listed!
It must be big!”
“I don’t want a solo!” I said.
Because singing a Christmas song quietly in music class
with someone else
was not the same
as singing all by myself
on the school stage
in front of an enormous crowd.
As the day went on,
I hated my role more and more.
Because every time Nicholas walked by my desk,
he said,
“Hey there, Mama!”
And
when Ainsley sat down for lunch with me and Pearl,
she said, “How’s your little baby?”
So everyone at the table laughed at me.
Including Pearl!
And then,
in the middle of history,
Nicholas passed me a note.
He’d drawn a picture of me
wearing an apron and saying,
“Would you like a fresh carrot, dear?”
That was the first picture of Nicholas’s
that I ever ripped up.
After all that,
I thought my day had to get better.
Mrs. Quaid handed out
the script.