“Here, Kate, this is your doll,” said Marlee. “Her name is Roberta.”
Kate looked at Roberta. She had long black hair, a short red dress and skinny legs.
“She looks more like a Cindy to me,” said Kate.
“Her name is Roberta,” said Marlee.
“Oh,” said Kate.
“Now,” said Sarah, “Roberta is best friends with my doll, Linda, and they are going shopping.”
“And this doll is Lara,” said Marlee, holding a blond doll in a short yellow dress with skinny legs. All Marlee’s and Sarah’s dolls had short dresses and skinny legs.
“What’s Lara doing?” asked Kate.
“Lara is going shopping too, and she will bump into Roberta and Linda at the store. She doesn’t know that Roberta and Linda are buying her a birthday present.”
“Oh,” said Kate. “Are they doing anything else except shopping?”
“After shopping they are going to have lunch,” said Marlee.
“And then maybe they could go roller-skating?” suggested Kate.
“No,” said Sarah, “they don’t like to roller-skate.”
These dolls don’t like to do anything except shop and eat, thought Kate.
Roberta, Linda and Lara bought five pairs of shoes, two purses and six pairs of pants and had cream cheese-and-tuna sandwiches for lunch.
Kate tried to look interested, but it was hard. Kate hated shopping for shoes, purses or pants. She liked eating lunch, but she didn’t like playing lunch.
“Want to go down the slide?” she asked Marlee and Sarah after the dolls had finished lunch.
“Not now,” said Sarah. “We haven’t ordered dessert.”
“How about after dessert?” said Kate.
“Maybe,” said Marlee, “but the dolls may be too stuffed to go down the slide.”
“I don’t mean the dolls,” said Kate. “I mean us.”
“I really don’t like the slide,” said Sarah. “I once bumped my knee at the bottom.”
“Me neither,” said Marlee. “I once got a splinter in my finger from the wood.”
Kate sighed.
The bell rang. Recess was over.
“Tomorrow, let’s play fashion show,” said Sarah.
“Yes!” said Marlee.
Yuck, thought Kate.