THE CLASS PET WAS ALL anyone could talk about during snack, and during lunch and recess. Normally while Frankie waited for her turn in four-square, she tapped her feet impatiently. But on the day of the class-pet announcement, she made lists of rodents in her mind. By the time they came back inside, red-faced and sweaty, Frankie had settled it. Her first choice would be a rat. They were very smart animals, so you could teach them tricks. Sometimes they would even come when you called their names.
She put her coat back into her cubby. Ravi had the cubby next to hers. “What kind of animal do you want?” he asked.
“Rat,” she answered.
He nodded. “Good choice. Personally, I’m thinking of a mouse. I’m going to teach it to ride a toy motorcycle like in that book Ms. Adams read to us last year. The Mouse and the Motorcycle.”
“That was fiction, Ravi,” she told him. “You can’t teach a mouse to ride a motorcycle.” But all the while she wondered if maybe she could teach a rat to ride something, like maybe a little toy car that he powered with his feet.