Ramira and the Rainy Day

The sky was a dark and dingy gray. Huge drops of rain poured down nonstop from the sky. Ramira Soto miserably starred out the window. "Mommy, I'm bored!" she complained. She couldn't believe it was raining. She wanted to go out and play. Mommy had promised to take her to the park.

"Don't worry." Mommy assured her cheerfully. "We'll go another day."

That didn't make Ramira feel one tiny little bit better. She didn't want to go another day. She wanted to go today. She frowned miserably at her mother. Now what was she going to do?

Mommy laughed. "Oh, don't be so pouty." she said reaching out and lifting Ramira's chin. "Come on, you can help me with breakfast."

Ramira frowned again. That didn't sound fun at all. Mommy was probably only going to let her set the table like always and that was boring. However, Ramira couldn't be more wrong. Mommy let her break the eggs and add the cheese and mix them. She let Ramira put bread in the toaster to make toast and even carefully butter it. Ramira pretended she was a cook in a restaurant. 1It was a lot of fun.

"Thanks for letting me help you, Mommy." said Ramira gratefully after they had eaten and finished cleaning up.

"No, problem, sweetie." replied Mommy.

Ramira glanced out the window hoping the rain had stopped by now. Unfortunately, it hadn't. Ramira sighed deeply. She didn't know what she was going to do now. 

"Why don't you come and help me?" suggested Mommy. Ramira frowned and didn't move. Mommy stuff was boring. "Come and help me." Mommy said again this time making it clear that it wasn't really a suggestion. Ramira reluctantly trudged after her mother.

The first job was the laundry. That turned out to be surprisingly fun. The bedrooms where the hampers were was upstairs. The laundry room was downstairs. Mommy let Ramira throw the laundry down the stairs instead of carrying it all down. Ramira pretended she was throwing garbage down a chute.

Afterwards, they went downstairs and Mommy let Ramira help sort the laundry by tossing it into separate piles. Ramira pretended she was a famous actress dividing up clothes to giveaway to poor people. When they were done sorting, Mommy even let her jump in the piles for a little bit with her shoes off. Ramira pretended she was jumping in big piles of leaves.

After they sorted the laundry, Ramira helped Mommy make the beds and straighten the bedrooms. She pretended she was a maid in a fancy hotel working to support her five children. That made it more fun.

By the time they finished that it was lunch time. Mommy let Ramira open a can of tunfish and drain and pour it into bowl. Then, Mommy let her add the mayonnaise and mix it. Mommy even let her scoop the tuna onto the bread to make sandwiches. Ramira pretended that Mommy was the little girl, and she was the Mommy. "Now, eat all of your lunch sweetie or you'll be hungry." she said to her mother as they sat down to eat. Mommy smiled at Ramira.

After lunch, Ramira helped Mommy some more. She kept imagining and pretending different things, and it was all a lot of fun. The chores went quickly with Ramira's help so late in the day they even had some extra time to play Scrabble Jr. and Monopoly Jr. before it was time to make dinner.

For dinner, Ramira helped Mommy make spaghetti sauce. She opened the can of sauce and added spices and stirred. She help Mommy fill the pasta pot with water and pour in the spaghetti when it was time and stir that too.

At dinner time, Daddy had three platefuls. "Who made this delicious dinner?" he asked.

"Me and Mommy did." replied Ramira proudly.

That night when Mommy was putting Ramira to bed, she asked. "Did you have fun helping Mommy today?" Ramira nodded happily. "It turned out to be not so bad for a rainy day, didn't it?" said  Mommy.

Ramira smiled and reached up and hugged Mommy tightly. "I hope it rains again tomorrow!" she said.

Tabitha Gets A Tummy Ache

Tabitha Shilling loved candy. She loved lollipops and gumdrops and taffy and all sorts of candy. If it was sticky and gooey and sugary, she loved it. Her favorite by far was anything chocolate. She just couldn't stay away from it. If she saw chocolate, she had to have it. When Mommy and Daddy noticed that Tabitha was getting a little bit plump, they banned candy from the house.

Tabitha's was watching  cartoons on TV. There were always so many food commercials especially candy ones. It made Tabitha's mouth water hungrily. She was trying to be good and eat better. She really was, but she so missed chocolate. When yet another candy commercial came on, this one for Snickers, one of Tabitha's particular favorite candies, she turned off the TV in disgust.

She went looking for her older sister, Teresa. Tabitha adored her big sister. She was everything that Tabitha wanted to be. She was tall, skinny, pretty, smart and popular. Teresa wasn't in her room but her blue and gold pom poms were laid out her bed. Teresa was on the high school cheerleading team. Tabitha ran the pom poms ribbons through her fingers. She closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to be a cheerleader like Teresa. She slipped off the bed and wandered over to Teresa's closet to glimpse at her sister's cheerleader uniform so she could imagine it even better.

As soon as she opened the closet, she got distracted by a box on the floor and forgot all about cheerleading. It was a big box full of candy. There were M & Ms and Twizzlers and Hershey Bars and best of all Snickers. Tabitha's eyes opened wide with delight and she licked her lips hungrily. She opened the box. It was heavy and  full. She took a Snickers bar out of the box and held it in her hand with the wrapper still on. She just wanted to feel it in her hand that's all. She wasn't going to eat it. Then, she just wanted to smell it so she opened the wrapper a little bit. Then, she just had to see it so she opened the wrapper the whole way. She was sure just one tiny little bite wouldn't hurt so she took a tiny taste. That tiny bite was just a tease it wasn't nearly enough for her to taste any of that nutty chocolatey caramely goodness so she took a slight bigger bite. She decided to take another bite and then another and another and before she knew it she had eaten the whole bar. Afterwards, she was overcome by guilt, and she didn't want Teresa to know what she had done. She quickly closed the closet and left the room taking the candy wrapper with her.

In her own room, she threw the candy wrapper away and pushed it all the way down to the bottom of her very full garbage can. She sat down on her bed and picked up a book. She couldn't concentrate on it though. She couldn't stop thinking of the rest of those candy bars lying all chocolately and delicious at the bottom of Teresa's closet. She decided to play with her toys instead, but she couldn't keep her mind on that either. She snuck back into her sister's room, went into the closet and got another candy bar out. This time, she ate the whole bar quickly. "There." she thought happily as she finished the last bite. She was sure she had satisfied her chocolate craving and went back into her own room.

Still, she couldn't stop thinking about those chocolate bars, she went back into Teresa's room three more times and ate three more candy bars. After the first, her stomach started to feel full but not full enough to keep her from eating another bar. After the second, her stomach started to feel a little heavy. After the third, her stomach felt like a rock. It felt so heavy she could barely move. She practically crawled back into her own room and pulled herself  up on to her bed. Her stomach  started to feel even worse. She lay on her bed in pain biting her lip to keep from crying.

Just about that time, Tabitha heard a car pull up in front of the house. She glanced out the window. It was Teresa back from studying at a friend's house. "Oh no." thought Tabitha miserably. She wanted to run and hide but she was too full and in too much pain to drag herself out of her bed.

Tabitha heard the sound of Teresa's feet running up the stairs. Teresa poked her head into her sister's room. "Hey!" she said. "After dinner I'll braid your hair. I just learned how to do a French braid." Unlike most big sister's Teresa was pretty fond of her little sister. Tabitha was really lucky. Only, she didn't feel very lucky right now though. She felt overstuffed and in pain. She nodded weakly.

"Are you okay?" asked Teresa full of concern. She sat beside Tabitha on the bed.

"I'm fine." insisted Tabitha. She pushed herself up even though that made her stomach hurt even more. "I'm just a little tired." she said pretending to yawn. "So I was lying down."

"Are you sure?" asked Teresa. Tabitha nodded. "Well okay then. I'm going to go get ready for dinner. You let me know if you need anything, okay?" The thought of eating dinner or eating anything at all made Tabitha's stomach churn and hurt even more. She hoped she didn't throw up.

Teresa left the room and went into her own room. A few seconds later, Tabitha heard the sound of Teresa's closet door sliding open. She closed her eyes worriedly thinking about the candy bars now missing from the box at the bottom of the closet.

About a minute later came the sound of Teresa yelling. "Tabitha!" Just because she loved her little sister didn't mean they got along all the time or they didn't fight. "Tabitha!"yelled Teresa again. "Where are the rest of my candy bars?!"

Tabitha didn't think she could possibly feel more miserable, but suddenly, she did. She grabbed onto her stomach just as Teresa came storming back into the room. "Where are the rest of my candy bars?" asked Teresa demanding an explanation.

"What are you doing with all that candy in the house anyway?" asked Tabitha trying to shift the focus off herself. "Mommy and Daddy don't allow candy in the house. Why do you need so much candy anyway?"

"They're are not for me. They're for cheerleading. We're selling them for a fundraiser."

"Oh." said Tabitha quietly. She suddenly felt even worse as if that were possible. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them and looked up at her sister who was still standing there waiting. "I'm sorry, Teresa." she said and she really really was sorrier than she had ever been in her life. "I ate the candy bars. I couldn't help myself. They just looked so good and tasty, and I just love chocolate. I know I shouldn't have eaten them but I did. "

Teresa still didn't look happy, "I have to pay for those." she explained. "They aren't mine."

"I'll pay for the ones I ate out of my allowance." promised Tabitha.

That seemed to make Teresa feel  a little better. She gave Tabitha a half smile. Tabitha was too much in pain to try to smile back. She bit her lip hard and closed her eyes. "Tummy ache?" asked Teresa. Tabitha nodded too much in pain to talk. "Well, five candy bars will do that to you." said Teresa.

"Are you going to tell Mommy and Daddy?" asked Tabitha worriedly.

Teresa shook her head. "No." she said. "You promised to pay the money back, and I think you've learned your lesson."


"I did. I really did." swore Tabitha. She never wanted to see another Snickers bar let alone eat one as long as she lived.

Ella Exaggerates

Ella Ambrose wasn't exactly a liar. She didn't say things that were completely untrue. She just liked to exaggerate a little. Well, okay maybe a lot. She wouldn't say she had a lot of books. She would say she had thousands of books. She wouldn't say she could jump high. She would say could jump higher than anybody else.

"I'm the best reader in the world." she told her mother.

"The best in the whole world?" asked Mommy. She frowned. They were trying to teach Ella not to exaggerate so much.

"Well, maybe not the best in the whole world." Ella corrected herself, "but the best in the whole school."

"Ella .." said Mommy still frowning.

"Well, maybe not the best in the whole school, but the best in my class."

"Ella..." repeated Mommy.

"I'm one of the best readers in my class."she admitted finally. "I'm in the highest reading group."

One night after a really big and  really filling spaghetti dinner, Ella said she was never going to eat again as long as she lived.

"Never?" said Daddy. "Are you sure about that, Ella? Never is a long time."

"Well, not for a long long time" corrected Ella.

"Ella..." said Daddy frowning.

"I'm not going to eat again until breakfast."admitted Ella.

One afternoon, Ella came home from school and tossed her backpack on the floor. "Guess what!" she called out excitedly to her mother. "I have the most exciting news in the whole world! " She looked around but didn't see her Mom only her older sister Erin.

Erin was sitting at the table eating a snack of yogurt. She raised her eyebrows at Ella. "The most exciting news in the world?" she said. "Did you find a way to achieve world peace? Did you discover a cure for a deadly disease? I don't think so. There's no way  your news is the most exciting in the whole world." she scoffed.

Ella glared at her sister.  "Guess what, mommy" Ella repeated.

"Backpack, Ella!" said Mommy coming in from the other room and pointing to Ella's backpack on the floor.

Ella sighed. She picked up her backpack and put it on the table. Didn't anyone care about her great news?

"Now, what's your news?" asked Mommy as if reading Ella's thoughts.

"I'm the best speller in the whole school!"

Mommy frowned. "Ella..." she said.

"No, really I am." repeated Ella.

Mommy frowned even deeper. "Ella..." she said

"I am Mommy." insisted Ella. Erin gave Ella a look that said she didn't believe Ella either. Ella glared at her. "I am the best speller in the whole school."

"Ella," said Mommy calmly and quietly. "I know you're a good speller, but you have to stop this exaggerating."

"I'm not exaggerating. We had a spelling bee in school today, and I won. I beat all the kids in my class, and all the other kids in the school too.  I get to go to the county spelling bee, and if I win that I get to go the state spelling bee. If I win that, I get to go to the national spelling bee."

"Really, Ella?" asked Erin in disbelieve.

"Really Ella?" repeated Mommy but she said it more with surprise than total disbelieve.

"Really." insisted Ella."I am telling the absolute truth. I won the school spelling bee. I am the best speller in my school."

Mommy threw her arms around Ella. "Oh sweetie." she exclaimed genuinely excitedly for Ella.  "I'm so proud of you."

Ella frowned. "Why didn't you believe me at first?" she asked her mother disappointedly.

"Oh come on." butted in Erin. "You exaggerate all the time."

"I wasn't talking to you." replied Ella angrily.

"You do have a tendency to exaggerate." admitted Mommy.

Ella frowned harder. She did not like that Mommy had not believed her at first. "I'm never going to exaggerate again." she swore.

"Ella..." said Mommy.

"Well, I am going to try not to exaggerate anymore." said Ella.

"Now, that I can believe." said Mommy.

Can I Phone a Friend?

Celia Humbert was bored. She went looking for her older sister, Gordanna. As usual, Gordanna was on the phone. "Do you mind?" Gordanna exclaimed angrily as Celia approached. She practically slammed the door in Celia's voice. For lack of anything better to do, Celia hung around outside her sister's door. She put her ear to the door and listened to Gordanna's half of the conversation. Gordanna laughed into the phone. Celia was jealous. She couldn't wait until she was old enough to call her friends and spend hours on the phone with them too just like Gordanna.

"What are you doing, Celia?" asked Mommy as she walked by holding a load of laundry.

"Nothing, mama." said Celia quickly moving away from her sister's door. She followed her mother off down the hall. When Mommy put the laundry down on her bed, Celia sat down beside it. "Celia!" exclaimed Mommy giving her an unhappy look. Celia bounced off the bed and landed in front of the wooden night table. She starred at  the cordless phone lying on the table.  She thought about how much she wished she was old enough to spend hours on the phone like Gordanna and sighed heavily.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" asked her mother with concern.

"Nothing." replied Celia. Her mother gave her a look that said she knew something was going on. Celia sighed again. She never could keep anything from her mother. "When am I going to be old enough to talk on the phone with my friends like Gordanna does?"she asked finally.

Mommy smiled. "Don't be in such a rush to grow up." she said. "It'll happen before you know it.

Celia frowned. That wasn't much of an answer. She wanted to grow up now. She went off into her own room and picked up her little pink toy princess phone from out of her toy box.  She pushed a bunch of buttons and then, put the phone to her ear. "Why,  Hello Maryellen." she said into the phone "It's me, Celia."  Maryellen was her pretend friend. After a minute or two, she got bored. Real friends were better than pretend friends and real phone conversations were better than pretend ones too. It was no fun just talking to herself. She frowned and disappointedly threw the phone back into her toy box. She wanted to phone a friend for real.

Celia went back to her mother's room. Mommy smiled when Celia entered the room. "Are you feeling better?" Mommy asked cheerfully.

"I want to talk on the phone with my friends like Gordanna does!" insisted Celia. "Can I? Can I please call Bianca?" she begged. Bianca Tate was her best friend. They'd grown up together since they were babies.

Mommy still didn't think Celia was old enough to talk on the phone with her friends. "Maybe, when you're a little bit older." she said.

Celia frowned and wandered off unhappily.

Every day, after that, she asked her mother. "Am I old enough now?"

Her mother constantly put her off until one day, she finally wore her mother down. "Okay." she said as Celia was sitting down to lunch  and asking for the hundredth time when she could call Bianca on the phone. "after lunch, you can call Bianca."

"Yeah!" cried Celia excitedly. She gulped down her milk and practically swallowed her peanut butter and jelly sandwich whole. As soon as she was done, she jumped out of her seat. "I'm ready now, Mommy." she said.

She went into the living room and sat down on the couch. She made herself comfortable. Mommy helped her dial Bianca's number. The phone rang twice and was picked up by Bianca's mother. "Hello, Mrs. Tate." Celia said politely into the phone. "Is Bianca there?" Mommy nodded approvingly at Celia's polite manner.

After a minute or two Bianca came to the phone. "Hello?" she said.

"Hello, Bianca. It's me, Celia."

"Oh hello, Celia. How are you?"

"I'm fine." answered Celia. "How are you?"

"I'm fine too." replied Bianca.

After that, Celia didn't say anything. Seconds went by and then minutes. Still, Celia did not say a word. Mommy couldn't believe Bianca was doing that much talking. She was usually quite a shy and quiet little girl. Mommy put her ear near the phone. She didn't hear anything. Apparently, Bianca wasn't talking either. It was just dead silence. Celia was so happy though and so proud of herself. She sat there with the phone to her ear not saying anything and not hearing anything but with a huge wide smile on her face. Mommy couldn't help smiling too.

Just then, Gordanna stormed into the room. "Who's on the phone?" she asked accusingly as though the phone were her private posession.

"What happened to your cell phone?" asked Mommy.

"It needs a charge." replied Gordanna. She looked around and saw Celia on the phone and looked at her mother in surprise. Then, she waited a minute or two impatiently stamping her foot. "Is she really talking or what?" asked Gordanna angrily when Celia still hadn't said anything.  She went over to Celia and leaned over and put her ear near the phone. There was  still no sound coming from the other end of the phone either. "Mom!" she whined. "She is not even having a conversation!"

Celia gave her a nasty look. "Do you mind?" she hissed in a whisper. It was something Gordanna had often said to her.

"I think it's time to say goodbye." said Mommy.

Celia gave her mother disappointed look, but did as she was told. "Goodbye, Bianca." she said into the phone.

"Goodbye." replied Bianca.

"It's about time." exclaimed Gordanna instantly grabbing for the phone as soon as it slipped out of Celia's fingers.

"How long was I on the phone, Mommy?" asked Celia.

"For about ten minutes." replied Mommy.

"Next time, I am going to be on for twenty minutes." declared Celia.

"Next time, you might try talking." said Gordanna.

The Lost Puppy

It was mid December. Dulcie Wilcox and her mom and her older sister, Diandra were out shopping in the middle of the holiday rush. The mall was packed. Dulcie had never seen so many people or heard so much noise. She was scared, and she was tired. She held tightly to her favorite stuffed puppy Spot.

Dulcie had Spot since she was 2 years old. Grandma and Grandpa gave it to her for her birthday. She loved the little brown fluffy dog from the moment she saw him. "Doggy Spot!" she exclaimed excitedly as soon as she opened the brightly wrapped package and saw him.

"Spot?" replied Diandra opening her eyes wide in surprise. "That dog doesn't have a Spot on it."

"Spot!" repeated Dulcie stubbornly. Spot it was and Spot it stayed. From that moment on Spot was Dulcie's favorite toy. She slept with him every night, and she took him everywhere with her.

Now,  it was 2 years later, and Spot was still Dulcie's favorite toy. She didn't care that by now his brown color was faded and he was missing one eye. She still took him everywhere and slept with him every night. She wouldn't even let Mommy have him long enough to fix his eye. She barely let Mommy keep him long enough to wash him but when the smell of him became to strong, Mommy insisted on it.

Dulcie felt like she was surrounded by giants. She looked up and found herself  lost in a sea of strangers. She opened her mouth to cry. Just then, Diandra yanked her out of the crowd. "Come on." she said. "You're going to get lost." Diandra picked up Dulcie and took her to their mother who was standing by the mall entrance. Dulcie was so relieved to see her mother that she burst into tears anyway.

"It's alright, baby." Mommy soothed gently as she eased Dulcie out of Diandra's arms and into her own. "We're going home now." She carried Dulcie in one arm and a bunch of packages in the other and headed out of the mall. Diandra followed closely behind with her arms full of packages as well.

At the car, Mommy buckled Dulcie into her car seat. She was so tired from the ordeal of being at the mall that she immediately fell asleep. She awoke as they pulled up in their own driveway and started looking around worriedly. "Spot!" she cried. "Mommy where is Spot?"

"Help her please." Mommy said to Diandra as Mommy herself was busy carrying packages in the house.

Diandra sighed unhappily. She hated that stupid spotless dog and the last thing she wanted to do was help look for it. Nevertheless, she did as she was told and started searching the back seat of the car. The stuffed puppy was nowhere to be found. Next, she searched the trunk. It wasn't there either. She searched around the car in case it fell out when they were unloading but still no stuffed puppy.

She went in the house. Dulcie stood by the door eagerly awaiting the return of her toy. She frowned when she saw Diandra's empty hands. "Where's Spot?" she asked anxiously.

Diandra shrugged. "I couldn't find him anywhere."

A huge tear rolled down Dulcie's face, followed by another and then another until she was full blown crying.  She ran off to find her mother. She continued crying all the way. "Mommy! Mommy!" she cried sadly. "I need Spot."

"Where's Spot?" Mommy asked Diandra.

"Lost." she replied. "I couldn't find him anywhere."

Mommy sighed and nervously put her hand to her cheek. This was not good. This was not good at all. Even when she washed Spot, Dulcie stood by the washing machine and waited for him to come out. She didn't know how they were going to get by with him missing. "We'll go back to the mall and look for him tomorrow."

"Spot! Spot!" exclaimed Dulcie painfully. She wouldn't stop crying so finally Mommy loaded them all back in the car and headed back to the mall. At the mall, they retraced their steps. This time it was even worse. The mall was even more crowded. They were all tired. Mommy and Diandra took turns carrying a crying Dulcie. When they were finished, they were completely wiped out with nothing to show for it. They still hadn't found Spot.

Mommy loaded them all back into the car, and they headed home. Dulcie cried all the way home. It broke Mommy's heart. Even, Diandra actually felt bad for her sister by now.

When they got home, Mommy gave Dulcie a bath. She put on Dulcie's pajamas. She tucked Dulcie into bed with a kiss. All the while Dulcie continued to cry.

Diandra felt even worse. She wanted to do something for her sister. She offered to let Dulcie sleep with any of her stuffed animals, but Dulcie didn't want to. Diandra decided to go outside and look one more time.  She was just about to come in the house when she spied a brown fluffy ear sticking out of the rosebushes next to the front steps.  She went over and looked more closely. Sure, enough it was Spot.  He must have fallen out of one of the packages when they came in the house. Diandra  picked him up, dusted him off, and carried him excitedly into the house. "Dulcie!" she cried rushing into the house.

"Sh!" said Mommy appearing at the top of the steps. "I finally got her to go to sleep." She smiled when she saw that Diandra was carrying Spot. She let Diandra sneak into Dulcie's room and stick Spot in her arms. Dulcie's stirred and opened her eyes for a minute. "Spot." she whispered happily hugging him tightly to her before closing her eyes again. Mommy and Diandra smiled.

Who Will Play With Pippa?

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and Pippa Mitchell was bored. She wanted somebody to play with her. She went in to her big sister, Darla's room and flopped herself down on the edge of her sister's bed. Amelia as usual was on the phone. "Amelia, will you play with me?" Pippa asked hopefully making her best wide eyed pouty lipped puppy dog face. Surely, even Amelia wouldn't be able to resist that.

"Pippa!" hissed Darla angrily pointing toward the door. "Can't you see I'm on the phone?!"

Pippa slowly dragged herself out of her sister's room and off to find somebody else.  She found her brother,  Grayson in the den watching TV. "Play with me Gray." she pleaded plopping herself into her brother's lap. Grayson let her stay in his lap but he didn't take his eyes off the TV.  "What are you watching?" asked Pippa cheerfully.

"Car Auctions." replied Grayson.

"Car Auction?" repeated Pippa in horror as if he had said he was watching a scary monster show or something.

"Yes." said Grayson. "Look at that!" he exclaimed excitedly pointing to the screen. There was a car on the screen that looked to Pippa like any old red  car. "It's a classic 67 Mustang!" explained Grayson.

"Oh." replied Pippa quietly sliding out of her brother's lap and slipping out of the room. 'A show about cars? How boring' she thought to herself. She was already bored. She didn't need help with that.

She went into the kitchen. Her Mom was sitting at the table with a stack of cookbooks. "Mommy, will you play with me please?" begged Pippa leaning over her.

"Not now, honey." said Mommy. "I'm looking for something to make for Grandma's birthday dinner this weekend."

"I'll help." offered Pippa excitedly. She flopped into a chair and started looking through cookbooks too. "How about this?" she asked eagerly pointing to a recipe for macaroni and cheese.

Mommy gave Pippa a half smile. "Macaroni and cheese is your favorite meal not Grandma's." Pippa smiled back. She closed the cookbook she'd been looking at, put it in a pile of books,  and picked up another."Pippa, please." said Mommy looking up again from the book she'd been looking at. She had a not very happy expression  on her face. "You are mixing up the piles." she said to Pippa. "Why don't you go find something to do?"

Pippa stuck her lower lip out in a pout and slowly dragged herself out of the room. 'If I had something to do I'd be doing it.' she thought miserably.

She went to find her Dad. She found him out in the garage sawing wood. "Hi Daddy." she greeted him warmly. "Will you play with me?"

"Sorry, kitten." he replied. "I'm building shelves for Darla's room."

"Can I help?" asked Pippa eagerly. "I'm a good helper."

"I know you are, kitten. " replied Daddy, "but I'm working with tools, and I don't want you to get hurt. Go on and play." He ushered Pippa away from his workspace.

'He thinks I'm a baby.' thought Pippa angrily. She went back into the house. She took out  her Monopoly  game and began moving the pieces around the board. Soon, Darla came in. "I'll play." she said sitting down beside her sister.

"What happened to the phone?" asked Pippa. "Did you have a doctor remove it from your ear?"

"Very funny." replied Darla not really finding it funny at all. She started dealing out the money.

Just then Grayson walked by. "Deal me in." he said coming in the room and sitting on the floor beside them.

"What happened to your car auction?" asked Pippa.

"It's over." he replied.

Mommy came up the stairs and came to see what they were all doing in Pippa's room. She sat down and decided to play too. "Did you find a recipe?' asked Pippa.

Mommy nodded. "I decided to make Shepard's Pie." she said. "It's Grandma's favorite."

Daddy poked his head in the room. "Is there room for one more?" he asked.

"How are the shelves coming, Daddy?" asked Pippa.

"I will need to get some more nails tomorrow." replied Daddy. He sat down between Mommy and Pippa.

"Hmm." said Pippi thoughtfully. "Nobody wanted to play with me before. You all were busy. Now suddenly you're not busy and everybody wants to play?" She frowned  at her family and then she quickly smiled. "I'm okay with that." she said. "Let's play!"

Rhianna Learns to Read

Rhianna Dupre was 4 years old. Her sister, Jacinda was 8. Rhianna adored her older sister. She wanted to be just like her. Jacinda loved to read. "I read a whole chapter book." she said proudly to Grandma one afternoon when Grandma was visiting.

"Good for you!" exclaimed Grandma hugging her and giving her a smudgy lipsticky kiss."I'm so glad that you like to read. We'll have to take you to the bookstore and get you some new books."

Jacinda smiled happily as she wiped the lipstick stain off her cheek. "Thanks, Grandma," she said truly grateful. She loved books, and she was always happy for the opportunity to get more.

"I want to get a book too!" cried Rhianna jealously. "I can read too!"

"No, you can't." replied Jacinda shaking her head.

"Yes, I can." said Rhianna angrily stamping her feet.

"Then, why don't you read for us?" asked Jacinda. She went into Rhianna's room and grabbed a book. She handed it to Rhianna. It was Clifford the Big Red Dog. "Here," she said, "why don't you read this? It's one of your favorites." She looked at Rhianna as if she were going to burst into laughter at any minute.

Rhianna glared at her sister as she reluctantly took the book. She flipped the book open and  silently prayed for the words on the page to pop into her brain.  She starred at the book for a minute and pretended she was concentrating. Then, she began reciting the words as best as she could remember them.

"Those aren't the really words!" exclaimed Jacinda in an I-told-you-so voice. "I told you you can't read."

"Don't worry." Grandma said to Rhianna. "You''ll learn to read before you know it, and you'll be reading as well as your sister."

That didn't make Rhianna feel any better. She wanted to read now.

For the next week, at every opportunity Rhianna begged to be read Clifford the Big Red Dog. Mommy read it to her. Daddy read it to her. Jacinda read it to her. Grandma read it to her. Even Jacinda's friend read it to her.

On Friday when Grandma came again, Rhianna ran over to her. "Grandma! Grandma!" she exclaimed excitedly, "I can really read now!"

Jacinda still didn't believe it. She came over to listen too.

They all sat down on the big comfy living room couch. Rhianna opened the book and began reading. She read the whole book word for word and then closed it and smiled proudly at Grandma.

"Why Rhianna! I'm so proud of you!" exclaimed Grandma hugging Rhianna. Rhianna's eyes sparkled and her smile lit up her whole face.

Jacinda was still doubtful. Something did not seem quite right. She went up to Rhianna's room and grabbed another book. She handed it to Rhianna. It was The Cat in the Hat. It was another of Rhianna's favorites.

Rhianna sighed. She reluctantly took the book and opened it. She slowly began to recite from the story as best as she could remember it.

"Aha!" exclaimed Jacinda. "I knew you weren't really reading! You memorized that other book from hearing it so much." She flitted off out of the room happy to have been proven right.

Rhianna started to cry. Grandma tried to comfort her. "There, there, sweetie." said Grandma gently patting her on the back. "Don't worry. You'll learn to read before you know it."

That did not make Rhianna feel one tiny bit better. "But I don't want to read soon!" she cried. "I want to read now!"

"Then, you shall." said Grandma. She opened the book and pointed to a word. "What word is this?" she asked.

Rhianna gave Grandma an angry look. Now, Grandma was being mean too. She knew Rhianna couldn't really read.

"What letter is this?" Grandma asked pointing to an M.

"m." replied Rhianna.

"What sounds does M make?"asked Grandma.

"mmm." replied Rhianna. Grandma nodded.

"What letter is this?" asked Grandma pointing to another letter.

"e." said  Rhianna. Grandma nodded again.

"What sounds does that make?"

"e."

"Now put them together and what do you get? " said Grandma.

"m e." said Rhianna pronouncing the letters separately, "m e." she said again. "me." she said finally. "me!" she repeated excitedly. "Grandma!" she exclaimed happily. "I read a word!"

"Yes, you did." said Grandma hugging her. "I'm proud of you."

"Teach me more!" begged Rhianna. "Teach me more! Teach me to read!" They sat down on the couch and Grandma worked on teaching Rhianna to read.

After that, every afternoon, when Rhianna came home from preschool,  but Jacinda was still in school, Grandma came over. She and Rhianna worked on Rhianna's reading.

Finally, one day Rhianna was ready. "Jacinda," she said. "I'm going to read a story. Do you want to listen?"

Jacinda couldn't help smiling. "Sure. I'll listen." she replied. 'Here we go again.' She thought.

Rhianna opened Clifford the Big Red Dog. She read it from cover to cover. Then, she closed the book smiling proudly.

It seemed like Rhianna was really reading but Jacinda didn't believe it. After all, she had memorized Clifford the Big Red Dog before. She went into Rhianna's room and took out another book. It was a Dora the Explorer book. Rhianna would never have memorized that. She hated Dora. She only had the book because she got it for a birthday present. "Read this!" demanded Jacinda handing it to her sister.

Rhianna didn't seem worried at all. She took the book, calmly opened it,  and began reading. When she finished it, she closed it and looked up at her sister and gave her an I-told-you-so smile.

Jacinda was amazed. Her eyes opened as wide as two chocolate chip cookies. "You really can read." she said with surprise.

"Yes I can!" said Rhianna.