Natalie and the Bestest Friend Race by Dandi Daley Mackall Page A

hear a sound I usually love to hear. It’s the sound of my bestest friend,Laurie, laughing. Laurie’s laughing sounds like jingly bells, ice cream, and the color purple all stirred up together. Plus angels.
    Most of the time, I would stand on my head, or put a grasshopper on my nose, or tell one of my dad’s silly jokes just to hear that laughing.
    Only this is different.
    Laurie is laughing at something without me.
    And mixed in with Laurie’s laugh is Sasha’s laugh.
    So maybe that’s why that sound makes me stop swinging. And for the very first time since I started coming to this kindergarten place, I just wish recess would get over itself.

Chapter 2
Birds of a Feather
    Our kindergarten teacher, who goes by the name of Miss Hines, is waiting for us when we come in from recess. She has spread out our reading blankets in the front, the back, and the side of our classroom.
    We sit at our desks and wait for each other.
    Then Miss Hines stands in front of her giant desk and shouts, “Time for reading groups!”
    “Duh,” Peter says.
    Some kids laugh. Like Sasha. She stands up and starts toward the blanket where her group reads.
    “Not yet, birds!” Miss Hines calls out.
    Sasha, Peter, and Bethany have to sit down again.
    “Since it’s spring,” Miss Hines begins, “the birds have been migrating, haven’t they? I know I’ve seen large flocks of birds flying north.”
    This is a true thing about seeing flocks of birds. My granny and I saw a gazillion birds fly right over Frank, our big tree that lives in the backyard. And some of them took a time-out on Frank’s branches.
    “So,” Miss Hines goes on, “let’s all take our spots in our winter homes. Go ahead and sit in your regular reading groups. Red Birds! Blue Birds! Robins! You know where to go.”
    Laurie and I go to the blanket in the back of our classroom. We are Robins. I wanted to be a Purple Bird, but our teacher said we don’t have any.
    “Our books aren’t here, Miss Hines!” Sasha yells from the side of our classroom. She’s in the Blue Bird group, with Peter.

    “Be patient, my little birdies,” Miss Hines says.
    When we’re all sitting in our bird-group circles, Miss Hines says, “It’s time for birds to migrate to their summer homes.”
    “I knew it,” Laurie whispers to herself.
    “Knew what?” I whisper.
    I don’t think she hears me ’cause she just keeps staring at Miss Hines.
    “The birds you’ve watched flying north aren’t the only birds on the move!” Miss Hines has on her cheerleader voice. “You reading birds are on the move too! All new groups, all new birds. Won’t that be fun?”
    I think it sounds fun. ’Sides, I’m tired of being a Robin. “I hope we’re owls,” I whisper to Laurie.
    “They never do owls,” Laurie says. She knows things on account of Sarah and Brianna already did kindergarten. Laurie is still staring at our teacher. Plus also, Laurie is sucking in her lips, which is how my bestest friend does thinking. And sometimes worrying.
    Maybe Laurie is doing worrying ’cause she likes robins and wants to stay being one.
    “What do you hope we are?” I ask Laurie.
    Laurie doesn’t answer. Maybe she didn’t hear me on account of she was looking so hard at our teacher.
    “So,” Miss Hines says in her cheerleading voice, “good-bye Blue Birds, Red Birds, and Robins! Hello, Goldfinches!” She points to the old Red Bird group in the front of the room. “Bethany, Jason, and Farah, you birds come stand by me for a minute, okay?”
    “Oh, no,” Laurie whispers.
    “What?” I watch Bethany, Jason, and Farah move to our teacher. Jason hops on one foot and flaps his elbows like a hurt bird.
    “I knew it,” Laurie says.
    Now I’m doing worrying too. “Knew what ?” I ask her. “What’s Miss Hines doing with them?” I whisper. Jason is my bestest friend who is a boy, and Farah is maybe my second best friend who is a girl. Plus, Bethany is in my Sunday school class.
    “She’s mixing up