Bullies

Chapter 2: Bullying Starts

"Alright my little learners let's start off with a little bit of stretching! So let's stand up everybody... come on let's stand up!" Mrs. Altomare said excitedly to engage her students.

All the little kindergarteners excitedly got up many of them jumping up and down full of little kid energy.

"Ok let's first start with touching our toes. Can everyone touch their toes?!" Mrs. Altomare asked rhetorically as she then bent down to touch her toes.

All the other children followed sue all full of giggles as they tried to reach their toes. Dick of course did this with ease, able to put both his little hands flat on the ground without bending his knees. From there the class finished up their stretches then went to their desks to begin learning.

Dick and Barbara ran to their seats which were right next to each other. Mrs. Altomare firmly believed in the buddy system so all the little desks were paired together with another student. And lucky for Dick and Barbara they were sat next to each other and have been best friends ever since.

"Ok my little learners it's review time. Let's start by reciting our ABC's." Mrs. Altomare announced as she began the review portion of class.

The whole class of kindergarteners started singing the ABC song, all of them doing it with happy sunny faces. It wasn't long before all the kids finished it with ease so they moved on.

"Very good boys and girls! Now a little bit of math, so let's practice some addition." Mrs. Altomare said as she then started to write some very simple math on the board.

Once she finished she went one by one with the kids to answer the questions. Now while the math was quite simple many of the children were quite bright particularly Dick who was a bit of a math wiz.

"Very good boys and girls, you all are doing so wonderfully at remembering our lessons. Speaking of today's lesson is about Subtraction, or taking away something from something else." Mrs. Altomare explained simply to her class.

Dick then had a rather confused expression on his face and raised his hand.

"Yes Dick?" Mrs. Altomare asked curious what the boy's question was.

"My daddy told me takin things from oders is bad. Why are we's takin stuff from oders?" Dick asked in concern as his sense of justice was tested.

At first Mrs. Altomare was a little confused but then chuckled lightly as she remembered the logic of kindergarteners and Dicks very good nature.

"Oh we're not taking anything from anyone sweetheart, it's just a simple math problem. Let me show you." Mrs. Altomare cleared as she turned to the board.

She then wrote a simple equation like 3 - 2 on the board and the class understood. She then solved it and explained what it meant and how it worked. But then Dick looked concerned again and kind of sad as well.

"But Mrs. Altomare won't 3 be sad because 2 took away things?" Dick asked sadly, not wanting anyone or anything to be sad.

The rest of the class began to look concerned and sad too, all of them wanting to be fair to 3. As the kindergarteners clamored their teacher couldn't help but chuckle. In her 5 years of teaching there was almost always one student who had such a big heart that even injustices to numbers made them concerned. But luckily she knew just what to do to handle the concerned little kindergarteners. So Mrs. Altomare walked over to Dicks desk, crouched to his level, took his little hands in hers, and lightly stroked his hair.

"There's no need to be sad sweetheart because guess what?" Mrs. Altomare comforted."

"What?" Dick asked as he looked into his teachers eyes.