The First Friend

~Chapter Five~

Ms. Martin couldn't stop smiling. The manager of the bookshop had really liked her and had appreciated how much she loved books. He had happily handed over the job to her. Ms. Martin would begin work next Monday. She couldn't believe she had finally gotten a job after so much searching. 

She walked over to Sofia, who came out of the classroom last, and hugged her tight. 

"Hi, Momma." She said

"Hey Sof-a-dof. How was school?"

"It was good. We did an art project today and learned the letter A and read a story." She went on and on about "directed drawings" and other things while they walked to the car. Ms. Martin was taken aback. Yesterday, Sofia had told her nothing about her school day, and now she couldn't seem to contain it. Maybe Sofia had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed yesterday. They got in the car, and Ms. Martin started driving home

"That sounds awesome Sof," Ms. Martin said as Sofia finished her story, "Did you make any new friends?" When Ms. Martin said that, Sofi's face fell. 

"No," she said quietly. 

"Why not?'

"There is this girl who was being mean and didn't talk to me and now nobody is talking to me and everybody had their own friends. I miss Jessa and Tanya from New York."

"I know Sofia." It broke Ms. Martin's heart to hear that there were some girls who weren't being kind. 

"Why did we have to move?"

"It was too hard for us to live there."

"Can we move back?"

"Maybe someday, but not now."

"Oh. Okay." Ms. Martin sighed. She knew how hard it was for Sofia to leave her two friends from preschool. Even though they were young, they were close. Frankly, Ms. Martin missed them as well. She had become friends with their mothers. But Ms. Martin had to leave New York. For many reasons. First of all, it was too hard to get and keep a job there, and she had hoped that it would be better in California. Second, there were too many memories of Denver in New York, and she was too scared to face the fact that he was gone.  

Ms. Martin pulled up into the driveway, and Sofia hopped out. She ran to the door, eager to go in. Ms. Martin let a small smile creep up her lips. She loved her daughter. With all of her heart. 

When they got inside, Sofia ran to the kitchen, opened a drawer, and pulled out a piece of blank paper. She got some markers and sat on a bar stool. And she started drawing. Ms. Martin gave her a snack, and just watched her. Her small face was scrunched up in concentration, her marker moving swiftly across the paper. She was good at drawing. Most kids her age just scribbled. They would draw a bunch of squiggly lines and say it was a picture of their mom or something, but Ms. Martin could tell what Sofia was drawing. She couldn't see any nonsense marks or scribbles, but she could tell that that shape there was a shark, and the one over there was a fish who was scared of the shark. 

"Look Momma, I drawed the ocean!" Sofia said after ten minutes of intense work.

Ms. Martin looked at her drawing. For a kindergartener, this was exceptional work. Ms. Martin smiled, trying to ignore Sofia's improper use of grammar. 

"That is beautiful Sof. You should tape it up in your room."

"I should! That's a great idea Momma! Can I have some tapes?"

"Of course." Ms. Martin gave Sofia a piece of tape, and followed her into her room. 

Sofia took a while trying to chose the right spot to display her drawing, but finally decided to put it over her dresser. 

"You know what I think you should do?" Ms. Martin asked.

"What?"

"Every time you draw something nice, you should hang it on your wall."

"I think that is a very good idea."

"Awesome, now go and finish your snack."

"Okay, Mommy."

Sofia skipped away, down the short hallway, to the kitchen, her brown, wavy hair bouncing along as she went.

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Sofia decided that she really loved to color. She loved how the crayons and markers magically seemed to color the paper and make it look pretty. She also loved skipping. She didn't even remember learning how to skip, she just suddenly started skipping down the hall, back to the kitchen, where her snack was waiting for her. 

She leaped onto the stool, like a flying fish, and grabbed her apple. Sofia also loved apples. Her mom used to cut them into little pieces for her, but Sofia liked apples better when they were whole. Then she felt like a grown up. 

Sofia finished her apple, and set the core on the counter. She started to get off of the chair when her Mom came in.

"Whoa there, girly, what are you going to do with that apple core?"

"I m going to throw it away-"

"Good."

"-right after I go potty." Her mom smiled.

"Go ahead."

Sofia leaped off of the stool and ran into the bathroom to relive herself. She almost forgot to wash her hands, but then she remembered what her mom had said to her about these super tiny things called bacteria that could get you really sick if you didn't wash them away. 

Sofia rubbed the soap into her hands and said, "Die!" to the bacteria so they would go away faster. After that, she dried off her hands, and walked back to the kitchen to throw her apple core in the trash. 

"I threw my core away, Momma!" She shouted to her mom.

"Good!" She shouted back from the living room. 

Sofia smiled, and went to play in her room. Today, she decided to play with her Barbies. She had gotten them as presents from her birthday and Christmas last year. They were her favorite toy. She loved all of the cool clothes and she loved doing their hair. She had lost all of the shoes though, except for one black tall shoe. 

Sofia pretended that she was a teacher, who was teaching her class of Barbies about letters and Directed Drawings. She decided - with the help of the Barbies, of course - that school wasn't so bad. She just really, really wanted a friend.