I take her hand again, though Miles and Jack run back over to his mum.
There are so many children here this morning, more than when we were in kindergarten last year, and we all look the same in gray blazers with red stripes. Alex helped us tie our ties. He and Lando don’t go back to boarding school for a couple of days, and when they do, it’ll just be me, Miles, and Clementine, our baby sister.
Burlington will be quiet again, except for the dogs. Mummy says Miles and I make enough noise for everyone.
We walk into the main hall and down a long corridor decorated with colored posters. They make mefeel happy and nervous at the same time. Miles and Jack are already standing outside a door, and I can see the teachers pointing everyone toward the school pegs and lockers.
“Hen, Hen, this is your class. That’s where you put your coat. It’s next to mine.” Miles points, then spins around to face one of the doors. “And I’m in there. We’re so close.”
“Cool.” I take off my bag and put it on the peg. There’s a picture of a cow underneath my name. Miles has a pony on his.
Weareclose, and when I say goodbye to Miles and then Mummy, I’m not sad anymore.
My teacher, Mrs. Benson, tells me to find the desk with my name on it. It’s right in the middle of the classroom, and sitting next to me is a girl I haven’t seen before. She wasn’t in my kindergarten class, so maybe she’s new. Her dark hair is in a long braid that looks like Zeus’s, my daddy’s horse, and it’s tied at the bottom with a ribbon.
She turns her whole body toward mine when I sit down.
“Hello. I’m Sophie,” she says. “What’s your name?”
“Hendricks.”
“When’s your birthday? Mine is the fifth of February. I’ll be seven.”
That means she’s older than me. “I’ll be seven in May.”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Blue,” I answer even though it’s a fib.
“My favorite color is green. It’s the color of dragons and grass and magic.”
I frown. “Magic?”
“Yes.”
“Magic doesn’t have a color. It’s not real.”
“It is real. And it’s green.”
“How do you know magic is green?”
“What other color would it be?” She shrugs, and I don’t reply because I don’t know. I’ll ask Lando when I get home. He always knows everything.
“I saw a dragon once. He was walking down the road.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“I did. He was wearing a top hat and carrying a red briefcase. He said good morning to me as he passed.”
I stare at her, just like Lando stares sometimes when he’s annoyed. There’s no way she’s seen a dragon. They’re not real. And even if they are real, they don’t wear clothes.
She’s fibbing, then I remember I fibbed. So instead of arguing with her, I say, “Actually, blue isn’t my favorite color.”
“What is then?”
I pause. “Purple. But light purple, not dark purple.”
“That’s not purple.” She giggles in that annoying way girls do. “It’slilac.”
