Story excerpt: Gwendolyn Makes a Friend

Gwendolyn is four years old. She loves make-believe, the color blue, molasses cookies, hair ribbons and of course her best friend, Puppy, a stuffed dog with a jewled collar. When Gwendolyn dreams, she tells her Mama,

“My dreams are in color there is lots of blue and there is a little girl who I haven’t met yet but I know I will, and she has hair ribbons just like me! She is my best friend in the whole world Mama”

Mama smiles. Gwendolyn has wanted a friend for so long, “four whole years” she tells her Mama, “I’ve waited four whole years to make a friend.”

Gwendolyn was very excited. Tomorrow would be her first day at The Children’s House, the Montessori school her Mama had signed her up for. She had been told all about her new school, how rugs needed to be rolled up and plants needed ‘misting’, and Gwendolyn was very much looking forward to being helpful in her new classroom, she liked to help. There were many new and interesting works to try there, like a tower of pink cubes and a map puzzle with bright colors.

Gwendolyn hoped her new teacher Sandy would let her have a turn to feed the gold fish one day. When Gwendolyn first visited The Children’s House she met Sandy, her teacher, and right away she new they would be good friends. Sandy smelled like vanilla cookies and flowers mixed together and she had a quiet voice, like a fairy princess. Mama said the smell was probably just Sandy’s hair shampoo but Gwendolyn was sure that Sandy had picked flowers and made cookies often and that was why she smelled like that. Gwendolyn already loved Sandy and she knew she would love The Children’s House too.

As Gwendolyn went to bed that night, she had trouble falling asleep, she was so excited and wanted her first day at her new school to begin she couldn’t wait to make a friend.