Second Grade Baby

  This book is for

  Kate Gibbel

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  1 NATALIE SPRINGER

  2 UNDERWEAR

  3 OMAR

  4 NATALIE’S GREAT IDEA

  5 BUZZY BEAR

  6 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

  7 GOOD-BYE, BUZZY BEAR

  8 HELLO FROM CHICAGO

  9 BUZZY IN LONDON

  10 WHERE IS BUZZY?

  11 A SURPRISE FOR NATALIE

  12 BUZZY TWO

  13 LOVE, MARY

  14 NATALIE’S GIFT

  15 THE ADVENTURES OF BUZZY BEAR

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  COPYRIGHT

  NATALIE SPRINGER

  Natalie Springer yawned and stretched. She sat up in bed. She peered out the window. It was still dark outside. As dark as midnight. But Natalie knew it was time to get up. She liked getting up early, when it was still dark. When she felt as if she were the only one in the world who was awake.

  Let me see, Natalie thought. Today is Monday, the first day of the week. Goody. Five days of school before the weekend.

  Natalie liked school very much. She especially liked Ms. Colman. Ms. Colman was her wonderful second-grade teacher at Stoneybrook Academy. Natalie was not so crazy about the weekend. That was because there was no school on the weekend. And when there was no school, Natalie sometimes felt lonely. She did not have many friends. And she did not have a single best friend. So on the weekends hardly anyone ever came to her house to play. But during the week, Natalie saw the other kids at school.

  Natalie switched on her light. She opened her closet door. What did she feel like wearing to school that day? The other kids thought Natalie was a baby, so Natalie tried to find a grown-up-looking outfit. Her fuzzy kitten sweater? No. Her Barney and Baby Bop shirt? No way. Finally she settled on a plain red sweater and her blue jeans. Blue jeans were good because they would hide Natalie’s socks, which were always falling down. Sometimes the kids at school teased Natalie about her drooping socks. Natalie did not know how the other kids managed to keep their own socks up. But she had decided not to spend much time worrying about it. Life was too short.

  Natalie looked at the red sweater. She had not worn it in a long time. She hoped it still fit. She hoped —

  “Hey!” Natalie cried. “What is that?” She was looking at something sewn inside the collar of her sweater. It was a small white tag. It read:

  Natalie Springer

  62 Elm Street

  Stoneybrook, CT 06800

  “Aughh!” Natalie shrieked. Where had that come from? What a horrible babyish tag. Natalie could not wear a sweater with a name tag in it. Name tags were for four-year-olds. Natalie was seven. She stuffed the sweater back on a shelf in the closet. She pulled out a striped sweater. She checked the collar. Another name tag! This was awful. Natalie looked in her kitten sweater. She looked in the Barney shirt. She looked in her jeans. Name tag, name tag, name tag.

  Mrs. Springer had gone on a sewing spree. Everywhere Natalie looked she found another name tag. They were sewn in her underwear and her socks, in her dresses and shirts. Natalie found one on her pillowcase and two more on her sheets. She even found one sewn inside the knitted cap on Buzzy Bear, her beloved teddy.

  “Mommy!” cried Natalie.

  “What is it?” Mrs. Springer hurried into Natalie’s room. She was still wearing her nightgown. “Are you sick?”

  “No! Mommy, why are these name tags everywhere?”

  Mrs. Springer smiled. “Oh. In case you get your clothes mixed up at ballet class or during gym or at a sleepover. We will always know which ones are yours.”

  Natalie sighed. She knew her mother was trying to help her. But this was no help at all.

  UNDERWEAR

  Natalie stood alone in her room. Her bed was covered with clothes. In every single one was a name tag. Natalie thought about cutting the tags off, but they were sewn in quite tightly. Besides, her mother had worked very hard. The sewing had taken her a long time.

  Natalie reached for the red sweater and the jeans. And underwear and socks. Only her sneakers had escaped name tags. She hoped the kids at school would not see the babyish tags, but she had a feeling they would be noticed one day. Probably very soon. And then the kids would chant, “Baby, baby, baby! Kindergarten baby!”

  Well, that was not quite true, thought Natalie as she walked into her classroom that morning. Not all the kids would do that.

  Natalie sat at her desk. She looked around. Natalie sat in the front row. That was because she wore glasses. Ms. Colman thought the glasses-wearers could see better in the front row. Ms. Colman knew about things like that. Ms. Colman wore glasses herself. (And anyway, Ms. Colman knew about lots of things.)

  Natalie looked at Karen Brewer in the back row. Karen was one of the kids who probably would not tease Natalie. Karen was not a teaser. She talked too much, and she bragged and boasted and showed off. But she did not tease. (Usually.) Karen was lucky. She had two best friends, Hannie Papadakis and Nancy Dawes. Karen and Hannie and Nancy sat together in the last row. Hannie and Nancy probably would not tease Natalie, either.

  Natalie watched as the other kids entered the classroom. There were Ricky Torres, Bobby Gianelli, and Hank Reubens. Definite teasers. There were Jannie Gilbert and Leslie Morris, best friends and more teasers. There were Tammy and Terri Barkans, the twins. They would not tease. They were Natalie’s friends. There were Ian Johnson and Chris Lamar. Probably teasers, but it was hard to tell. There was Sara Ford. She was new that year, and would not tease. And there was Audrey Green, another definite teaser.

  Natalie checked her clothes. Good. None of the tags showed. If she were very, very, VERY careful, perhaps she could keep them hidden.

  When Ms. Colman entered the room, Natalie began to feel cheerful. First of all, Ms. Colman always made her feel cheerful. Second, Natalie realized she had been sitting in her classroom for almost twenty minutes and no one had seen a name tag. That was a good sign. A very good sign.

  Ms. Colman picked up her book of lesson plans.

  Knock knock.

  Who was at the door? It was very early in the morning for a visitor.

  Ms. Colman opened the door to Room 2A. “Well! Hello, Mrs. Springer,” Natalie heard Ms. Colman say.

  Mrs. Springer? What was Natalie’s mother doing at school?

  Ms. Colman and Mrs. Springer stepped into the room. “Hi, Ms. Colman,” Mrs. Springer replied. “I just brought this for Natalie.” Mrs. Springer held up a brown paper bag. “She forgot it this morning. It is her underwear. Her ballet lesson is this afternoon, and Natalie needs a change of clothes.” Mrs. Springer waved to Natalie. Then she left.

  Ms. Colman gave the bag to Natalie. She sat down at her desk and looked at her lesson plans. Then she poked her head into Mr. Berger’s room next door. Mr. Berger was the other second-grade teacher. A door joined the two classrooms.

  Bobby grabbed the paper bag.

  “I want to see Natalie’s underwear!” he cried.

  “Me, too!” shouted Hank.

  Before Natalie knew it, every kid in her class had seen her underwear. And every kid had seen the name tags.

  I am dead meat, said Natalie to herself.

  OMAR

  The moment Ms. Colman returned to the classroom, the kids quieted down. Bobby tossed the underwear bag back to Natalie. Natalie stuffed it inside her desk. (She gave it a little pinch because she was mad at it.)

  All around her, the kids were smirking. Bobby and Hank were turning red from trying not to laugh.

  Ms. Colman took attendance. Natalie counted as Ms. Colman made checkmarks in her book. Check, check, check … fifteen checks in all. Hmm. Someone was missing. Someone
was absent.

  “Girls and boys,” said Ms. Colman then. “I have something to tell you. Omar is absent today. He is in the hospital.”

  “The hospital?” exclaimed Karen Brewer.

  “Yes,” replied Ms. Colman. “Omar cut his hand and the cut became infected. He will be in the hospital for just two days. And he will be back in school on Thursday. But I thought we might make get well cards for him. I can take them to the hospital this afternoon.”

  Natalie looked around the classroom. The kids had stopped giggling. They were not even smiling. They were all thinking about Omar and the hospital. This was serious.

  Later that morning, Ms. Colman handed out colored paper and markers. Natalie carefully made a beautiful card for Omar. So did the other kids. They still looked very serious. Maybe they had forgotten about Natalie’s underwear and the name tags.

  On Thursday, Omar returned to school, just as Ms. Colman had said he would. (That was one reason Natalie loved Ms. Colman. Ms. Colman always kept her promises.) Omar’s hand was in a bandage. Otherwise, he seemed fine.

  “Tell us about the hospital, Omar!” begged Natalie’s classmates.

  “Omar can do that during Show and Share,” said Ms. Colman.

  When it was time for Show and Share, Ms. Colman called on Omar first.

  “The hospital,” Omar began, as he stood before the class, “was very boring. The food was not so great. But it was not bad, either. The doctors and nurses were nice. I had lots of visitors. And I got some nice presents. But mostly I was bored, bored, bored.”

  Hmmm. Bored, thought Natalie. Now isn’t that interesting.

  NATALIE’S GREAT IDEA

  After Omar sat down, Ms. Colman took her place in the front of the classroom. “Now I have something to share with you,” she said. “We are about to begin a new project. We will work on it together. As a class.”

  Natalie squirmed in her seat. She smiled to herself. This sounded exciting.

  “It is a project,” Ms. Colman continued, “that another teacher thought up. She tried it with her second-grade class. I read about it in a magazine.

  “The project began,” Ms. Colman went on, “when the teacher brought a teddy bear to school. The bear’s name was Rudy. The teacher made a tag for Rudy and fastened it to his shirt. This is what the tag said: My name is Rudy. I am on an adventure. When you find me, please take me with you for several days. Then leave me in a public place for someone else to find. Send a postcard about your adventure with me to this address. And the teacher had written out the address of her classroom. She left Rudy in an airport. Sure enough, someone found Rudy. It was a woman on vacation. She wrote to the class saying she had taken Rudy to Florida. Rudy had gone to the beach with her, and then ridden on Space Mountain at Disney World. Then she left Rudy in a restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. And another person found Rudy. That person took Rudy to New York City. Pretty soon, the kids in the class were receiving postcards and letters and even photos of Rudy from all around the world. Rudy had lots of adventures.”

  “Cool!” exclaimed Hannie Papadakis.

  “Awesome,” said Chris Lamar.

  Audrey Green raised her hand. “Did Rudy come back to the class?” she asked.

  Ms. Colman smiled. “Oh, yes. I forgot about that part. On the back of the tag, the teacher wrote: If you find me after March fifteenth, please return me to the address on the front of this tag. And sure enough, on April third, Rudy returned to school. Someone found him in Switzerland, and mailed him home.”

  “Excellent,” said Ricky, nodding his head.

  “And so,” continued Ms. Colman, “We are going to send a teddy bear on an adventure, too. We can follow its trip on a map, and learn about the places it visits.”

  “Does it have to be a teddy bear?” asked Jannie Gilbert.

  “No,” replied Ms. Colman. “It could be a doll or another kind of stuffed animal.”

  “Where will we get the doll or stuffed animal?” asked Nancy Dawes.

  “Anyone who wants to,” said Ms. Colman, “may bring in an animal or doll tomorrow. We will vote on which one will take the trip. And we will ask that it be sent back to us by December first.”

  Natalie was trying to pay attention to Ms. Colman. But her mind was wandering. Just a little bit. It had wandered back to what Omar had said about the hospital. That the hospital was boring, boring, boring.

  Natalie raised her hand. “Ms. Colman?” she said. “I have an idea.”

  “Yes, Natalie?”

  “I was thinking that when our project is over, we could put all the postcards and things in an album. Then we could take the album to the hospital. We could leave it there so the kids who are stuck in the hospital could read about the exciting adventure. Then they would not be so bored.”

  “Hey! That is a great idea!” cried Karen.

  “Indoor voice, Karen,” Ms. Colman reminded her.

  “It is a great idea,” said Sara quietly.

  Natalie looked around her. The other kids agreed. Natalie’s idea was great.

  “That is just what the kids in the hospital need,” said Omar.

  “We can make the album really special,” said Leslie Morris.

  Everyone began talking at once.

  No one mentioned underwear. Or name tags.

  Natalie smiled. Then she grinned.

  She grinned at Ms. Colman, and Ms. Colman grinned back at her.

  BUZZY BEAR

  Natalie swallowed the last of her apple juice. She ate the last bite of her Oreo cookie. Then she carried the tin can her juice had come in to a bin at the back of the cafeteria. It was a recycling bin, and Natalie was careful to recycle. It was important to her.

  “Want to play hopscotch?” Terri Barkan asked when Natalie returned to the table. “Tammy and I are going to play.”

  “Sure,” replied Natalie. The kids had been pretty nice to her all morning. Natalie thought it was because of her good idea about giving the special project to the kids in the hospital.

  On the playground, Terri and Tammy and Natalie found smooth stones for their hopscotch game. The twins let Natalie go first. As Natalie hopped along, Terri said to Tammy, “We could bring in Tootsie tomorrow.”

  “Tootsie? Who’s Tootsie?” asked Natalie.

  “Our stuffed elephant,” replied Terri. “Maybe Tootsie could go on the adventure.”

  “Wait, you bring Tootsie, and I will bring Taffy,” said Tammy. “Taffy is our stuffed chipmunk,” she told Natalie.

  Sara Ford wandered by. She had stopped to watch the game. While Tammy took her turn, Sara said, “I am going to bring in my Barbie tomorrow.”

  “Your Barbie?” repeated Terri. “That is very brave. She might not come back, you know. Ms. Colman said so.”

  “I know,” replied Sara. “I will take that chance.”

  “Wow … ” said Natalie slowly. That was brave of Sara. Ms. Colman had indeed said there was a chance the teddy or doll that was sent on the trip might not be returned. It might get lost somewhere, or someone might decide to keep it (even though that would be stealing, Natalie noted). Or someone might decide that mailing a teddy back to Stoneybrook, Connecticut, was just too much trouble.

  “I am going to bring in Goosie tomorrow,” said Karen Brewer. She was watching the game with Hannie and Nancy.

  “You are? Your stuffed cat?” cried Hannie. “But you love Goosie.”

  “Well, I am brave, too,” said Karen.

  “And — and so am I,” said Jannie Gilbert. “I am going to bring in Sleepytime Susie. My best doll.”

  “I wonder if the boys will be brave enough to bring in anything,” said Karen. She glanced at Bobby and Omar playing soccer nearby.

  “I heard that,” said Omar. “And I am going to bring in my old giraffe.”

  “What are you going to bring, Natalie?” asked Nancy Dawes.

  “I — I am going to bring … well, I have so many choices. I have not decided yet. I will decide tonight.”

  That night, Nat
alie sat on her bed. Spread out around her were her dolls and Buzzy Bear. Buzzy Bear was Natalie’s only stuffed animal. She liked dolls better than animals. Except for Buzzy Bear. Buzzy was Natalie’s favorite toy in the world. He had been given to her by her grandfather on the day she was born. Natalie had never, ever spent a night without Buzzy. He came with her on vacations. He came with her on sleepovers. Could Natalie really part with Buzzy for two or three months? What if Buzzy never came back?

  Natalie thought and thought. She wanted to be brave like the other kids. She wanted to show them she was not a baby, even if her mother had sewn name tags everywhere. Natalie looked at her dolls. She could bring in one of them. Maybe. Well, no. Her dolls were all pretty ratty, and most of them were naked. The boys would tease her forever if she brought in one of her dolls.

  That left Buzzy Bear.

  Natalie sighed. She laid Buzzy on her pillow.

  “Okay,” she said to him. “Tomorrow you are going to have a special treat. Tomorrow I am going to take you to school with me.”

  TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

  The next day, Buzzy Bear rode to school in Natalie’s lap. Natalie was feeling a lot better than she had felt the night before. This was because she had thought of something wonderful. Natalie had realized that just because she brought Buzzy to school did not mean that Buzzy would go on the trip. Someone else’s teddy would probably be chosen, and that would be just fine. Natalie could bring Buzzy to her room, and the kids would see how brave she was. But then they would choose a different animal, and Natalie could take Buzzy home with her at the end of the day. Perfect.

  So now Natalie hopped out of the car. “ ’Bye, Daddy!” she called to her father. And she ran into school with Buzzy. She was not worried one little bit. “I hope you like school, Buzzy,” she whispered.

  Natalie sat at her desk. She put Buzzy in her lap. She watched the other kids arrive. Natalie decided she would try to guess which doll or animal would be chosen to make the trip. (She had a feeling it might be Sleepytime Susie.)