Chapter Five: A Magical Pearl

Margaret looked at the little pearl for what seemed like ages. How did it get there? How could there be a magical fairy talking to her? Margaret, carefully holding the hand with the pearl in it steady, used her other hand to pinch her leg.

"Ouch!" She yelped.

"Why did you do that, darling child?" Cassielane was trying to hold back a laugh. "Do you think you're dreaming?"

"I thought I did but my daddy said if you pinch yourself and nothing changes then you're awake, so I'm awake."

"Indeed you are, my dear. I am as real as you are, and so is that pearl!"

Margaret looked at her hand again and felt once again surprised that a pearl had appeared out of nowhere and landed right in the center of her palm.

"What is it?" Margaret asked at last.

"Ah, it's a very, very special thing indeed," Cassielane said. "It's magical, and it can only be used by very special people."

"Oh, I'm not special at all," Margaret whimpered. Her lips were trembling and her eyes were filling up with tears again.

"Now why would you say such a thing, darling child? You are talking to me, you have a great and magical gift in your hand. Isn't that proof that you are special?"

Margaret thought about this. It did seem like all of these events were a bit unusual. She had never heard of anyone having anything like this happen to them. But maybe they just didn't want to talk about it. Margaret was wondering how she would explain this to her mom and dad. They thought she was crazy when she first saw Cassielane just flying around. What would they say now?

Margaret must have had a very sad look on her face, because suddenly Cassielane landed on Margaret's hand, right beside the pearl, and she had a sad look on her face, too.

"Margaret, you are very special, and you are not crazy. If you don't want to tell your mom and dad about this that's okay, but if you do tell them, they will not call you crazy. I promise. Okay?"

Margaret nodded her head. She was doubtful, but it seemed like trusting Cassielane was a pretty good idea.

"So what does this do, Cassielane?" Margaret asked. She put her index finger on the pearl and rolled it around a bit in the palm of her hand. It felt so fragile and tiny, it was hard to believe it had any magical powers in there.

"Ah, now that is a great question that I am pleased to answer, my dear. Why don't we put the pearl in a safe place, you lie down, and then I will tell you about the pearl as you fall asleep?"

Margaret just nodded again. She realized suddenly that she was very very tired. It wasn't very late because she had gone to bed early, but it was definitely past her bedtime. Cassielane took the pearl and found a little empty box on Margaret's desk.

"I'm going to put it in your little box that is decorated with ponies. Will you remember?"

Margaret smiled. "That's my favorite box. Of course I'll remember!"

Margaret snuggled with Lamby and almost fell asleep right away, but then she remembered she had to hear about the pearl. She faced the night table so that Cassielane could sit down there.

"So, you want to hear a little about this gift you have been given, I see?" Cassielane smiled in her special way. "I thought you were going to go right to sleep for a second there."

Margaret smiled back. "I almost did, but I really want to hear about the pearl!"

"Alright, my dear. Well, what to tell you. The pearl is a very powerful, very magical gift. When you whisper a wish to it, it will make that wish come true. And you can wish anything that you want, whether mean or nice. But there are some rules. You can't wish that anyone will get hurt or sick. You can't wish anything really awful like that or the pearl will leave you."

Margaret didn't think she would ever wish for someone to get hurt. She thought about Jessica to test this theory. No, she didn't want Jessica to get hurt or sick. She just wanted Jessica to feel the way she had felt that morning.

"Can you follow that rule, Margaret?" Cassie thought Margaret might have fallen asleep because there was no sound, but Margaret was listening very carefully.

"Oh yes, I don't think I could ever wish something really bad to happen to somebody. Not even Jessica. I will never break that rule."

"Good, good. I thought you would say that." Cassielane tapped her fingers on her leg as if she was forgetting something. "Now there are a couple of other rules, too. Are you ready?"

Margaret nodded sleepily.

"Every night, before you go to sleep, you have to tell me about the wishes that you made. And you can only have 3 wishes each day. If you try to have a fourth wish, you will lose the pearl. Do you understand?"

"Oh yes, three is plenty. I'll be very careful. I won't waste anything either. It'll be like how I eat my candy bars. I eat them really really slow so they can last longer."

"Well that's a great way to think about this. And about candy! Just keep these things in mind, because once you start making wishes it can be hard to remember the rules. Do you have any questions for me?"

"No, I think I understand. Oh, but what if I have a question during the day. Can I ask you questions before I see you to tell you what I did?"

"No, fairies can't be out and about during the day, my dear. If you have a big question, it will be better to wait. There's always tomorrow."

"Hmm. Okay. Thank you Cassielane. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright, darling Margaret. Sleep well. Enjoy your first day with the pearl. I'll see you tomorrow night to hear all about it."

The next morning, Margaret again shocked her parents. She was up and getting dressed before her mom and dad were awake. Margaret was watching cartoons when her dad came down the stairs.

"Aren't you up early for a Sunday?" He said.

Margaret jumped up and gave him a hug. "Yep!" She said.

"Well, somebody seems to be feeling better," he said, smiling. "What happened? Did ya sleep on it?"

Margaret kind of paused. "Sort of. Yeah, it'll be okay. Dad, can we have pancakes for breakfast?

"Pancakes? Hmm. Well, I was planning on making some pancakes anyway. So, yeah, I guess so. Just for you!"

Margaret smiled and went back to her cartoons. She had been thinking already about what her first wish was going to be, and she had a pretty good idea of how it would all happen. She was very excited.

Margaret waited very patiently for pancake time. First, her mom came downstairs with Isaac in tow. Then she heard the sounds of her dad cracking eggs, opening and closing the fridge, and then finally the sound of the pancake pan coming out of the cupboard. Margaret thought that the sound and smell of pancake batter hitting the pan was one of the greatest things life had to offer.

After eating her third pancake, and after using her fork to scoop up as much of the syrup as possible, Margaret for a third time shocked her parents.

"Mom, I'd like to call Jessica now please."

"Um, you mean the Jessica that you kicked out of our house yesterday?"

"I didn't kick her out, Mom. I was mad and I didn't want to see her around. Can I call her now?"

Glenda and Gary were now officially confused. Their daughter asked to go to bed early. On a weekend. She woke up early. And now she was asking, constantly, to call the friend that she had said she hated just a few hours before.

Gary gave a little shrug.

"Why do you want to call Jessica, babe?" Glenda asked.

"Well, I want her to come over. I think we should talk before we go to school tomorrow."

"I'm going to give you a couple of hours on this to see if you change your mind again. If you haven't changed your mind around lunchtime, we'll give Jessica a call. But I have to warn you, after the way things ended yesterday, she might not want to come over or her parents might not want her to come over."

"Hm, well, tell her I want to say sorry, Mom. I want to say sorry."

Glenda raised an eyebrow. "Two hours. Let's see where you are then."

Margaret rolled her eyes. She thought that the word "sorry" would really get her parents on board with her plan. They had always taught her to say sorry. So why were they being so weird about her wanting to say sorry to Jessica? Maybe they knew somehow that Margaret didn't really want to say sorry. But no, they couldn't have any idea about that.

The two hours clicked by very very slowly. Exactly two hours after Margaret rolled her eyes, she went to her mom again. "Mom," she said pleadingly, "I haven't changed my mind."

Glenda let out a big sigh. These kinds of mood changes weren't supposed to happen in kids till they were teenagers, or so she thought. "I definitely didn't have mood swings like this in Kindergarden," she thought to herself. "Or did I?"

The truth is that Glenda felt a bit awkward calling over to Jessica's house. When Jessica's parents had come over to pick her up, Glenda had explained that her daughter was going through a very sensitive phase, and Jessica shouldn't think that she had done anything wrong. And they shouldn't think that Margaret was doing anything wrong either.

"In Margaret's mind," Glenda had said, "Jessica said something very hurtful, even though we all know that Jessica didn't mean it that way."

Glenda had thought that she would be able to kind of avoid the parents after that. It was never easy to tell people that your child was going through a "sensitive" phase. Now she had to talk to them, and just a day later!

Glenda went into Gary's office to make the call so that she could close the door. She didn't want Margaret to eavesdrop. Sure enough, when Glenda was done Margaret was sitting on the floor next to the door, and there was no doubt she had tried to hear Glenda's end of the conversation.

"Well?" Margaret asked excitedly.

"Jessica will be here in an hour, and she will stay for an hour. That's it."

"YAY!" Margaret jumped up, clapped her hands, hugged her mom, and ran to her room.

The next hour seemed to be longer than the two hours Margaret had had to wait already, but sure enough, the purply car pulled up. Margaret ran down the stairs as she had on Saturday morning. Jessica was still sitting in the car this time.

"Hi Jessica," Margaret said. She had to tilt her head up a bit to make sure Jessica could hear her through the open window.

Jessica slowly undid her seat belt, opened the door, and climbed out of the car.

"Remember, Jess. One hour. We're going to go inside and talk to Margaret's parents."

Margaret led Jessica back to the same tree where they had been practicing before.

"I wanted to see you before we went to school, Jessica. I wanted to see if we were still friends."

"Well, I don't know." Jessica kicked the grass with her shoe and looked down. She didn't look at Margaret at all. "I mean, I didn't do anything and you made me leave. I cried for a long time yesterday. I don't think good friends make each other cry."

Margaret had thought that if she gave Jessica the chance to talk first, Jessica might beg for forgiveness for the awful thing she had said. Instead, Jessica was saying still that she hadn't done anything wrong and she was actually trying to say that Margaret should apologize.

Margaret walked away from Jessica and turned so that her back was toward her former friend. She reached her hand into her pocket and pulled out her pony box, where the pearl was resting. Margaret took it out, put it near her mouth, and whispered, "Magical pearl, make Jessica look like a munchkin from the Wizard of Oz." She put the pearl carefully back into its box, and the box back into her pocket.

The sight that greeted Margaret's eyes when she turned around was amazing and funny and hard to believe. Jessica's brown hair had been covered by a little bonnet, and it looked like it was bright red and curly. She was quite a bit smaller than Jessica now, and her face looked someone had spread paste all over it, except for her cheeks which were bright and red. Jessica's shirt and jeans had been replaced by light blue dress with a giant collar, and her tennis shoes had been replaced with little blue shoes that looked like they were meant for a doll.

Margaret couldn't believe how well the little pearl had done its job. She walked over to her now shorter friend. "Who looks like a munchkin now, huh?"

Jessica let out a scream that pierced Margaret's ears. All of the parents came running out of the house to see what the matter was, but when they saw Jessica they all stopped in their tracks. Jessica's mother let out a scream very similar to Jessica's.

"What HAPPENED?" Jessica's father cried as he picked up Jessica and threw off her bonnet.

"I don't know," Margaret said. She was finding that she had not planned for this part, the lying part. She had never really lied before. "We were practicing, and I went to look at something, and when I came back Jessica looked like that."

Before you could say "munchkin" Jessica and her parents were in their car and leaving. Glenda and Gary were still standing where they had been when they first saw Jessica. Margaret thought it looked like they were in a trance.

"Are, um, are you okay?" Glenda asked Margaret. "You look...the same. Come here, let me just make sure you're uh, you're okay."

Margaret walked over to Glenda. "I'm fine, Mom. I don't know what happened to Jessica but I'm totally fine. Don't worry!"

Margaret kissed her mom's cheek, then skipped back into the house. She went back to her room and placed her pony box, with the pearl inside, carefully on her desk.

She wouldn't need any more wishes for today, she knew. That had been great enough to last her a long time. She couldn't wait till night time when she could give her full report to Cassielane.

"Won't she be surprised!" Margaret thought.

In the meantime, Margaret turned her attention to tomorrow, which would be her first day at school with her new magical pearl. What would she do? There were so many ideas, but just three wishes a day. She wanted to make sure each day was as great as this one. She had to spread out her best ideas. There was a lot of work to do indeed.

Chapter Four: A Little Light

Margaret could not seem to stop crying. Just as she would start to feel better, she'd think of another reason to be sad. First, she tried to think about the play to cheer herself up. But of course all of that fun was ruined now. She would have to disappoint her mom and her dad and Mrs. Ford. She had no interest in being in that play anymore. She saw her little red bookbag hanging on her door and thought about how miserable school was going to be on Monday. Worse than ever. Now she couldn't sit with Jessica at lunch. She didn't really have any other friends at school. What if Jessica told everyone about how their party had ended? What if Jessica had been making fun of Margaret the whole time? It was all just plain rotten.

Margaret heard a car pull into the driveway. She heard the front door open and close and knew this all meant that Jessica was finally leaving. Margaret got up and stood on her chair to look out the window. Her mom and dad were leaning into the car to talk to Jessica's mom. Margaret couldn't hear what they were saying. It didn't seem like her parents were really mad at Jessica. It didn't seem like she was in trouble at all. That made Margaret sad and mad all over again. Why did her parents think that she was the one who was acting badly when she had been called a munchkin by her friend? That was almost as bad as being called a midget.

Suddenly, Jessica's mom, from the car, seemed to look right up to where Margaret was standing. Margaret forgot that she was standing on her chair, and in trying to hide she ended up falling off and thudding on to the ground. She heard running coming up the stairs. Her mom had come in just before Margaret fell and heard the thud. Margaret heard footsteps in the hall. Then, just before the door opened, Margaret saw a little yellow light flying over her desk, near the window she had just been staring through. It looked like a lightning bug, but that couldn't be right, could it?

Margaret was so confused and distracted that she had stopped crying altogether. Her mom ran over to her. "Are you okay? Were you standing on that chair AGAIN?" Her voice was a mixture of fear and a little bit of frustration.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Mom, I saw a lightning bug in my room!" Margaret thought her mom would be excited about this strange discovery.

"Oh God, you probably have a concussion. Let me get your dad to take Isaac and then we're going to go to the doctor, okay? Don't fall asleep!"

Margaret was completely confused at her mom's reaction. First of all, what was a concussion? Second of all, why did seeing a lightning bug mean a trip to the doctor? And don't fall asleep? Parents were sure weird sometimes.

Margaret's mom carried her downstairs, strapped her into her carseat, and off to a big hospital they went. Margaret had thought they were going to see her regular doctor, Dr. Cleck, but it turned out she didn't work on Saturdays.

"Why am I going to the doctor, mom?" Margaret wanted to explore her room and see if she could find that little lightning bug.

"You hit your head pretty hard when you fell, and sometimes when we hurt our heads, we get hurt really badly. You probably didn't see a lightning bug. Um, it's kind of like in the cartoons when a character gets bonked in the head and then sees stars for awhile."

"I didn't see stars, Mom. I saw a lightning bug! It was flying over my window!"

"I know, well, I just want to be sure you're okay. OK?"

The doctor that Margaret didn't know did different tests on her. A bright light was pointed right into Margaret's eyes, and then she was asked to follow it around without turning her head. The doctor felt her head and said, "Yep, you've got a pretty good goose egg back there, but I think you'll be fine." This doctor had very friendly eyes, but Margaret still liked Dr. Cleck better.

"Your daughter just bonked her head. Keep an eye on her but she definitely doesn't have a concussion," the doctor said to Glenda.

Before starting up the car again, Glenda called Gary on her cell phone. "Hey. Yeah, she's okay. Just a bump on the head. I don't know. Well, we'll see. Yeah, hold on."

"Margaret, your dad wants to know if you still want spaghetti for dinner."

Margaret and Jessica had especially requested spaghetti for dinner.

"Yeah, sure," Margaret said grimly. Her dad made the best spaghetti. She was kind of glad Jessica wouldn't get any.

After dinner Margaret was anxious for bedtime. She watched some cartoons with Isaac and colored in her coloring book for awhile, but she shocked her mom and dad when she said, all on her own, that she was ready for bed. Usually Margaret always asked to stay up a bit longer. Her parents looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders at the same time.

"Don't forget to brush your teeth, babe," said Glenda.

Margaret brushed her teeth carefully then went into her bedroom. She closed her door and kept the light off for a moment to see if she could see the little lightning bug that way, but she wouldn't be able to move if it stayed that dark, so she had to turn the light back on.

"Hey little lightning bug," Margaret whispered in a sort of sing-songy way. "Where did you go?"

Margaret looked up at her ceiling, then down on her floor. She looked over her desk where she had seen the little light before. She looked on her bed and under it. But she didn't see the little light anywhere.

"Maybe mommy was right," Margaret thought to herself as she put on her PJs. "Maybe I just bonked my head and saw lights like in the cartoons."

Margaret climbed into bed, making sure that Lamby was well within reach, as usual. Lamby always ended up on the floor every morning somehow, but she always started in bed right by Margaret's side.

Margaret thought about what a weird day it had been. It had started so well and then it had gotten really awful, but it had gotten pretty okay again by the end. And she had a mystery to solve, too!

Just as Margaret was about to close her eyes, she heard a voice. "I am NOT a lightning bug, by the way," said the voice. It was high pitched and sounded like crystal would sound if it could talk.

Margaret sat straight up in bed. "Who said that?" she whispered.

"I did, of course. Who else would it be?" the voice said in a merry way.

Margaret looked at Lamby. It didn't seem to be coming from her. Margaret heard the same voice laugh. It was the prettiest, most happy laugh Margaret had ever heard.

"I'm not your lamb, you silly girl. Here, look up towards your window. Does this look familiar?"

Margaret looked up and there she saw the same little light that she had seen earlier that day. But it was talking! Now Margaret was worried that she really did have whatever a concussion was. Maybe that new doctor had missed something.

"Don't worry, you're not hurt or crazy, Margaret," the voice said kindly. "Here, maybe this will help."

The little light flew away from the window and landed on Margaret's little nightstand. Suddenly, Margaret saw that the little light was not a lightning bug at all. It was a little tiny fairy! Close up, Margaret could see that the fairy had long brown hair and brown eyes, just like Margaret did. The fairy's little wings were clear but seemed to sparkle a little. She wore a tiny pink silky dress, and her bear feet rested on the edge of the table.

"There, that's better, right?" the fairy asked.

Margaret couldn't talk. Not just yet. She nodded her head though.

"My name is Cassielane, and I have been watching over you for some time now," the fairy said. "You had a pretty hard day today, didn't you?"

Margaret nodded her head again. Her eyes got a bit teary.

"That's what I thought," Cassielane said. "That's why I thought I'd introduce myself to you and tell you some very good news."

"What kind of good news?" Margaret was now too curious to stay quiet.

"Ah, right to the point now, huh?" Cassielane laughed her magical laugh again. It was such a happy sound that Margaret found herself smiling!

"To find out the good news, I want you to close your eyes and put out your right hand," Cassielane said.

Margaret was not too sure about this plan. "I don't want to close my eyes," she said with some hesitation. "I mean, my mommy and daddy always say I should be careful around strangers. They are probably going to be really mad if they find out I'm talking to you even."

At this, Cassielane burst into such a big laugh that she actually fell off the table and had to fly her way back up again. "Oh, you are such a smart girl, Miss Margaret. Very wise indeed! Alright, how about this then. Hold out your hand, but you can keep your eyes open."

Margaret nodded and put out her right hand. Suddenly, Cassielane snapped her fingers. Magically, out of nowhere, Margaret saw, in the palm of her hand, a perfectly round, bright white pearl.

Chapter Three: A friend gone wrong

After the whole mess about the sign-up sheet for the play, life started to get a little better for Margaret. Glenda and Gary noticed that their daughter had a bit more spring in her step.

Every day at school, Mrs. Ford ran play rehearsals during usual music time, and then different groups rehearsed on different days for an hour after school. Margaret had been worried about being in the Lullaby League at first, but when she saw that Jessica had won the part of another munchkin, she felt much better. Even if people did snicker or snort, she would have someone by her side to stand up for her. Well, other than Mrs. Ford.

As it turned out, rehearsing for a play was really really fun. As part of the Lullaby League, Margaret got to do a special little dance. She thought it was neat how her voice sounded so perfect when she sang along with Jessica and the third "munchkin," Lilly. As the rehearsals went on, Margaret and Jessica became better and better friends. In fact, Margaret felt like maybe Jessica would be her best friend, and for a long time. They always seemed to laugh at the same things, and they liked a lot of the same stuff.

With this in mind, Margaret asked her mom if she and Jessica could have a sleep-over. It was the weekend before the big play, and Margaret and Jessica were so excited that they couldn't seem to sit still. They weren't nervous at all. Margaret told her mom that they wanted to practice a little more, it wouldn't JUST be for fun stuff.

Glenda was delighted that Margaret had not only made such a good friend but that her daughter already wanted to have a slumber party. However, it was important to establish ground rules early.

"Do you know if Jessica is allowed to go to sleepovers, M?"

Margaret was confused. "Why wouldn't she?"

"Well, sometimes mommies and daddies get a little nervous about their kids going to stay at other peoples' houses," Glenda said. "I would be a little nervous about you staying at Jessica's house because I've never met her mommy or daddy and I don't know where she lives. I'm sure it would be the same for her parents."

Margaret didn't think that made a whole lot of sense, but she was starting to get a heavy feeling in her tummy. It felt a lot like disappointment.

"Do you have Jessica's number?" Glenda asked. She saw that Margaret's face was starting to look awfully cloudy.

"No, but I could get it tomorrow!" Margaret said.

"Ok, get her phone number and I'll call her parents tomorrow night. Ok?"

Margaret felt a little better, but she was also kind of nervous. What if her mom convinced Jessica's parents that a sleepover was a bad idea? What if Jessica's parents were against the whole idea?

Margaret talked to Jessica at lunch the next day and explained the whole situation. Jessica wrote her number on Margaret's napkin, which Margaret carefully folded and put into her lunchbox. Both girls were still a little hazy on why a sleepover was such a big deal, but Jessica said that her parents probably would not have any problem with her visiting.

That day went by very slowly. Even rehearsal seemed to drag on a bit. Margaret had heard lots of kids talking about how they had gone to each others' houses and had so much fun. She really hoped that she and her new friend would be able to brag about their fun time!

Margaret practically ran off the bus and immediately opened her lunchbox, where Jessica's number napkin was still carefully folded. Glenda told her that there were some crackers out with a little bowl of tuna fish salad for a snack. Glenda went into the living room, where she and Isaac had been watching television. She was hoping Isaac would take a nap.

Margaret sat down and started spooning some tuna salad on to her buttery crackers. Then she noticed that her mom had not even walked towards the phone, and Jessica's number was lying there on the table.

"Mom, why aren't you calling Jessica's parents? I gave you the number!"

"Don't they work, babe?" Glenda called over the TV.

"I don't know but you could still call," Margaret said impatiently. Little crumbs of cracker were falling all over her shirt.

Glenda knew that Margaret would not rest until the call had been made. "Was I ever this impatient when I was a kid," Glenda wondered to herself.

The call was made, and Glenda was happy to report to Margaret that Jessica would be dropped off Saturday morning, and her mom would pick her up on Sunday morning. Margaret was relieved and happy and excited all at the same time.

"You'll clean up your room before then, right? You don't want your friend to think that you live in a pigsty!"

Margaret kind of heard this, but she was busily running up the stairs, trying to imagine what fun she and Jessica would have. Saturday could not come soon enough.

For the rest of the week, Margaret and Jessica planned and plotted how their little party would go. They really were going to practice for the play. A lot. But they needed to let Margaret's mom know what they wanted to eat, and what movies they would watch, and what they would do outside if it wasn't too cold.

Finally, Saturday morning came. A purplish car pulled into the driveway and before the doorbell could ring, Margaret flew out to meet Jessica. Glenda came out with Isaac in her arms so that she could meet Jessica's mom. Margaret saw them chatting but she and Jessica were already on their way. Margaret had decided that a spot in the far corner of the backyard would be a perfect place to practice. There was a big tree that they could pretend was Dorothy, because Mrs. Ford said it was important to keep eye contact.

The girls had been practicing for awhile and Margaret was having lots of fun.

"I think you're going to be the best munchkin ever!" Jessica said while they were taking a little breather.

"Yeah? Really?" Margaret was flattered.

"Oh yeah, I mean, you sound the part, you look the part. You're perfect!"

Before Margaret could even take in what had just happened, tears were flowing down her cheeks. She couldn't even look at Jessica. She ran into the house, ran up the stairs, ran to her room, and slammed the door. She heard her dad calling her name, then her mom, but she didn't stop. She flopped on her bed and cried and cried. She felt like her heart was breaking into a million little pieces. All of the fun she had been looking forward to didn't matter now. Jessica was clearly not a friend. Had she been laughing at Margaret this whole time?

Margaret heard a knock on the door but didn't say anything. Her mom opened the door.

"What the heck happened? I thought you two were having a great time out there!"

"I want her to go away," Margaret sputtered. "I want her to go away and I never want to see her again!"

Now Margaret's father came into the room. "What did she do?" He was kind of asking Margaret but was also kind of asking Glenda.

"She said that I make a perfect munchkin because I look like one!" Margaret squealed. "She's probably been making fun of me this whole time!"

"Oh for heaven's sakes," Margaret's father sighed. "She probably was trying to pay you a compliment and you just took it as an insult."

"No, she's mean! Make her go away!"

Margaret's mom nodded towards Gary. He sighed one more time, left the room, and closed the door. Glenda picked Margaret up and cuddled her.

"What exactly did she say, babe?" Glenda asked after a little while.

"She said I would make the perfect muchkin cuz I sound like one and look like one."

"Well, I'm sure she was trying to be nice and it just came out wrong, sweetie. She's very upset downstairs and doesn't really know why you're so upset. Don't you want to go down and talk to her?"

"No, I don't care if she's upset. She's mean and I don't like her anymore," Margaret whimpered.

Glenda kissed Margaret on the top of the head. "OK, well, we're going to go and try to explain what happened, and we'll call Jessica's parents."

Margaret's bedroom door closed again. She was sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that she would never ever ever have a real and true friend.

Chapter One

Glenda Walker had always been told that Margaret’s first day of school would just be awful.

“I cried all that day,” Glenda’s friend Wendy warned. “I just couldn’t believe my little baby was five and going to Kindergarten!”

Glenda had listened sympathetically. She could see how some moms, and maybe even dads, would really have a hard time accepting that their “babies” were doing what everybody is supposed to do - growing up. Still, Glenda wasn’t like a lot of her friends. She didn’t cry at movies or at television shows unless they were really sad. And she didn’t cry much at other times either. She was proud of her daughter and was excited to see how Margaret would do at school.

On Margaret’s first day, Glenda did wake up a little bit earlier than usual. She made Margaret’s favorite, pancakes, for breakfast. Margaret’s little brother Isaac hated pancakes for some reason. Margaret thought that was really weird.

Margaret ate her pancakes really fast. In fact, her dad, Gary, couldn’t believe how fast she had eaten.

“Someone is excited, huh?” He said smilingly.

Margaret smiled and wrapped her arms around her dad’s neck. He was already dressed and ready for work. Margaret loved how her dad smelled after shaving. It was the smell of fresh and clean. It also made her think that it was the smell of being ready to work hard. She wondered if she smelled that way to her dad.

Margaret looked at her mom. “Can I put it on now? Please?”

“Yes, I’ll be up in a minute to help you with your hair.”

“Yay!” Margaret practically ran upstairs to her bedroom. Her brand new dress, which she and her mom had gotten a couple of weeks ago, had been bought special for this first day of school. It was quite a pretty dress, with a dark red top and then a little plaid skirt at the bottom.

By the time Glenda made it upstairs, Margaret already had her dress on. “How do you want to do your hair, M?” Glenda asked.

“I want a ponytail, please. With my red ribbon.”

Glenda pulled out the pretty, shiny red ribbon that was in Margaret’s top dresser drawer and started combing her daughter’s hair. Margaret’s hair was a combination of her mom and dad’s hair. Like her dad, Margaret had hair that was thick and wavy. Like her mom’s hair, there was some curl to it, and it was thicker in the bottom levels than it was on the top.

As Glenda gathered all of Margaret’s hair into a ponytail, she went over again some of what Margaret should be ready for.

“Always remember that when you’re at school, you are to listen to your teachers and respect them, just like you are to listen and respect dad and me when you’re at home. Be nice to other kids, and if kids are mean to you at any time, just tell a teacher. Never talk to strangers, and always take the bus home. Dad or I will write a note and let you know in person if we are coming to pick you up or if someone else is, okay?”

Margaret had heard all of this before, but she wasn’t really paying attention. The dress looked as pretty as it had in the store, and now it was all hers. Her favorite shiny red ribbon was in her hair. Now her mom was struggling to get her in her tights, which would then lead to Margaret getting to put on her new shiny black shoes. They clicked on the floor when she walked because they had little heels on them.

While Margaret continued to dance and twirl in her new outfit, Glenda double-checked the lunchbox. Peanut butter and jelly on white bread, cut into 2 triangles. Strip cheese. A special little surprise was the last touch - a little candy bar.

Gary called up to Margaret. “Hey Margo, come on down, we want to take some pictures of you on this special day!”

Margaret came carefully clacking down the stairs, a noise that her little brother thought was hilarious. He started hitting his little toy drumstick on a table to copy the sound. Glenda gently removed the toy from his grasp.

Everyone went outside. Margaret stood with her lunchbox in her hand, carefully showing off her new dress, her hair, and her new shoes in different poses. For a very brief moment, Glenda caught her breath and thought how strange it was that her little girl could look so grown up. Her eyes burned a little. She wiped her face and Gary gave her a little look. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

All of a sudden, a big lumbering sound came towards the house.

“Here comes your bus, babe!” Gary said.

Margaret hugged her dad, then her mom. She tried to give Isaac a hug but he was very busy watching a squirrel that was hopping around.

“Have a good day!” Glenda yelled as Margaret climbed the giant bus steps.

When Margaret got on the bus, the skies had been blue. It was sunny and warm and all of the birds were chirping. But when the bus came back in the afternoon, the sky was grey, and just as Margaret opened the front door, it started to rain.

Glenda came out of the living room and gave her daughter a big hug.

“Well? How was it? Tell me everything! How is your teacher? Do you like her?”

Margaret was very tired and felt a little overwhelmed. She had met a lot of new people that day. A lot of new kids, a lot of new teachers. When she felt like there was too much going on, she got kind of quiet. Her mom had guessed that this might be how Margaret would feel.

“Would a brownie help you remember how to talk to your old mom?”

“Is it a brownie with walnuts in it?” Margaret asked.

“Well, there’s just one way to find out!”

Glenda walked into the kitchen, where Isaac was already set up in his high chair. Margaret sat down, and suddenly, in front of her, on a little plate, was a big brownie with her mom’s homemade icing on top. Margaret took a bit.

“It does have walnuts!” She practically yelled with glee.

“She might be in Kindergarten, but I still know what she likes,” Glenda thought to herself.

After Margaret had taken a few bites, she asked, “Mom, can I see your bird book?”

“You mean my Field Guide?”

“Yeah, the one with all the pictures and names of the birds,” Margaret replied. This had been one of her favorite books when she was a toddler. She loved all of the colors and shapes that birds came in.

“Did you learn about birds today?” Glenda asked, handing the book to Margaret.

“Well, no, not really. But at recess, these kids were swinging, and I was walking toward them, and they all started yelling that they saw a midget! I looked around and didn’t see one, so I wanted to see what they look like so I can maybe see one tomorrow.”

Glenda and Gary had known that Margaret would be teased because she was different from other kids. She had always been very small. The doctors had done lots of tests and hadn’t found anything wrong. Everything seemed to work fine. Margaret was just a bit smaller than everyone else. Since there weren’t a lot of kids in the neighborhood, she had not really noticed this much. Gary and Glenda had hoped that Margaret’s first experience with lots of kids would be mostly okay. Now, Glenda really did feel like crying.

Margaret finished her brownie and started looking through the field guide, looking for bird names that began with the letter m. Glenda cleared away her brownie plate, then took away the book and put it back on the shelf.

“But I didn’t find it yet, Mom!” Margaret was frustrated.

“Margaret,” Glenda said, I have to tell you something, and you’re not going to like it very much.”

Margaret was a little scared. She wasn’t used to being talked to this way.

Glenda took Margaret’s hand. “Honey, a midget is not a kind of bird. Midget is what people sometimes call other people who are small.”

“So, they were pointing at me when they were laughing and saying that word?” Margaret gulped.

Glenda took her daughter into her lap. “I’m afraid so, honey. But you don’t worry about that. You are fine just the way you are, and if they pick on you again tomorrow, you just tell a teacher.

“I wish it was a kind of bird,” Margaret whimpered.

Chapter Two: A Fate Worse Than Munchkin

The school year moved along, day by day, week by week. Some days, Margaret came home weeping.

"I was walking down the hall and all of these kids I was walking towards scrunched down real low and started laughing," she said one day.

"I was sitting at lunch and this big kid put his arms around my neck and pushed me up and down saying "dead or alive," Margaret told her mother on another day. That one made Glenda call the principal and ask where all of the teachers on duty were.

Some days though, there was good news. Margaret and her class got to go to her teacher's farm one day, and they all saw honey bee hives. Margaret started making friends. Her conversations at dinner became peppered with new names. Jessica. Leia. Melanie.

As far as Margaret was concerned, even on the good days, school was a necessary evil. Her mom and dad had always told her that she was going to go to school, all the way till college, which she figured out was up to sixteenth grade. Sixteen grades, and she wasn't even in first yet. It was going to be a long haul. She figured that she might as well just get used to the idea. In the meantime, she couldn't figure out what she hated more, being picked on or trying to figure out math.

Then, it came time for the school play.

It was a a chilly day in September and the entire school had been called to an assembly after lunch. It was announced that there was going to be a play, and it was going to be Wizard of Oz. Anybody from any grade, K-4, could try out for parts.

At first, Margaret felt really excited. She had always loved Wizard of Oz. She had sung Follow the Yellow Brick Road even before she understood the words. She had thought they were saying "falla the yellowbrickroad." Margaret had felt quite grown up when she not only understood what the song's words were but also noticed that the characters sang it while actually walking on the yellow brick road. She loved that the good witch had the same name as her mom. She loved that Dorothy realized all of her friends from Oz were really her friends in Kansas. There was a lot to love about Wizard of Oz.

Suddenly, though, Margaret realized a key part of the movie. Munchkin Land. The Lullaby League.

"How could I have FORGOTTEN about the munchkins?" Margaret thought to herself. Tiny beads of sweat popped up suddenly on her forehead. Her hands got clammy. Margaret didn't understand 100% why, but she knew, suddenly, that if she was cast as a munchkin, only bad things would result.

"I know who should try out for Toto!" one of the third-grade boys yelled out. His name was Jay. He always seemed to pick on Margaret.

"Yeah, we have the perfectly sized person to play a dog," Jay's friend Mitch yelled out.

Little bursts of laughter began popping around the huge gymnasium. Everybody knew that the boys were talking about Margaret. Even Margaret, at this point used to the fact that most jokes were about her, realized that they were talking about her.

The music teacher who was making the announcement, Mrs. Ford, didn't say anything. Margaret wasn't sure if she heard what was going on or not.

"Maybe she doesn't know they're talking about me, even if she did hear them," Margaret thought hopefully.

Mrs. Ford announced that the sign-up sheet would be posted in the lunchroom. Try-outs would be in a week, and at the end of that week, the players would be announced.

That night Margaret was in a foul mood.

"What is wrong with you?" Glenda asked after Margaret yanked one of her toys out of Isaac's hands.

"My school is going to be doing a Wizard of Oz play," Margaret's voice sounded oddly angry and bitter, even to her own ears. "And at the school assembly today all the boys said they knew who should play Toto, and they were all laughing, and they were talking about me!"

Margaret's dad was reading the paper at the dining room table. He chimed in, "Margaret, how do you know they were talking about you? They could have been talking about any number of people."

"Because they said they knew someone who was the perfect size, Dad. I'm the littlest person at school."

"I think you're making too big a deal out of this one, Margaret. And I'd appreciate it if you changed your tone."

Margaret didn't understand why her dad didn't understand the situation. Everyone laughed at her all the time. When the word "size" was included, that was a clear signal that the laughter was aimed at her. Everyone knew Margaret was the smallest kid in the school. Why was her dad making it seem like this was her fault? And then he yells at her for her tone of voice? It just wasn't fair.

Margaret went to her room, threw herself on her bed, and started to cry. It was bad enough that Jay and Mitch and lots of other kids picked on her all of the time. But why hadn't Mrs. Ford said anything? Why hadn't her dad gotten mad at the other kids instead of getting mad at her? None of it made any sense.

The next day at lunch, Margaret's friend Jessica sat down, pulled a sandwich out of her lunch box, and then put it down.

"Margaret, I think there's something you need to look at," Jessica began.

"What?" Margaret's heart had been full of dread just walking into the school that morning. Now she was sweating again. She put her sandwich down, too.

"Well, go over and look at the sign-up sheet," Jessica said as she kind of tilted her head towards the piece of paper.

Margaret got up and walked over to the wall. She could barely read the sheet because it was high on the wall, but she didn't have look too hard to see that someone had written in her name, which she knew how to read, next to the hand-written role of Toto.

Margaret wanted to rip the sheet off the wall. She jumped up and reached her hand as high as she could, but she couldn't reach it. Now she heard kids laughing, and she felt pretty sure they were laughing at her. Suddenly, Margaret felt a hand on her shoulder. It was Mrs. Ford.

Mrs. Ford took the sheet off the wall, then leaned down.

"Why don't you grab your lunch and then come with me to my office," Mrs. Ford said.

Margaret went back to her table. Jessica was eating her sandwich. She didn't look at Margaret. She just kept looking down, like it was taking a lot of focus to eat that peanut butter & jelly. Margaret put her own pb&j back into its plastic bag, then all of her food back into her lunch box. She walked over to where Mrs. Ford was standing. Mrs. Ford was looking at the table where Jay and his friends were sitting. They were all concentrating on eating their lunches, too.

Mrs. Ford took Margaret's hand and they walked to Mrs. Ford's office, which was in the back corner of the music room. Margaret had never been in a teacher's office before. It seemed kind of messy. There were magazines everywhere. Sheet music. Margaret saw pictures of kids and figured they must be Mrs. Ford's kids.

"Margaret, I want to say sorry to you for what those kids did," Mrs. Ford said earnestly.

Suddenly, red hot tears started burning Margaret's eyes. She had always loved music class with Mrs. Ford and had always been happy in the music room. Now she felt really humiliated that Mrs. Ford had seen the piece of paper and had had to come to her rescue.

"Margaret, I would really like you to be in our school play. I think you'd do a really good job. Now, of course I am not going to cast anyone as Toto, but I wanted to run something by you."

Margaret was worried that a lot of snot was coming out of her now, which was even more embarrassing.

"Margaret, I'd really like for you to be one of the three ladies in the Lullaby League. Now, I want you to know that this has nothing to do with your height. I was planning on having 3 girls from Kindergarten do that role. But I wanted to ask you about it so that if it would make you uncomfortable, you could just let me know. I won't make you try out or anything. You have a really good voice, and I think when other kids see and hear that they might get off your case a little bit. What do you think?"

Mrs. Ford reached over to the other side of her desk and pulled out a blue tissue from her tissue box. It felt powdery.

Margaret rubbed her nose, crumbled up the tissue in her hand, and began to think. Did she really have a good voice? Would being in the Lullaby League really help her shut the other kids up? It could be fun to be on stage. Her mom and dad and maybe Isaac could come. And it seemed like Mrs. Ford really wanted her to do it.

"Okay, I'll try it," Margaret said.

That afternoon, when the announcements came on, the principal said, "Now I have a note here from Mrs. Ford. Apparently some of you thought it would be funny to use the play sign-up sheet as a way to make fun of one of your classmates. Because of that, anyone who wants to try out for the play for the rest of the week will have to see Mrs. Ford personally."

Margaret definitely liked that Mrs. Ford.