I gripped Momma’s hand and dragged my feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is going to be so fun,\u201d she chirped and reached to open one of a pair of big pink doors.<\/p>\n
It swung open smoothly, like medicine oozing down a throat. Cool air wafted out at us, and I shivered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, it’s not,\u201d I said with certainty.<\/p>\n
Momma ignored me, started a cheery conversation with a woman with bright red lips.<\/p>\n
In time, the woman aimed those lips at me, showed me all her teeth. \u201cHi, Petey. I’m Jane. Come on in.\u201d<\/p>\n
I shook my head and cowered behind Momma’s legs.<\/p>\n
Momma let out a high pitched giggle. \u201cLet me just take him in, say goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suddenly, there was warm sunshine on my back. I wriggled around in Momma’s grasp to see another maniacally happy mother ushering in a child, a little girl already weeping.<\/p>\n
She was a messy crier. Her cheeks were wet with tears and her lips with snot. On top of that, she made a sort of hiccuping noise between sobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn’t want to be here too,\u201d I whined to Momma.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, Petey,\u201d she sighed. \u201cLet’s be brave about this. You’re a big boy now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, let’s be brave,\u201d the other mother echoed. \u201cCome on, Lola. Show us you’re a big girl.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a burst of energy I’d never before demonstrated in all my 5 years, I raced over to little Lola, grasped her by the hand, and marched her into the room with a soothing blue door.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet’s go start kindergarten.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She was a messy crier. Her cheeks were wet with tears and her lips with snot. On top of that, she made a sort of hiccuping noise between sobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe doesn’t want to be here too,\u201d I whined to Momma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[14,154,155,153,157,156],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-60-minute-stories","tag-60-minute","tag-big-boy","tag-big-girl","tag-kindergarten","tag-lola","tag-petey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":296,"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.writtenGESStures.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}