Free Natalie and the Downside-Up Birthday by Dandi Daley Mackall Page A

get to the front school step, when somebody whizzes right in between us. That somebody crashes into our arms and breaks our hand-holding. That someone is Sasha.
    “Ouch!” Laurie cries. She drops her lunch box and has to pick it up.
    “Sasha!” I yell. “That wasn’t nice.”
    Sasha doesn’t slow down or turn around or say sorry. She runs right into our classroom. This is how she gets her nickname, “Sasha-the-Not-So-Nice.” She is best friends with “Peter-the-Not-So-Great.”
    Laurie and I tippytoe up the hall together, even though we don’t have to. I stop us before we go in. “Laurie,” I say, “do you think there are too many days in this week?”
    “I think there’s the regular amount of days, Nat,” Laurie answers. “This is Thursday, and tomorrow is Friday, our last school day this week.”
    I know this week is taking longer than any other kindergarten week. It has been going to be my birthday forever. “Do you think there are more hours in the kindergarten days this week?” I ask Laurie.
    Laurie folds in her lips and scrunches up her nose, ’cause that’s how she does thinking. “You know, I think you’re right, Nat. Yesterday’s kindergarten went on and on and on.”
    I smile at Laurie ’cause I know she just agreed with me because she’s my best friend. And that’s a nice thing.
    Farah runs up to us when we’re hanging up our coats and putting our lunch boxes and packs in our cubbies. She has gorgeous hair that she can sit on. “I got your invitation,” she whispers.
    She glances at Sasha, who is hanging up a beautiful purple coat in her cubby. I have never seen this coat before. I have trouble stopping staring. I would very much love a purple coat exactly like that. Only different.

    “You don’t have to whisper,” I tell Farah. “My mom made me invite everybody in the whole class—even Peter and even Sasha—so nobody would feel bad.”
    Farah grins. “You have a nice mother, Natalie.”
    “Thank you, Farah,” I say. “So do you.” I haven’t met her mother, but she must be nice like Farah. I’m thinking Farah should call me Nat, like Laurie does. But before I can tell her so, Bethanydashes over to us, grabs Farah’s elbow, and runs off.
    I whisper to Laurie, “My mom is bringing cupcakes tomorrow for a classroom party.”
    “Cool!” Laurie says. “What kind of cupcakes?”
    “We still have to make them, but they will be very chocolate,” I tell her. “Granny and I are cooking the cupcakes tonight, and she loves chocolate. As soon as school’s over, Mommy and I are going to the grocery store to get the ’gredients that go into cupcakes. Like chocolate. And icing. And maybe sprinkles.”
    “I love the grocery store,” Laurie says. “Unless Mom has a list or she brings Brianna with us.”
    Brianna is one of Laurie’s older sisters. And she is the bossy, gripey one.
    “Let’s go see Ham,” Laurie says. She pulls me with her to the cage of our classroom pet.
    Inside that cage is our hamster, who goes by the name of Ham the Hamster.
    I stare in at Ham’s big eyes and funny nose. But I don’t put my face too close to the cage. This is one of the gazillion rules we have in this kindergarten place.
    “Did you tell Ham a joke yet?” asks Jason. Jason is my bestest friend who is a boy. And that’s not the same thing as a boyfriend. He’s been chasing kids around the room, but he stops at Ham’s cage andwaits for me to answer his question.
    “Not yet.”
    I started telling Ham jokes the second day of kindergarten. Now I do it every kindergarten morning. I am a very good joke-teller. This is ’cause I have practice telling my cat, Percy, cat jokes. And sometimes dog jokes.

    “Okay. How come the hamster crossed the road?” I ask Ham. I have a gazillion of these crossing-the-road jokes.
    Ham doesn’t answer. He never answers. Andthat is a good thing. It gives me time to think of the joke answer.
    I am thinking of a very funny answer to this joke. Like, Why