Sandy arrives a bit early and with steps of both confidence and excitement makes her way into the classroom.

The desks are arranged in three two-by-two squares.

When Sandy arrives, there are two students

at one of the squares

and one at

each of two others. The students are talking across the room about what they did over the break. This one apparently was taken to visit a cousin she dislikes. Her mom was too busy to take her to show her siblings the national park this break. She's looking forward to the next field trip, whatever it might be. And she found some cool bugs at the stream when she explored there with her brother.

Sandra finds herself in the corner by the girl talking about visiting her cousin. As soon as she can get a word in, she'll introduce herself. "Hi. I'm Sandy."

"I'm Lucy. Nice to meet you!"

"Hi Lucy! It's nice to meet you too! Mama and Papa adopted me and so I'm in Ms. Frizzle's class now!"

"What's being adopted like?"

"I'm not quite sure, it just happened. My new mama is much nicer than my old mama."

"Oh. It's good that your new mom is nice.

You're really lucky to be in this class, Ms. Frizzle is a wonderful teacher."

"That's good! I can't wait to meet her. I hope we're learning about nature today! I love nature."

"Oh! So do I! Would you like me to show you the parks around here after school?"

Someone else sits down at this table.

Sandra sees the new person and greets them warmly. "Hello! I'm Sandra who're you?"

"Arnold. Hi Sandra."

Someone comes in with not much time left before the bell. He seems a bit uncomfortable.

By this point there is a third student sitting with Keesha and Wanda

two

more sitting with Dorothy Anne

And a fourth sitting with Lucy, Sandy and Arnold.

Ray sidles towards Phoebe, Dorothy Anne and Ralphie.

"Hello, I'm Ray."

And then Ms. Frizzle arrives, and soon afterwards the bell rings. She is wearing a dress printed with scenes of fish, dolphins and waves.

"Welcome back, class!"

She sounds delighted.

"Welcome back, Ms. Frizzle"

the class sound genuinely glad to welcome their teacher back.