Nellie Oleson Meets Laura Ingalls (Little House) by Heather Williams

Author:Heather Williams
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780061242489
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-09-04T05:00:00+00:00

The long spring days dragged on, getting hotter and hotter. Nellie hated school more than ever, now that she had to see Laura Ingalls every day. Christy and Laura had quickly become fast friends. Nellie guessed they would even call themselves "best friends." It was as if Christy had never thought of Nellie that way at all.

Nellie tried not to care. She told herself that Christy wasn't good enough to be her best friend anyhow. Christy's family was not as rich as hers, and they had too many children, and Christy talked too much, on and on about things nobody cared about, least of all Nellie. She was better off without her.

Laura had passed Nellie in her studies after only a couple of weeks. Nellie did not know how she'd done it. Laura must spend all her time at home studying. She couldn't possibly have any good toys to play with if she had so much time to spend with her books. It made Nellie mad to see how pleased Teacher was with Laura.

On Fridays especially, when Laura spelled more words right than Nellie, Nellie felt so mad that she wanted to grab her slate and break it over Laura's head. Only knowing how much trouble she would be in with Teacher stopped her. She did not want Laura to have the satisfaction of watching Nellie get punished. Laura never got into trouble. Nellie could imagine the smug look on Laura's face if Teacher ever used her ruler on Nellie.

At least Nellie was still queen of the school yard. She made the other girls play ring-around-a-rosy every day. She liked to hear I hem all singing and watch them circle around her as if she was the center of the universe. She liked the way they all fell down together in a big pile as if they were all friends. She wondered if Christy remembered telling Nellie that this was her favorite game, and if she knew that Nellie made them play it for that reason.

One Friday at recess Nellie came out of the schoolhouse to find Laura winding a chain of wildflowers around Christy's wrist. The flowers were yellow and blue and white, like the sky, and Christy was laughing.

Then Laura turned and looked directly at Nellie. She said in a loud voice, "Let's play Uncle John!"

Nellie didn't know why, but she felt afraid. She felt as if she was standing on the edge of the prairie with a tornado rushing toward her. Nobody had ever challenged Nellie at recess before.

"Let's! Let's!" cried Rosemary and Maud and the other girls. They sounded so excited. Nellie felt betrayed.

Then Christy took Laura's hand and said, "Yes, let's play Uncle John!" And that was the worst betrayal of all. Hadn't Nellie picked ring-around-a-rosy because it was Christy's favorite? Wasn't she supposed to be Christy's best friend? What did this stuck-up, barefoot country girl have that Nellie didn't?

Her mad feelings boiled over until she could hardly see. Her skin felt like it was going to burst into flames.

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