He held tight to his mother’s hand as they approached the classroom door. It seemed that they were the last ones there, as a few dozen other four to five year olds already stood by their parents shyly or ran around with new best friends.

An overwhelming burst of shyness filled Theodore’s two and a half foot body.

“Mommy, stay with me,” he begged, tugging at her bracelets.

She bent down and touched her son’s hair. “I’ll be here all the way until lunchtime. But look at the other kids, Theo,” she said, as he turned and watched a girl trip over the edge of a rug and explode in loud, dry tears. “They aren’t still holding on to their mommies.”

Theo frowned, only thinking of going home and having animal crackers like he did all summer. He noticed other children still clinging on to their parents. “They’re not being hurt like that girl, and do I get aminal crackers for dinner?”

His mother handed him a brand new racecar lunch tin and showed him how to open it. “This is lunch, Baby. Dinner is at home.”

Inside the tin box there was a baggy of animal crackers, a dinosaur shaped PB & J, and an applesauce with a spoon taped to the top. Theodore smiled while his mom closed the box and zipped it into his Spiderman backpack.

A lady around thirty with curly brown hair and a yellow sweater welcomed the kids and their parents to their first day at Rainbow Bridge Elementary. She had a sweet voice and a friendly smile. Theo was timid, but he knew that she would probably be very nice. Her name was Mrs. Connor.

“Now everybody,” she continued in her welcoming, “I am going to call all of your names in order according to the alphabet, which we’ll learn later. When I say your name, line up behind each other in front of this orange chair.”

A few parents repeated the instructions and pointed out the chair to their kids.

Mrs. Connor looked at her list. “Theodore Coyote,” she called.

Reluctantly, Theo let go of his mother’s safe hand and walked in front of the orange chair. His new teacher smiled at him, then called the next name.

“Megan Dallas.”

The girl who stood behind him grinned at him. She was missing a tooth. He soon decided that they did not have to be friends, as quickly as she decided they would be married.

Eventually all two dozen and one new kindergarteners were in a perfect line holding onto a knotted rainbow rope, walking out to tour the school. The parents followed and watched their young kids.

Theo was excited to be the very first line leader of the year, although the jumpy girl behind him was all too close. He turned around to double check that his mom was still there. Eventually he forgot to keep checking, and the parents slowly slipped away without their kids noticing.



Around November, Theo had started walking the way to the playground from the drop-off gate all by himself. One night at dinner, his mother complimented him.

“Theo, I am so proud of you, walking to school all the way without needing me to get out of the car. You’re doing a great job growing up, Honey!”

The little boy stopped smiling. “Growing up?” He asked. Somewhere inside he knew that he was going to grow up, yet he didn’t believe that was going to happen any time soon.

“Yes, you’re not a baby anymore. You’re going to be six years old Theo! Can you believe it, Alice?”

His big sister who was in seventh grade beamed at him. “Nope. I can’t. But you’ll never be my age, Little Buddy, I’ll always be six years older! When you turn six, you’ll be as old as I was when you were born.”

“But I just turned five in August,” Theo said. “That was not a whole year ago I thought.” The idea of growing up soon and quickly did not please him. He was enjoying kindergarten and wanted it to keep on going. He didn’t want to be unhappy like his mother often was, or angry like Alice was. He wanted to be five until he changed his mind.

“You’ll be five for a while, Theo,” Alice told him. “But don’t you want to be six like Phoenix?”

Phoenix was Theo’s cousin and current best friend. They played cowboys and toy trains together on the weekends. Phoenix always got to be the sheriffs and heroes and super cool bad guys because he was older. Theo was all the horses, animals, side-kicks, and the occasional shopkeeper.

“Maybe I could stay five, and Phoenix could be three,” Theo reasoned. His big sister shrugged and his mother laughed.

“I like you being little, too,” Alice decided.


Just a few weeks later while Theodore and his best buddies Andrew and Jasper were playing secret spy games, a new girl showed up.

“Hi boys,” she announced. “My name is Christie. And who are you three?”

Theo and Andrew were busy mapping out the playground with chalk scribbles. Jasper looked up curiously.

“I’m Jasper!” he exclaimed. “This are Theo and Drew. Wanna play spies with us?”

Andrew looked up at the girl. “Are you in kindergarten too?” He asked. She seemed a little tall.

“Yes, but I’m already six,” she informed them. “I moved here from Dallas. Is your teacher Mrs. Connor?”

“Like Megan Dallas?” Jasper asked. “She’s in our class too. Mrs. Connor is so nice, she lets us build towers as tall as we are!”

“That’s cute,” Christie said, straightening her dress. “What are you doing?”

“We’re just on a mission. We can’t tell people about it though, because it’s a secret game,” Andrew said.

Theo thought that maybe the new girl would want to play with them. Before he could offer, she jabbed a finger in his direction.

"Can he talk?"

“Yes I can,” Theo said, timidly.

“Oh, Do you all want to play grown-up with me?”

Andrew and Jasper pretended to throw up and then rolled over playing dead. Theo giggled and rolled over too. Christie crossed her arms and sighed. As she turned to stomp away, she said, “It’s fun you know, and grown-ups are the only real spies!”

“So we are aready playing then because, we, um, because we are aready playing grow up spies,” Jasper said.

She took a step toward them. “Are you married spies?”

“We didn’t thought about that yet. Are we, Theo?”

Theo frowned. “No, I don’t think we married anyone, because we are more busy than married people, we’re always on missions every recess.”

Jasper and Andrew nodded in agreement.

“But then, I can be your wife back at home,” Christie said to Theo. “And I can be mad at you for not being home right now.”

“I’m at school though,” he informed her.

Christie sighed again as if she were a frustrated mother. “No,” she insisted. “Me and you are married but we don’t have any kids yet because if we did then they wouldn’t like you for being gone on secret missions, understand?”

Andrew laughed quietly and Theo reluctantly nodded.

“Good. Then I’ll go to that tree and do my laundry and I’ll call to tell you to come home for dinner,” she said, walking away.

Jasper and Andrew looked at Theo. “Do you have to be married already? We need to save the swings from being bombed by fiff graders next recess, rember?”

“I don’t want to be married! That’s grow-up stuff. I want to be a spy with just you guys. It’s okay if I am not married to her!”

Jaspers eyebrows rose curiously. “You don’t wanna be ten someday? Not never?”

“Or thirty! Like my mom how old she is!” Andrew exclaimed.

“Nah,” Theo decided. “You guys go ahead and grow up and be married and stuff. I do like kindergarten.”

But inside he remembered his mother’s comments, and knew he would have to grow up. But not yet.

“HEY! I’m calling you! Darling! Come home I made dinner!” Christie shouted from the nearby tree.

Thankfully to the boys, the end of recess bell rang and they got to run off back to class.

The next recess, Christie followed them and bothered them on their missions. She kept telling them to grow up or to mature. She even asked Theo to kiss her. He had run away, followed by his two pals. Megan Dallas and her best friend Alyssa asked him what was going on. She followed the chase around the playground too.

After recess, Christie made them play house in the play castle with her.


Mrs. Connor was at the whiteboard talking about careers. Theo and Jasper were drawing a map of the school, complete with a jungle, a giant swimming pool, army bases, and spy camps. Andrew stared at them with jealousy, two tables away.

“Tomorrow, you all need to come in and share what you want to be when you grow up. We call it career day!” Mrs. Connor announced.

“I am going to be a college teacher and a vetrarian!” Christie shouted.

“Shh Christie, it’s a secret until tomorrow in class!” Mrs. Connor told her.


In class the next day, Jasper showed his spy sketch pad and sunglasses to Theo as Andrew rolled a stealthy black toy car across their desks. Both of them were going to talk about being spies.

“I also want to show everyone a map we made. Can I?” Andrew asked.

“Sure Drew! That’s a good idea,” Theo said.

“What are you gonna show?”

Theo put his finger in front of his closed lips. “Secret!”

After a miserable recess of escaping Christie, the class started career day. Megan had a stuffed dolphin and talked about swimming with dolphins and helping them when they got sick. Christie talked about being a college teacher, part time actress, and a veterinarian. Jasper and Andrew shared their spy mission secrets with the class.

Finally, it was Theo’s turn. He got up there and smiled. “I haven’t decided what to do if I growed up,” he told them. They all looked more attentive. “I like being five and I want to only think about that. If I did growed, maybe I’d be a spy or a piano player or a sailor. But I don’t even need to grow up I think because I can do every of those things right now even though I am just in kindergarten.”

Christie raised her hand.

Mrs. Connor called on her.

“That’s stupid!” she said.

She got put in the punishment chair until lunch. The rest of the class clapped for Theo.

At recess, no girls bothered the three spies. The boys did wonder where Christie had gone, though. Only when the missions had been completed and the bell had rung did they see her, running around with fourth graders.

“Theo, I like being five, too,” Andrew said later.

“Really?”

“Yeah!” Jasper agreed. “We get to play pretend, and be whatever age we feel like.”

“I don’t think older people can be do that, can they?” Theo asked.

“Probably not, my brother never pretends,” Andrew reasoned.

“Oh yeah, my sister Alice doesn’t pretend or have fun,” Theo said.

“We’ll stay five with you,” Jasper decided.

“For as long as we can!” Andrew added.

Theo was overjoyed to have such great friends, and to know that grow up time would not come too quickly. It would be awhile until any of them turned six.