yeah? Well you can have it back then.’
Mum returned Mia’s backpack and the pair carried on up Meeks Mountain. Soon they reached the top, and Mia’s spirits lifted to see the open field of Paine Reserve park, and her new school beyond. Once across the road, Mum took the school bag off Mia’s shoulders allowing her to run ahead to the little playground where a girl sat wearing the same dress as hers. Mrs Glasson watched as Mia first stopped in front of the playground then headed straight for the school.
Standing in front of the tall bolted gates Mia felt her stomach flip. Rainbow Street Primary School looked a mysterious place. It loomed over the houses and old apartments surrounding it and made the park seem small. She half expected it to be rainbow-coloured or at least consisted of seven brightly coloured buildings, each painted a colour of the rainbow. Instead, alas, Rainbow Street Primary School was pink or ‘peach’, as Mum saw it.
‘It’s a beautiful, sunny peach!’ Mum said as she reached Mia.
‘Looks pink to me, Mum.’
‘Hmm, well, the edges around the windows are pink – and the pillars too but the building is peach. Let’s say it’s peach with pink highlights?’
Mia shrugged her shoulders in agreement. Pink, peach, it made no difference to Mia, if she couldn’t have a rainbow-coloured uniform she may as well have one she could get messed up.
‘You look a picture, darling,’ her mother said for the umpteenth time that morning. ‘I just can’t believe you managed to scuff your new shoes already.’
‘I can’t see my feet, Mum, my dress is so long.’
‘I think it’s cute and I bet all the girls in your class will wear it as long as yours.’
‘Can you take it up a bit?’
‘Tell you what, if everyone else has theirs taken up and you want yours taken up too I’ll do it on the weekend, deal?’
Mia shrugged, ‘Mum, I don’t want to go in there.’
‘Okay.’
Mia looked at her mum sideways.
‘We don’t have to go in – yet. Come on, let’s go to the playground. You might meet someone.’
Mia took one last look at the building then ran ahead, the thought of swings on her mind, but when she reached the park she noticed the girl on a swing. Mia waited by the gate until Mum arrived, not sure she was ready to meet anyone. Mum unlatched the gate and held it open.
‘Come on, go play,’ she ordered.
Mia stepped in then took her mother’s hand.
‘You’re not shy are you?’ Mum asked. ‘Come on, I’ll introduce you.’
Mia’s mum headed for a tall curly haired woman standing at the bottom of a slide.
‘Hi, I’m Alexis, and this is Mia,’ Mrs Glasson said.
‘Oh hello, this is Lena,’ the woman said pointing to her daughter who’d hoped off the swing and was climbing up the slide, ‘and I’m Maria.’
Lena slid down and stood by her mum. Maria asked if it was Mia’s first day and Mrs Glasson told her they’d just moved to the area. The two mums talked together as their daughters stared at each other. Eventually Lena’s mum turned to Mia.
‘How are you, Mia?’
Mia nodded.
‘You like your new home?’
Mia shrugged.
‘Don’t worry, Lena is also nervous about the first week at school.’
‘No I’m not, Mum,’ Lena said. ‘I’m just worried what teacher I will get this year.’
‘Oh right,’ Maria said.
‘Been here since kindy?’ Mrs Glasson asked Lena.
‘Yep,’ Lena replied.
‘My two eldest went here too,’ Maria said.
‘Oh really, how do you find it?’
The two mums chatted on while Mia and Lena continued to stare at each other. Eventually Mia asked if Lena wanted to play and the girls were soon following each other across the playground. On the swings Mia asked if she could sit with her at lunch and recess.
‘But of course,’ Lena agreed, ‘you’ll meet all my friends.’
Mia frowned, realizing Lena already knew people and that she might not fit in. ‘Well if you don’t mind...’ Mia said.
‘No, I don’t mind.’
Lena promised to show Mia all the ‘important things to know’ on her first day.
‘I’ve been coming here for ages. I’ve followed my sisters to their classes for five years.’
‘Are you starting year four?’ Mia asked. The chance meeting was turning out to be very useful, especially for the first day. And, for the first time since she’d moved, Mia didn’t feel quite so alone.
‘Yes, I am, and I know all the teachers, I just don’t know which one I’ll get this year. Do you?’
Mia shook her head.
‘Don’t worry, they’re all okay.’
Chapter 3.
Builders Wall
The next day Mia and her mother stopped at the low wall Mia had built the tower on, but a new model had replaced hers, a house of sorts.
‘That’s funny. Rex, who’s been here? Did you see someone?’
Rex purred and watched Mia take the house apart and spread the rubble out.
‘Well you’re no help,’ Mia teased as she scratched Rex’s head.
‘Curious,’ Mum agreed and helped Mia build the tower again.
On the walk home after school the tower was still there and Rex was standing guard.
‘No one came while I was gone?’
Rex purred and ate the half sausage Mia had kept in her pocket from lunch.
‘Oh Mia, really.’
‘What, Mum?’
‘Don’t overfeed that cat.’
‘He
