The fifth-grader Mitsi Kashino puts her binder and sketch pad into her backpack. The holiday vacation is over, and Mitsi wishes she could take her dog, Dash, with her, and she rubs his ears. She hopes people will stop the nasty notes and mean looks.

Mitsi runs to the bench where she usually meets her two best friends, Judy and Mags. They’re like the three girls from Maud-Hart Lovelace’s novel for young readers, Betsy-Tacy and Tib (1941)—they’re inseparable, and Mitsi can’t wait to tell them about the drawing things she got for Christmas. Cold, Mitsi blows on her hands and marches around the bench, but her friends don’t show. Looking at the clock outside the Higo 10¢ Store, Mitsi realizes she’ll be late for school if she doesn’t leave.

Mitsi arrives seconds before the Pledge of Allegiance. She spots Mags’s curly red hair and Judy’s blond pageboy cut and wonders what’s up. Miss Wyatt, the teacher, got her students gifts—pencils—and Patty, this week’s room monitor, passes them out but skips Mitsi. When Mitsi speaks up, Patty gives her one, but she drops it before Mitsi can take it. Grace Arai, another student in Mitsi’s class, believes Patty dropped it purposely.