Play along with your favourite characters                   inside and outside the book!

This is my best friend Nathan.

We have been best friends since we were in diapers, just like our moms were more than thirty years ago when they rode dinosaurs to school! 

We spend all our time together and never want to be apart. My dad says we must have been siblings in another life. I wish Nathan and I were siblings.

The longest period of time we ever spent away from each other was during summer vacation before second grade; I did not get to see my best friend for two whole months. Nathan went on a last-minute trip and left me all by myself.

I missed playing tag, and hide and seek, and house, and cops and robbers, and swimming in the pool, and jumping on the trampoline, and and and…

Video games

Tag

Cops and robbers

Hide and seek

Trampoline 

Swimming

The first day of school finally arrived in September and I could not contain my excitement at seeing Nathan again. I waited at the bus stop looking down the street every two seconds to see if Nathan was walking towards me. Mom had to tell me to stand still or else I would get hurt.

After what felt like forever, I saw Nathan’s dad stepping out of their house and start walking towards us. Someone was walking closely behind him: it must be my best friend! My feet started moving before I could even stop them and next thing I knew I was running full speed towards the two. I felt as if I was running quicker than the fastest car in the world.

zoooooooooom

As I got closer, I could see the person behind Nathan’s dad becoming clearer. I slowed down in front of them and squinted my eyes to get a better look and finally stopped. I could not believe what I was seeing. It was Nathan, without a doubt, but he looked just like me! 

His usual long red hair was cut short and instead of a dress he was wearing the boys’ school uniform: a white button-up shirt and dark shorts. Not only were we best friends, but now we could pass for brothers!

               My SON Nathan

I ran up to him and gave him a biiig hug. His dad introduced him (MY best friend of seven years!) as his son Nathan. This was not the same person who finished first grade with me, but it is the best friend I was excited to start second grade with.

When the bus pulled up to our stop, Nathan and I were laughing and talking about all the wild adventures we had been on over the summer. He seemed nervous and stopped smiling as we walked up the steps and looked out onto the sea of faces, faces we had known since kindergarten. We even had the same bus driver as last year, Mr. Pete!

Everyone in the bus started whispering and looking over at us as we walked down the aisle. Nathan stayed close to me.

whisper                           whisper           whisper               whisper              whisper               whisper                       whisper     whisper             whisper 

whisper                                          whisper 

Why are you dressed like that?

Because we are like brothers now!

“Why are you dressed like that?” asked one of the older students. Nathan stared down at his feet without answering. “Because we are like brothers now!” I yelled excitedly. Nathan smiled for the first time since getting on the bus and quietly introduced himself.

The students stayed silent for a couple of seconds before a boy sitting at the back shouted to my best friend: “Awesome superhero shoes! Where did you get them?”. All of the attention immediately shifted to Nathan’s sneakers. From that point on, no one in that bus ever doubted that Nathan was a boy just like me.

Cool!

Wow!

Awesome!

Nathan and I were lucky enough to be in the same class this year with Mrs. Wendy. Some of the older kids tried to scare us with stories about Mrs. Wendy. The worst one by far was the rumour that she gave extra homework to students who misbehaved!

The class was huge! My assigned seat was at the back near the door while Nathan’s desk was on the complete other side of the room towards the front by the window. I could hardly see him! We shouted at each other from across the classroom before the bell indicating the start of our first lesson rang loudly.

Mrs. Wendy walked to the front of the room and started taking attendance. As their names were called, each student replied with “Present!” as loudly as they could. I was definitely the loudest that morning, the whole school must have heard me.

Present!

Present!

Present!

Present!

When it came to Nathan’s turn, Mrs. Wendy used the wrong first name. He did not answer. Our teacher looked up at him and repeated Nathan’s old name. She made the same mistake twice!