Chapter 1 - Poet's Great Day

"I am not a pest," Poet said to her sister Mirai. (Yes, Mirai Yumeno is a Pop'n character, but she's not Poet's sister.)

"Then stop acting like one," said Mirai, waiting for her friends, Hikari and Sora to come to their house.

"I'm not acting like a pest, I'm just jumping and singing," said Poet, who recently learned how to skip and jump. Poet never thought she was a pest. No matter what others said, she didn't think she was a pest. The people who called her a pest were always bigger and so they could be mean and unfair.

Poet went on with her jumping and singing. "This is a great day. A great day. A great day!" she sang, and to Poet, who felt grown-up in a dress instead of play clothes, this was a great day. The greatest day in her 5-year-old life.

"Hi, Mirai," Hikari greeted, smiling. "Come on! Let's go!" Sora begged. "Well, Poet has to come to kindergarten. We should go anyway," Mirai said. Poet was excited, so she jumped up and down, clapped her hands and began to fly.

The girls were getting to school. They saw that the kindergarten building was a wooden building with its own playground. When they got in the classroom, Poet got curious. She saw little cubbies, each with little pictures on the cubby doors, little tables and chairs, a play stove, a reading area, a box full of toys, wooden blocks big enough for a kid to stand on, a computer, and the teacher's desk.

"Hello, Poet," The teacher said. "I'm Mrs. Rosemary." She put a name tag on Poet's dress. "Who is the blue-haired girl?" Mrs. Rosemary asked.

"Oh! This is my sister, Mirai," Poet cheerfully said. (Yet again, they aren't sisters in the offical Pop'n games.)

Mirai smiled. "Sit here for the present," the teacher said. A present! Poet thought. She decided school was better than she thought.

"Bye, Poet," said Mirai, "be good."

Poet found two people who were interesting. The first one was Mutsuki, an eager and happy boy. He had green hair and cat ears, which made Poet like him at once. She loved Mutsuki so much that she wanted to kiss him. The other interesting person was a cute little girl named Minit's, who wore a hot pink bunny rabbit hoodie which made Poet think the ears were cute, and she longed to pull back a bunny ear, and watch it spring back. Boing! Poet thought, making a mental noise like a spring on a cartoon on TV.

"Stand up straight like good Americans," Mrs. Rosemary said. Everyone except Poet stood up. "I can't stand," Poet said. The children were doing the "Pledge of Alligance". "Let's go outside and play Gray Duck," Mrs. Rosemary said, leading the children outside.

"I can't play because of the present," said Poet.

"What present?" The teacher asked.

"You said if I sat still, I would get a present," Poet reminded.

"You see," Mrs. Rosemary said, "the 'present' means 'for now'."

"Oh," Poet said, "That's ok."

When the children went outside, Poet tried to stand next to the little bunny girl, but ended up next to Mimi. The person who was 'it' was Nyami.

"So, who's going to be chasing Nyami?" Mimi asked.

Mutsuki got tagged. He was chasing Nyami, whose shoes were making her tired.

"Look at Nyami in the mush pot!" Poet crowed.

Nyami looked as she would cry. Please tag me. Please! Poet thought, jumping up and down. Minit's was jumping up and down with her ears bobbing enticingly.

At last, Poet felt a tap on her shoulder. Her turn had come to run around the circle! She ran as fast as she could to catch up twith the sneakers pounding on the asphalt ahead of her. The boing-boing ears were on the other side of the circle. Poet was coming closer to them. She put out her hand. She took ahold of a bunny ear-

"Yow!" screamed the owner of the hoodie ears.

Startled, Poet let go. She was so surprised be the scream that she forget to watch Minit's's bunny rabbit ear on her hoodie spring back. Minit's clutched her bunny ear with one hand and pointed at Poet with the other. "That girl pulled my rabbit ear! That girl pulled my rabbit ear! Ow-ow-ow!"

Poet felt that Minit's did not have to be so touchy. She have not meant to hurt her. She only wanted to touch that beautiful, springy rabbit ear that was so different from her angel's halo.


"Ow-ow-ow!" shrieked Minit's, the center of everybody's attention.

"Baby," Poet complained.

"Poet," Mrs. Rosemary said, "in our kindergarten we don't pull rabbit ears."

"Minit's doesn't have to be such a baby," said Poet.

"You may sit on the bench while the rest of us play out game," Mrs. Rosemary said. "No," said Poet, about to cry. "I won't."

Minit's stopped shrieking. A terrible silence fell over the playground. Everyone stared at Poet as she was beginning to shrink. Nothing like this happened to her before. She walked over to the bench and sat down, and the game continued without her. Mimi and Nyami were having a conversation and feeling bad for Poet. Minit's was continuing to look injured. Some of the kids laughed and pointed at Poet.

A 5th grader walked by. "What's wrong?" she asked Poet.

"Oh, nothing," Poet said. "I just got in trouble thanks to Minit's."

"Don't feel sad. I'm sure the day will be better soon," the 5th grader said.

"Thanks," Poet said, "you're a great person." The 5th grader gave her a autographed picture of MZD and got back to her friends.

The game finally ended and everyone, even Minit's, was happy to go inside on a hot day.

"You may come in with us, Poet," The teacher said to Poet.

Poet folded the picture of MZD, put the picture in her pocket, and walked into the classroom. Inside Mrs. Rosemary announced that the time came to rest. Poet was dissapointed because she wanted to read and write. The teacher got the children each a mat to lay down on and they spreaded out the floor.

The children couldn't sleep. they wiggled. they whispered. Ice asked, "How much longer?"

"Shh..." Mrs. Rosemary said in a quiet voice. "The one who rests the most quietly gets to be the wake-up fairy."

Wake-up fairy? Poet thought.

"What's the wake-up fairy?" Ice questioned.

Sanae-chan popped up and asked, "Is there some water I can drink?" Mrs. Rosemary led Sanae-chan to the water fountain. "Thank you," Sanae-chan said, drinking some water at once.

"Well, Ice, the Wake-up fairy tiptoes around and wakes up the other resters."

Poet thought she would be the wake-up fairy, and everyone wouldn't think she was so bad anymore. Just to show Mrs. Rosemary she was a good rester, she gave one little (not loud) delicate snore.

A couple of kids snored loudly or giggled. Rie-chan giggled. Sanae-chan just woke up. She did not giggle or snore. She just said, "May I use the restroom?"

Mrs. Rosemary clapped her hands. "Class! We do not giggle or snore during rest time!"

"She started it," Space Maco said, pointing at Poet.

"Tattletale," Poet complained. Then she looked at Minit's and saw that she was lying quietly on the mat with her bunny ears spread out and her eyes were screwed tight shut.

"Well, you did!" Ice shouted.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Mrs. Rosemary said. Then she returned to her quiet voice. "I love the way Minit's is resting so quietly," she said. "Minit's, you may be the Wake-up fairy and tap the children with this wand."

The magic wand was only a yardstick. Poet layed down quietly, but it was no use. Minit's, with her springy, boing-boing bunny ears bouncing in the air, tapped Poet last.

It's not fair, Poet thought. Ice was even WORSE.

The rest of the morning went quickly. The class could explore the paints, the toys, the computer and puppets, but they didn't learn how to read or write. Poet and Mimi were having a puppet show, and Nyami, Rie-chan and Sanae-chan were the audience. Minit's and Space-Maco were painting pictures of unicorns, rainbows and bunny rabbits.

"ROAR!" Poet said, while moving her green dinosaur puppet closer to the pink dinosaur puppet, "I'm gonna kiss you!"

"Eeewww!!!" Minit's said, backing away.

Sanae-chan just comlimented, "Cool!" Poet, Mimi, Nyami, Sanae-chan and Rie-chan bursted out laughing. Ice even began to laugh. All the children, even Minit's, were laughing.

The clock said 11:45.

"Time to pack up your things," Mrs. Rosemary said. "You have great imagination with puppets, you two. Very cute picture, Minit's! I love the strokes of pink! Children, tomorrow is show and tell, feel free to bring a toy, or tell us something you have."

Poet was glad when the bell rang. She walked home with Ice, and Sanae-chan, who lived next door. The girls talked about mayonaise and ketchup mixed together.

"We could try that, Sanae-chan," Poet said, "What about mustard and relish?"

"Eeew!" Sanae-chan cried. She saw Minit's skip at the other side of the road with a older boy walking right next to her. Poet blushed. Oh my god, he's beautiful, she thought.

"How do you liike kindergarten?" he asked Minit's.

"It's really cool, Timer-onii-chan! I painted a really cool picture with rainbows and unicorns and bunny rabbits! That teacher really like the pink on it!" she said, describing the day.

Timer laughed. "Glad you like it, Minit's!" he said.

"There's a problem though," said Minit's, a little depressed.

"Come on, Sanae-chan!" said Poet.

"OK," Sanae-chan replied, running with Poet.

"What is it?" Timer asked.

The girls didn't listen to the conversation. They just ran to Sanae-chan's house and slammed the door and they accidently killed a bug. "How'd you like kindergarten?" Sanae-chan asked. "It wasn't as good as I thought," Poet said honestly, "but maybe it will get better when we have show and tell."

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