The dim light of morning and her mother's soft, kind voice gently eased Gracie out of sleep. It was time to get ready for school. She got up and got dressed for the day, with the help of her mother when getting the outfit off of the hanger. Then going into her mother's bathroom, Gracie let her mom do her hair while she alternately played with the hair brush and hair band container.

Heading downstairs for breakfast, Gracie listened to her siblings already leaving for school. Anna, Ali, Ref, and Ella got in the little Subaru and drove to the High School. Shirui continued eating breakfast, as she went with Mom and Gracie to the Elementary school about forty-five minutes later.

Grabbing the Fruit Loops, or as Gracie called them, the rainbow Cheerios, she poured a little bit of the "rainbow Cheerios" in her bowl, and waited a few seconds for mom to pour the milk for her.

~ ~ ~

"Bye Mom!" Shirui called back as Mom waved goodbye and drove away. Gracie and Shirui walked together in silence even with the loud chatter around them as they went into the school building. Arriving at Gracie's classroom, Shirui said, "See you later, be good!" 

Walking into the classroom, Gracie went to her desk and put down her backpack. The morning routine started as everyone got situated and got their homework out. As the teacher went around the room checking to see if everyone had done their homework, she gave a sticker to all those who completed the assignment. Soon the room was full of chatter as everyone showed off their new additions to their sticker collections.

"All right class, turn in your homework to the In Box, and when you get back to your desks, pull out yesterday's ABC's worksheet!" said the teacher kindly. The five and six year olds quickly did what she said and got to work.

~ ~ ~

At recess, Gracie played by herself on the swings. Not paying attention to her surroundings, she accidentally almost kicks a fifth grader in the head. They had brown hair and dull green eyes, while his friend, who also seemed to be a fifth grader, had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Hey kid!" said the fifth grader's friend.

"Huh?" Gracie said, snapping out of her daydream.

"C'mere for a sec!" The almost wounded fifth grader said.

"Uh, okay."

Following the two fifth graders over into an alley at the end of the playground area, she gets a bad feeling about where they brought her.

"What were you trying to do, kill me?" said the first one.

"Nothing," Gracie says innocently.

"Oh yeah? Then why did you try to kick me in the head?! We ain't gonna let you off that easy kid." He said darkly.

"What? What do you mean?"

Before she could say anything further, the two boys start to kick her. Soon falling to the ground, Gracie starts crying. Why were they hurting her? What did she do to make them do that? As she continued wondering these things, they soon stopped because it was almost time to go and did not want to get caught. Once they were gone, Gracie sat up and tried to take in what had just happened, she continued to wonder about those why hey would do that.

The bell rang, so she stood up and walked slowly to her class's line and went inside to continue her day. Once she got into the classroom, she asked the teacher if she could go to the nurse's office. 

"What happened?" asked the nurse when Gracie got there. 

"I fell of the playset, that's all." She lied.

"Okay, be more careful next time honey, okay?" The nurse replied.

"I will." Gracie said as she watched the nurse get some ice from the freezer. 

~ ~ ~

"What happened?!"