Audra was so
excited. Today, she and her
friends were taking a tour of the meadow on the other side of the Polliwog
Pond. This tour only happened once
per year, and last year everyone in her group had been too young to go. This would be their very first year to
participate.
It
took quite a while for everyone to make it to the entrance to the meadow. However, once they reached the
entrance, Audra was determined to be the first one to see the meadow. Emerson the dragon started to fly ahead
of Audra, and she grabbed him by the tail with her bill and pulled him back.
“Hey!”
exclaimed Emerson as Audra slung him to the side and pushed her way through the
grass into the meadow. Audra
walked on as if nothing had happened, and Emerson gave her a very nasty look.
The
first stop on the tour was the bubbling brook. Audra walked as fast as she could in order to the first one
in the brook. At the last minute,
Xavier the frog hopped a little in front of Audra. Audra stepped on his foot and pushed past him. She splashed down into the brook so
hard everyone else had to wait a minute to enter.
“Audra,
you stepped on me!” shouted Xavier.
“Sorry,”
said Audra as she swam around happily in the brook. Xavier didn’t think she was sorry at all.
The
next stop on the tour was the field of Black-eyed Susans, beautiful yellow
flowers with a big black center.
The butterfly twins, Summer and Madison, were very excited about this
part of the tour. However, when
they tried to fly ahead of Audra, she spread her wings knocking both of them to
the side so that she would be the first one there.
At
this point, the other four friends decided Audra needed to be taught some
manners. They let Audra go ahead
of them and didn’t call after her when the tour went to the next stop. After a few minutes, Audra turned
around to find everyone else was gone.
“Hey,”
called Audra. “Where is
everybody?”
Panicked,
Audra waddled out of the field of flowers and saw that everyone else on the
tour was already at the big maple tree.
She waddled as fast as she could to where the rest of the group stood.
“Why
did you leave me like that?” Audra demanded angrily.
“We
were tired of being stepped on and pushed,” stated Madison matter-of-factly.
“Yeah,
you didn’t get to be first to the maple tree, did you?” teased Emerson.
Audra
started to explode, but then realized that her friends had all turned their
backs on her. For a moment Audra
thought about how she had acted so far on this tour. She had pushed them and stepped on them among other
things. All she had been thinking
about was being first. Now,
everyone was mad at her.
“Hey
guys,” Audra said trying to get their attention. “I’m sorry I pushed you and stepped on you. I promise I won’t try to be first for
the rest of the day.”
Summer
turned around and looked at Audra.
“Do you really mean it?” she said.
“Yes,
I mean it,” said Audra starting to cry.
“Please don’t be mad at me anymore.”
“Okay,
we forgive you,” said Summer and the others agreed.
For
the rest of the tour Audra made a point to stay in the middle of the pack and
made sure she was not first at any other attraction. She laughed and talked with her friends about all the
beautiful scenery and soon didn’t even have to try to not be first. She realized that the best part of the
tour was sharing it with her friends.
