This short story occurs after Dandelion Season, but it can be read completely alone.

“I don’t waaaaaaant to go to piano lessons,” Aaron said in theatrical despair. He knew that it was theatrical even as he was doing it. 

Bingo thought that all drama was wonderful and bounded around them yelping his head off. 

“Practice and going to lessons are the only way you’ll get better,” Clara said, picking her way around an early-autumn, leaf-clogged mud puddle in Aaron’s back yard to get to the swing set. She didn’t seem to realize how snotty she sounded, sometimes, and Aaron and Trevor exchanged a tolerant look behind her back.

Then she added, “But I don’t want to go to my dance lessons, either. My tights itch and my hair is too tight, and it’s a really long, boring drive to Madison.” She fluffed her aforementioned hair around her face until she looked like a dandelion going to seed. 

This story has been removed to include in Deerly Beloved!