Chapter 1
"I love springtime," nine-year-old Michelle Tanner said to her best friends, Cassie Wilkins and Mandy Metz. It was Friday morning. The three friends were walking through the hall of Fraser Street Elementary School toward their classroom. Michelle sniffed the colorful bouquet she was holding. "And I love flowers, too."
"Mrs. Yoshida is really going to like those," Cassie said.
"Yeah," Mandy agreed. "It was nice of you to think of giving them to her."
"Thanks," Michelle said, smiling. "We have lots of flowers in our garden, so my dad said it was okay for me to pick some."
As they got closer to their classroom, a loud chirping noise filled the hall.
"Listen to all those birds!" Mandy cried. "Wow!"
Mrs. Yoshida was teaching a special unit on birds that week. She had told everyone they could bring their pet birds to class for the day. Mrs. Yoshida was even going to bring her pet dove, Daisy.
"Let's go see them," Michelle said.
Michelle, Mandy, and Cassie hurried into their classroom. On top of Lucas Hamilton's desk was a birdcage with a bright blue parakeet in it. Denise Chow's two tiny parakeets were fluttering around in their cage. Mrs. Yoshida's plump gray dove sat in a cage on the teacher's desk.
But nobody was paying much attention to the dove or the parakeets. Everyone was gathered around Rachel Tilly's desk, staring at her big white cockatoo.
"What a cool bird," Michelle said. She walked to her desk, which was next to Rachel's. "What's its name?"
"Arthur. And don't stand too close to the cage," Rachel warned. "If he gets nervous, he won't talk."
"He can talk?" Jeff Farrington asked. "My aunt has a cockatoo, but it doesn't say anything."
Rachel tossed back her long brown hair. "Well, Arthur is very smart," she bragged.
Mandy rolled her eyes at Michelle. Rachel was always bragging about something.
"Arthur can say my name," Rachel told Jeff.
"Cool. Let's hear him," Jeff said.
Rachel bent down and put her face close to Arthur's cage. "Hi, Arthur," she said in a clear voice. "Say hello to Rachel. Hello, Rachel."
Arthur cocked his head and peered at her with his bright black eyes. "Hello, Rachel," he squawked.
Everyone laughed. Arthur fluttered his wings and squawked again. "Hello, Rachel...hello, Rachel!"
"See? I told you he was smart," Rachel said.
Mrs. Yoshida smiled. "He's great, Rachel. Thanks for bringing him."
"Mrs. Yoshida." Michelle held out the bunch of flowers. "I picked these for you this morning."
Mrs. Yoshida was very pleased. "Thank you, Michelle. I'll put them in water and set them on my desk so everyone can enjoy them." She walked toward the door. "I'll be back in a minute, everybody. Then I have some slides to show you."
Rachel smirked at Michelle. "You don't have a bird, do you? That's why you brought those flowers."
"Huh?" Michelle asked. What was Rachel talking about?
"You knew everybody would be paying attention to the birds," Rachel said. "I bet you're jealous because you don't have one, especially a cool one like Arthur. So you had to bring something to make Mrs. Yoshida pay attention to you."
Michelle couldn't believe it. She was not jealous of Rachel's bird. But before she could say anything, Mrs. Yoshida came back in and told everyone to sit down.
Rachel hurried off and put her cage on one of the round tables at the side of the room.
"Rachel's the jealous one," Cassie whispered to Michelle. "You were thinking of Mrs. Yoshida. Rachel was only thinking of herself."
"As usual," Mandy added.
Rachel came back and sat down. She was still smirking, but Michelle felt better after what Cassie and Mandy had said. She was lucky to have such good friends. Who cared what Rachel thought?
"All right, class," Mrs. Yoshida said. "For the next few days, we're going to be studying birds. We all know about parakeets and doves and even cockatoos."
Arthur squawked, and the class laughed.
"We have them for pets," Mrs. Yoshida went on. "But what about some of the wild birds that live around San Francisco? Or the birds that stop here on their way to somewhere else? Can you name some of them?"
"Robins," Erin called out.
"Bluejays," Evan Burger said.
"Sparrows," Mandy volunteered. "And...woodpeckers!"
Michelle tried to think of more birds, but she couldn't. She loved to hear them chirping outside, but she never bothered to find out what kind they were. Birds were just birds.
"It's surprising how many different kinds of wild birds there are around San Francisco," Mrs. Yoshida said. "Let's take a look at some of them. Erin, would you shut the lights off? And Lucas, you close the window blinds."
Mrs. Yoshida went to the back of the room and turned on the slide projector.
When the room was dark, the pet birds settled down. The fluttering and chirping stopped. Arthur squawked once and then grew quiet.
The first slide came up on the whiteboard at the front of the room.
"That's just a duck," Rachel said.
"It looks like one, but it's really a loon," Mrs. Yoshida told the class. "Loons are called diving birds because they dive under water for fish."
The second slide appeared. This bird had a black tail, back, and wings, with yellow on its chest and a bright red head. "This is a western tanager," Mrs. Yoshida said. "Tanagers eat harmful insects. And they also love cherries."
It's so pretty, Michelle thought.
The slide show continued. Except for a few of them, such as the hawks and gulls, Michelle didn't recognize a single one. She was amazed at how many different kinds there were. I guess birds aren't just birds, she thought.
"That was great," Mandy said when the slide show ended. "I'm definitely going to check out some birds on my way home."
"You must have read my mind." Mrs. Yoshida laughed. "That's your assignment, class. I want you to do a little bird-watching over the weekend. Sketch five different birds you see. A friend of mine is a member of the San Francisco Bird-Watchers Club. He's going to come in on Monday to see if he can identify the birds you draw."
Weekend homework was not exactly Michelle's favorite thing. But bird-watching would be more fun than work. She and Cassie and Mandy could make a picnic lunch and spend the whole next day at the park looking for birds.
"It'll be easier if you work with partners," Mrs. Yoshida went on. "So I'm going to pair you off. Cassie, you go with Lee."
Michelle was disappointed. Well, maybe she'd get paired with Mandy. The two of them could still have a picnic with Cassie and Lee.
Mrs. Yoshida went on picking partners. Michelle felt even more disappointed when Mandy and Denise were assigned to work together. What about me? she wondered. She glanced around and spotted Sidney Wainwright, Rachel's best friend.
"Michelle and..." Mrs. Yoshida began.
Not Sidney, Michelle thought. She's almost as bad as Rachel. Please, please, not Sidney.
"Michelle and Rachel," Mrs. Yoshida said.
Copyright © and ™ 2001 by Warner Bros.
