"I pledge my loyalty

To the Terran Empire

I will be faithful and

Bear true allegiance

To Her Majesty Queen Illyssa

And our Nine Planets

That divides us

Yet makes us One"

"You can do this, darling," said his mother, a paper in her cat-like hands, looking up at the boy encouragingly. "Recite it back to me, now."

Hesitantly, the boy raised his right hand and began reciting the Terran pledge back to his mother. "I… pledge my… loyalty?" His mother nodded. "To the Terran Empire… I will feed a bear to my allegiance…?"

The boy's left ear twitched as he heard his sister choke up from laughter, his face red with embarrassment.

"Matey," said their mother in a stern voice, "stop making fun of your brother. Leave this room at once. That's an order."

She turned to her son again as the young red haired feline exited the room with a disappointed sigh.

"Sunny," she said, noticing her son's embarrassment, "don't worry, you'll get it. You just need a little more practice, that's all."

"What good will that do," Sunny said in an agitated voice. "I've been practicing for weeks and I still can't get it! The girls all got it the second day, but not me!" His eyes looked down at the floor, determined not to look into his mother's caring, emerald eyes. "And it's bad enough that they recite it every morning at the breakfast table just to irritate me," he added glumly.

"They will no longer recite the Terran pledge at the breakfast table; you have my word on that." She promised. "But soon enough," she said in a high voice that made her son look up at her curiously. She was smiling at him. "It'll be you who will be doing the reciting at the breakfast table."

Sunny frowned at his mother's encouraging words.

"Darling," she said lovingly, reaching out for the boy and hugging him, "you will get this. You still have one more week before you start Grade One."

"They call it First Grade, mom," he replied, amused over his mother's foreign words.

"Whatever, Grade One sounds much more sophisticated," she said as she tickled her son's tummy, making her son belt out in a fit of laughter. "The point is," she said over her son's laughter, "you'll have this memorized, like you're supposed to, by the time school starts next week."

She let go of her son and he presumed his position; standing in front of his mother with his arms behind his back.

"Now," she said, straightening the paper from its wrinkles, "begin again."

"I pledge my loyalty…" He paused. She nodded. "To the Terran Empire…"

"I will be faithful and…" His mother helped.

"…I will be faithful and… something about bears…"

"Bear true allegiance, love," she encouraged him to continue.

"I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to… to…?"

"Who is our ruler?"

"Her Majesty Queen Illysa…"

"Good. Darling, you're doing excellent!"

"And our nine planets that divide us… but-"

"The word is "yet," not "but." Remember that, Sunny," she explained.

"Yet make us one…?"

"You got it," she cheered, her encouraging smile not leaving her face.

"Yeah…" He couldn't help but smile to himself. "Not really, though."

"But you're getting there… Let's start again."

The time came and soon the young boy, along with his sisters and twenty-four other newly First Graders, sat in a row of desks, his blue uniform freshly ironed, courtesy of his mother. Their new teacher, who stood before her new students, had her six tentacle-like legs glued to the floor and her two tentacle-like arms attached to a piece of paper, reading it. Legend has it that behind the tight bun that lay on top of her head is an extra eye that has a sixth sense in which it can see a child's fear. Her name was Ms. Stern, a perfect name for a strict teacher.

"Settle down, class—"no one was speaking"—and let's get started with the new year, shall we." Though her words were meant to be of kindness, her scratchy, thick voice told her students otherwise.

Each of her tentacle-like legs detached one by one from the floor and made their way to the teacher's desk and sat down. One of her long arms reached out for a pair of spectacles that lay on her desk and placed them on top of the two holes that lay parallel with one another just above her upper lip that the children only assumed was her nose.

"You were given an assignment over the summer," she said simply, still looking at the paper. "You are to show me that you have done that assignment and I will call you all up in alphabetical order to recite it in front of me and in front of your classmates. It will be your first grade of the year. You either get your first one hundred or your first zero of the year, simple as that."

The boy, Sunny, gulped in fear.

"Adams, Amias," she said and a pale skinned boy walked up to the front of the classroom.

Suddenly the boy, Sunny, realized how close he was to actually being called up before the class. His name started with a "D" and "D" was at the beginning of the alphabet. Never had he cursed his father for having the name Doppler as a surname, but there's a first for everything, he thought.

"Ajello, Christine," she said. An alien girl walked up to the front and started reciting the Terran pledge confidently.

Sunny let out a sigh of relief; they were still on the A's. Good.

"Baas, Alexandra," she said. The girl sitting in front of Sunny got up and walked to the front of the classroom to recite the pledge.

They were on the B's now and the boy was panicking. Why did he have to have the name Doppler, he thought as the girl, wearing a small smile of relief, made her way back to her seat.

"Caro, Antony," Ms. Stern called and a boy walked up.

They were on the C's now! There was only one person with a last name that started with a B. How could that be? In a classroom of twenty-eight?

"Cole, Delaney," she said.

Sunny's heart skipped a beat. It was the beginning of the end for him. Soon it would be his turn to walk up to the front of the class and stumble with his words that will only end in a zero.

"Collins, Michael." A tan skinned human walked up.

It was coming, he knew it. He'll be going soon. "O" is almost at the end of the alphabet. Next would be the D's… he could feel it.

"Collins, Zachary."

Twins! That will give him time…

"Denzel, Oskar."

They were at the D's already? He began to panic and looked around the room for his sisters thinking what comes after "E."

A-B- C- D- E- F- G- H- I- J- K- L- M- N- O… O!

"Doppler, Jib." Ms. Stern said and Sunny's brown headed feline sister walked up to the center of the classroom.

Okay, Sunny thought, looking at his sister Matey, who looked as nervous as he was, Matey's next... And sure enough the next thing Ms. Stern called out was "Doppler, Matey." Then it would be Tillie, she's after Matey, he thought with a sense of relief as Matey took her seat.

"Doppler, Sunny."

What? His heart stopped for a moment.

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S… S, "S" is before "T"! How could he forget that?

He slowly got up from his seat and made his way to the front of the classroom. He slowly raised his right hand. He gulped at the sight of the children all staring up at him. They all looked at him, expecting a pledge, but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out.

"Well," he heard Ms. Stern say, "we're waiting, Mr. Doppler. Do you know it or not?"

He did know it. He knew he knew it. Yet, he couldn't do it.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He tried to visualize darkness, somewhere he could disappear to, but all he could see was his mother.

You can do this, darling, his mother's words of encouragement rang through his ears.

Ms. Stern let out an irritated sigh. "If you don't know it, then-"

"I pledge my loyalty," he began loudly and proudly, opening his eyes, "to the Terran Empire. I will be faithful… and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Illyssa and our nine planets that divide us—"The word is "yet," not "but.""—yet make us one."

He had done it.

"Good," said Ms. Stern. "Take your seat now." And she continued to call the children's names in alphabetical order.

"How was your first day of school," his father asked at the dinner table that night.

It was Sunny who answered.

"It was good. Recess isn't as long as it was in kindergarten and we have to read two chapter books this year, but it was good."

"How did the reciting of the Terran pledge go," his mother asked.

"Good… but can you believe that two people in our class couldn't recite it? They got zeroes. I mean, they had the whole summer to memorize it! How hard is it to memorize 'I pledge my loyalty the Terran Empire… I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Illyssa and our nine planets that divide us yet make us one'? It's really not that hard, am I right?"

"I suppose they didn't practice like you and your sisters did," his mother said as she exchanged smiles with her husband.

"I'll say it again… I pledge my loyalty to the Terran Empire. I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Illysa and our nine planets that divide us yet make us one. That's not hard at all. I'll say it again…"

And for the next week it wasn't Sunny's sisters reciting the pledge. They seemed to have had enough with the pledge, having to recite it every morning when school began. No, it was their brother Sunny who was reciting it; at breakfast, lunch, and dinner… Any chance he got, really. It wasn't until his parents begged him to stop saying it out loud did he finally stop, but it didn't stop him from reciting it in his mind a billion more times.