It was a bright, beautiful morning in Sydney. It was about 7am, the warm sun just now starting to show, peaking over a hill or two. Liz was getting her little son, Luke, ready for his first day of preschool. Technically, he was supposed to start preschool yesterday, but he was too scared and Liz didn't want to pressure the young lad into doing it if he wasn't comfortable.

She had picked out an outfit for Luke to wear today, as well as a way to style is thin, blond hair. However, when she was about to help Luke into his clothes, he decided he wanted to pick his clothes out himself, because, to quote directly from Luke, "I am a big boy now because I go to big boy school."

Little Luke waddled like a penguin to his dresser to retrieve clothing. He liked to act like he was a penguin because they are his favorite animal, and they are "super cool." Luke grabbed out a pair of small, black pants as well as his favorite shirt, that happened to have a picture of Chilly Willy- his favorite cartoon character, who happened to be a minuscule penguin- on it.

He dressed himself and his mother helped with getting his shoes on. Luke walked into the bathroom and stood on his tippy-toes so he could reach the light switch to turn it on. The light flickered on, illuminating the bathroom, and he pulled his step stool in front of the sink and mirror hanging on the wall.

He stepped onto the stool, looked at himself, and smiled. He grabbed a comb off the counter and turned on the sink faucet, running the comb under it; a trick he learned from his dad. He used the wet comb to brush his hair to the side, swooping over his forehead a bit. He put the comb back, turned the water off, put the step stool back, turned off the light, and left the bathroom to meet his mother in the kitchen.

"Mum, I'm ready now," Luke smiled, holding his arms out wide like an airplane's wings. "Look, I look just like a big boy! Just like Jack and Ben!"

Liz smiled at her youngest son and held out his backpack and lunch box, both- which I'm sure you guessed- had Chilly Willy on them. She helped him loop his arms through the straps of his back pack and handed him his lunch box.

She grabbed his hand and led him out to the car. He then climbed into his booster seat and buckled up, holding his lunch box in his lap. Liz buckled herself up and before backing out of the driveway she looked back at Luke. "Are you sure you're ready, Lucas?"

Luke smiled big. "Yes I am, mum. Jack talked to me last night before bedtime and I'm ready!"

Liz chuckled lightly, telling him how nice it was for Jack to talk to him about how cool preschool is. She drove the rest of the way there, checking, double checking, heck, even triple checking that Luke was actually ready. Once they pulled up to the school, they both got out of the car and Luke held onto Liz's hand as she walked him inside.

They reached the doorway to his assigned classroom and walked in, seeing the teacher walk toward them. She smiled and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Ms. Sandy, welcome to our classroom!" She bent down to Luke's eye level and smiled at him. "You must be Lucas! I'm glad you decided to join us today!"

"I was being ascared of it yesterday but my cool big brother, Jack, tolded me that preschool is fun!" Luke beamed back.

Ms. Sandy smiled again and took Luke's back pack and lunch box from him and put them in his cubby. Luke was more than ecstatic to have his very own cubby.

Liz bent down to Luke's height, giving him a big hug before telling him good bye and to play with his classmates. Luke gave his mum a kiss on the cheek and ran to the play area where there were other kids his age.

First, Luke found himself playing with Legos at the Lego table, but quickly got bored when his tower wouldn't hold together. Second, he found himself playing with the Hot Wheels on the race car floor mat. For some reason, the cars weren't tapping into his imagination, and he grew bored of those as well.

Just as Luke finished putting away the toys he was using, his attention was drawn to where the pretend house corner of the play area was. He noticed the vacancy of the corner and slowly sauntered over to it.

He looked over all the play house stuff, a fake telephone, a fake kitchen set, a small living room-looking area, fake dishes, fake housing decorations, and lastly, a large trunk full of dress up clothes. He looked through them all, finding some really neat things, but putting them back nicely.

He walked a little more to the right and found a bin full of baby dolls next to a bassinet and a bin full of baby bottles, baby clothing and baby toys. He hesitantly pulled a baby out of the bin in which they were stored, and found a cute, little onesie to put on it. He then found a blanket to bundle the baby in and walked the baby over to the bassinet.

As Luke was setting the baby in it, he heard the voice of another small boy behind him.

"Hey," the boy said. Luke turned around to see him. This boy had blond hair also, but a little bit darker, a cute button nose, and a new-looking Power Ranger's shirt on. "Are you playing with dolls?"

Luke looked back at the baby he just had and back at the boy. "Yeah, it's fun!"

The little boy scrunched up his face, showing discomfort. "Um, no it's not. Playing dolls is for girls!"

Luke furrowed his eye brows in confusion. "Why?"

"'Cause! Girls play dolls, boys play cars and superheroes. I sawed girls playing with those dolls yesterday and guess what."

"What?"

"Girls have cooties and since you toucheded the girl toys, you have cooties now. And cooties are gross!"

The boy antagonizing Luke ran off to go play cars with some other small boys and Luke walked back slowly to the bassinet that held his baby. He looked at the baby with severe sadness in his face, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"I have cooties?" Luke said to the doll.

Luke picked the doll up and began to put it where he found it, along with the blanket and clothes, as tears started flowing down his face. He sat down, cross-legged on the rug in front of the bins and continued crying.

A small boy with unruly, curly, dirty-blond hair showed a concerned expression and made his way over to Luke. He sat down next to him and put a hand on his back. "Hey why ya cryin'?"

Luke slowly looked up at the boy, sniffling and rubbing his eyes. "That boy over there told me I not 'posed to play with dolls 'cause they're for girls. He tolded me I got cooties from them and it made me sad."

The curly-haired boy look over to where Luke was looking and then back at Luke. "Oh that's Michael. He is a meanie sometimes. I bet you don't got cooties, let me check." The boy grabbed Luke's hand and looked at it then held onto it and smiled. "You don't got 'em. Don't worry, mate."

Luke smiled back at the boy and thanked him for checking.

"What's your name? My name is Ashton. But sometimes my mummy calls me Ashton Fletcher, but that's mostly when I gets into trouble."

Luke giggled softly. "My name is Lucas. But sometimes my daddy calls me Luke 'cause that's the big boy version of my name."

Ashton smiled at Luke, giggling quite audibly. "Can I tell ya somethin', Luke?"

Luke nodded frantically, showing Ashton that he could.

"I also like to play dolls. I think it's fun."

"Do you wanna play house?"

"Sure! Wait who will be the mummy and who will be the daddy?"

Luke looked at the floor then brought his head up quickly. "We can both be daddies!"

The two boys got up and began to take out various things in order to play house. They were both dressed up as some sort of business man and they dressed a baby doll up and carried it around.

Just then, another small boy walked up to them. This boy had dark brown hair, an olive skin tone, a large smile, and a smiley face shirt on. "Hey guys whatcha doin'?"

Ashton turned around to face the boy. "Calum, this is my mate Luke! We're just 'bout to play house, wanna join?"

"Yeah!"

Luke smiled at the fact he was making friends on his first day of preschool. "Get a costume and we can start!"

A few minutes into the game, Michael wandered over to where the other three boys were. He shyly approached them and tapped on Ashton's shoulder. "C-can I play with you guys?"

"I thought you said dolls is for girls with cooties," Luke spat.

"I changeded my mind," Michael replied.

Calum looked over to his new friends and they decided they needed a "secret meeting" and discussed whether or not they should let him play. They looked back at Michael and Calum smiled. "Yes you can play with us 'cause we thinks your shirt is cool and I thinks you are cute."

"But only on one conditioner," Ashton said, holding up his index finger.

"You gotta say dolls is for boys too," Luke said.

Michael looked down and then back up, exhaling loudly. "Dolls is for boys too."

They all smiled and told Michael to get a costume on. When he returned, he sat at the small kitchen table set up, sitting across from Luke.

Luke looked at Michael. "By the way, Ashton checkeded for cooties and I don't got them. Joke's on you."