Fourth Grade Rats

Suds and his best friend Joey are cornered on the first day of fourth grade by a group of younger students who chant the popular schoolyard rhyme: “First grade babies! Second grade cats! Third grade angels! Fourth grade…RAAAAATS!” (1). Suds wishes he could still be an angel, but Joey has been waiting to be a rat since first grade. During recess, Suds cries when he injures himself, but Joey tells him that rats don’t cry. Suds is distracted by the sight of Judy Billings, on whom he has a crush, but Judy doesn’t seem to know that he exists. When Suds screams at the sight of a spider, Joey admonishes him that rats aren’t afraid of spiders. Joey also mocks Suds for using his old first-grade lunchbox that his mom chose for him, but Suds is attached to his lunchbox and is not ready to give it up. Joey suggests that if Suds continues to let his mom pick out his things, she will keep him a baby forever. Suds realizes that this is just the beginning of Joey’s new obsession with maturity.