Laura and Carrie are anxious about starting school and being around so many strangers. Ma thinks that they are unsure whether they can keep up with their studies, but they are much more worried about encountering unknown people. Carrie and Laura wear their nicest clothes and walk down the main street to the schoolhouse. The schoolhouse is set out on the prairie, away from other buildings in town. There are some boys playing ball, and a boy called Cap Garland throws the ball to Laura; she catches it by instinct. Then she is ashamed because girls do not play ball, and she does not want the other girls to think less of her.

Two girls near to her age, Mary Power and Minnie Johnson, greet Laura and introduce themselves. Then they go into the schoolhouse, which is entirely new. As Laura continues to go to school, she begins to enjoy it and makes friends with Mary and Minnie. They find Cap very charismatic and watch him play ball with the other boys during recess. During school, the sun suddenly disappears, and it reminds Laura of a storm that happened when she was younger. The teacher, who is from the East Coast and therefore doesn’t know much about these kinds of storms, reassures the students and says that it is only a storm.