WHEN I GROW UP I WANT TO BE A... (NINTH OF 10 PARTS)

Clippard School first-grader Alli Kluesner has decided she wants to be a waitress when she grows up. Carrying plates of food looks like fun to her, but there's another reason the job appeals to Alli.

"I wouldn't ever get called in," she says.

That happens to her mother, Joanie, a nurse at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"My mom has a beeper, and if it beeps she has to go into work," Alli said.

Six-year-old Alli is missing three teeth. She lost the first eating a burrito. Her dad, Jim, popped the last one out.

Alli is named for a friend her mother had when she was a little girl. Alli's best friend is Melissa, who lives next door and also is in her class.

Alli says she has a total of 13 friends while her mother only has four or five.

Her brother, Zach, is 11 and also attends Clippard. They wrestle with each other. Zach loves wrestling, she says. "I hate it but I can't tell him I hate it because he'll really hurt me now."

Alli is learning to add, subtract and read. Her favorite book is "Ten Apples Up on Top." She hopes to read it to the class but hasn't been picked yet.

She thinks being a waitress could be tricky.

"It's hard to hold the pan. You have to hold it with one hand, and it may drop and get all messy," she said.

Her second choice of a career is to be a teacher. Her teacher at Clippard is Carol Reimann.