Little Differences
School’s Out

“Class is dismissed children”, yells Mrs.Rizen. “Oh, and don’t forget to have your parent’s sign your permission slips for Sea World by next Friday”, she says as we file out the door and into the hall. I wait outside the door for my best friend Jessie. “Wow, can you believe we’re going to SeaWorld?”, Jessie asks excitedly. “That’s the problem, I can’t believe it”, I mumble. I have a pretty good idea of what my parents are going to say. “Calm down, Jessie”, I say. “Before we go getting all excited, you do remember that we must have at least one of our parent’s signatures on this piece of paper by Friday”, I say to her. “Yes, I know. Isn’t it so exciting?”, she asks me. I give up because whenever Jessie gets excited about something she doesn’t hear anything anyone says to her. “There’s the bus, let’s go”, I say and head for the door. We climb onto the bus and head towards the back to the only seat that’s left.

As I’m walking towards my seat I trip over something and fall right down to the floor. “That’s what you get for not watching where you’re going”, says a husky voice behind me. I turn around to see Alani Yang pointing and laughing at me. Before long, all the kids on the bus are laughing at me. “Hey, what’s the holdup”, yells our bus driver Mr. Carsen. As I’m picking myself and my books up from the floor, I feel a hand grab me by the hand and help me up. It’s my loyal best friend Jessie. She helps me into my seat and before I know it she twirls around on her heels and heads back up the aisle towards Alani. “Pick on somebody your own size!”, Jessie yells at Alani while standing on her tip toes. Alani Yang is the tallest kid in the 6th grade class and she tends to use this size to her advantage. For some reason, it’s always to my disadvantage. She’s also one of the smartest so her tricks are always clever.

I grab Jessie and pull her back towards our seat. “Let’s just sit down so we can get home. The faster the better”, I say to Jessie. She turns in my direction and just stares at me for a second before saying, “Katie, why do you let Alani treat you so. You don’t even seem to be mad and she is always mean to you for no reason.” At first, I’m not sure why I let her treat me the way she does. “I should go tell her off, right now”, I think to myself. Then I remember what my parents have taught me ever since I could understand. They taught me to be kind to others even when they aren’t kind to me. If someone is bullying me, I am supposed to tell another teacher, and my parents, as well. “I get very mad when she mistreats me, but I think if I be nice to her long enough, she’ll be nice to me”, I tell Jessie.

Jessie is my best friend and we always try to protect one another. When Jessie is upset, she doesn’t listen to reason. “You have to choose your battles, Jessie. That’s what daddy always tells me”, I say trying to calm her and take her mind off the situation. “Fine”, she says and crosses her arms. We don’t say anything else on the way home. The short ride home feels like it takes hours.

When Mr. Carsen gets to our bus stop I jump up and head down the aisle before he can even open the doors good enough. I turn around to talk to Jessie and notice that she hasn’t gotten off the bus yet. I climb back up the stairs and see Jessie picking herself and her backpack up off the floor. “Oh, no”, I say under my breath. Jessie stands up with her fists balled up and heads towards, guess who? Yes, you guessed right. Jessie is heading towards Alani Yang who has fell out in the middle of the floor, holding her stomach and laughing hysterically after tripping Jessie. “Jessie, no!”, I yell. I manage to grab her and drag her off the bus before the situation gets any worse. “You should have let me get her!”, Jessie yells on the walk home. “That girl can’t keep treating us this way”, she huffs. “I’m going to talk to my parents about her. You should do the same”, I suggest. Jessie and I say our goodbyes and head into our homes.

When I get into the house, mom rushes to meet me at the door. “Hello, honey! How was school?”, she asks me with a big grin. “It was okay, until I got on the bus”, I say. Mom becomes concerned and wants to know everything. So, I tell her how Alani Yang pushes me into the lockers, trips me on the bus, in the hallways, and she even throws her food at me in the lunchroom. One time in math class, she tied my shoes strings together and when I got up to go sharpen my pencil I fell flat on my face. I also tell her about how she picks on Jessie too and how Jessie gets upset. “Oh, dear”, mom says while grabbing my face. “I had no idea such things were going on. You should have told me sooner, but I am proud of you for telling me now. I’m going to go call Jessie’s mom and have a chat with her.”

Mom heads into the kitchen and I head upstairs to my room when the door opens. Dad is home early from work. “Dad!”, I yell and run into his arms. “How are you doing care bear?” I don’t answer because I don’t feel like going through the details of Alani’s horrible tricks. Plus, I know mom is going to tell him everything whenever she finally gets off the phone with Mrs. Tilkie. I go up into my room to do homework.

My room is my favorite place in the whole house. Except for maybe the kitchen because I enjoy eating. After we bought this house my parents had some workers come in and paint my room. It is very beautiful. The walls are purple with pink and white butterflies everywhere. And on the wall, right next to my bed is my name big in a darker shade of purple. I absolutely love it and every night I sleep great in here. When I’m not sleeping in my own bed I miss it. I spend many weekends at Jessie’s house. She has a cool room too. Her bed is a literal play yard with a slide and everything. She has a cute little Pomeranian doggy named Caramel who loves playing with us. Jessie’s little brother Johnny is cute too, except when he eats his boogers. He’s only 2 so I guess he’ll grow out of it.

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