By Nicole Lewis
“Don’t worry sweetie, okay? You’ll be fine.” Lacy’s mother reached down and gave her a hug. Lacy appeared unsure and looked at up at her teacher, Mrs. Lyne, who smiled warmly in return. “You can tell me all about your day when I come pick you up later okay?”
Lacy nodded, sucking her thumb with one hand and waving with the other. The ball rang signaling the start of class and children began coming into the room. Lacy briefly stopped sucking her thumb to gaze at a boy with curly brown hair. He was grinning oddly to himself as he walked into the room and went to his cubby to deposit his Spiderman backpack. She watched as he took a seat on the carpet, still grinning. Mrs. Lyne smiled at the class, then turned to Lacy and beckoned her over. Lucy resumed sucking her thumb and looked down at her feet while Mrs. Lyne introduced her to the class.
“Good morning class, this is your new classmate and friend, Lacy.” Lacy could feel her classmates' eyes on her and let her blond hair fall forward, obscuring most of her face. “I’m sure you will all be kind and make her feel welcome. Now-" here she looked down at Lacy “why don’t you sit next to Zach.” She pointed at the boy Lacy had noticed earlier.
* * *
“Class!” Mrs. Lyne yelled out a couple hours later, “Break time! Go on outside!”
Once outside, Lacy began to wander aimlessly around the playground, watching other kids playing. She sat on the first step leading to the slide and began sucking her thumb again. A tear rolled down her face but she didn’t bother wiping it away. “Hey, what’s wrong?” It was the boy she sat next to in class, Zach.
She sniffed and pulled her thumb away before answering softly, “I miss my old s-s-school.” Her lower lip trembled. “I miss my f-f-friends.” Two more tears fell.
Zach looked at her thoughtfully for a minute then said “Oh. Well…you wanna play with me? I could be your friend.” He held out his hand and, after hesitating for a moment, Lacy grabbed it and allowed herself to be pulled over to the swing set. Zach began swinging higher and higher. Soon Lacy began to giggle and do the same. Zach yelled, “Jump on three! One…two...THREE!” They both jumped and landed on the sand, giggling. “Wanna do it again?” Zach asked.
Lacy grinned at him and said “Yeah!” Zach smiled at her and together they raced to the swings.
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My name is Nicole Lewis. I am African American and 18 years old and was born on November 30, 1993. If you were to publish this it would be my first published work. I enjoy reading; my favorite series is Harry Potter. I have a mother and a father, a sister, a brother, and dog in my family.
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