"Good morning," the substitute greeted. The class greeted him with a groan.
"I know, sucks for you," he teased as he walked around, passing out the worksheet that was assigned that day.
"Attendance," he muttered as he shuffled throught the papers.
"Mabenta Hollowell."
"Here."
"Bartholomew Allen."
"Here."
"Shannon Arnold."
"Here."
He continued to read off the names of the students.
"Amethyst Sedgefield."
"Here," she responded as the class snickered. As usual, the teacher ignored it. Then, something was thrown in her general direction.
"Alright," he snapped. "Who threw the paper ball?"
All fingers pointed toward Alex Rodriguez. She glared at every single traitor while he reprimanded her.
"Why are you throwing things at other students," he asked. "Howwould you like it if I took some paper," he picked up some paper. "And threw it at you? Would that make you happy?"
Alex shook her head and then Mr. Axle, the teacher continued. "So why do it to another student?"
"Because she's weird," somekne else blurted out.
"Why do you care so much if she's weird. It's good to be unique, though your minds are obviously so opaque seeing as y'all are looking me in confusion. Answer this one question for me. Raise your hand. How many of you have had someone belittle you? Whether it be your friend, siblings, parents. How many?"
Nearly everyone in the class raised their hands, but Amethyst knew that this wouldn't stop them from bullying her later.
"So why do you do it?"
Know one knew how to answerthe question asked.
____________
"Watch it french loser," someone yelled as they shoved Amethyst into the wall, causing her to drop all her stuff.
While everyone was laughing at her, a young boy, about her age, came up to her and helped her pick up the binders, notebooks and paper that was all over the hallway.
"Thank you," she said softly in her accent.
"No problem," the boy responded. "Sam."
"Amethyst."
"That's a really beautiful name," Sam told her.
She muttered a thank you and began to walk to her mext class before he asked, "Hey Amethyst. Do you happen to know where Mr. Caufield's classroom is?"
"Yeah. That's where I'm going right now."
Sam caught up to her and they both walked to their shared class.
It was then she realized something.
She just made a new friend.
__________
"Don't forget to read To Kill A Mockingbird tonight. You will have a quiz tomorrow on what has been read so far," Mrs. Carr announced as the dismissal bell rang.
