All that glitters. [l.s]

1

Matthew dug his shoe into the ground in attempt to murder all the ants in the little ant hill on the playground outside of school.

"Hey! Stop it!" Harry shouted, running over. "You're killing them!"

The boy and some of his friends laughed at him obnoxiously. "So? Who cares about ants!" Joey said. "Come on, let's go play on the swings!"

The boys were about to take off just as Harry said, "I wanna play too."

Timothy didn't think before pushing Harry violently, sending him to the ground and landing him straight on his bum. "No losers allowed!" he exclaimed, and the boys laughed and ran off.

Harry was still sat on the dirty ground, quickly wiping the tears that were dripping from his eyes. He didn't know why these things happened to him. He just wanted to make sure the ants were safe and alive. The ants didn't do anything to deserve to be stomped on and killed!

More than anything, Harry just wanted a friend. Someone he could partner up with when the teacher said it was okay to use teamwork to finish a coloring book or someone he could tell knock-knock jokes to and make them laugh. He wanted it to be so that whenever his class went outside to play, he would never have to wonder who he's going to play with.

He used the heels of his hands to wipe away the rest of the tears, but he felt a light hand on his arm.

"That was so mean!" the boy said, moving Harry's hands away from his face. Harry just sniffed and looked to see who this was. The boy was now wiping some excess tears off of Harry's cheeks.

"My name's Louis," the boy said, offering Harry a smile. "I'm Harry," Harry said, starting to recover from the waterworks that had just occurred.

Louis stood up from where he was hovered over Harry and held out a hand to help him up, which Harry hesitantly took.

"Why did they do that to you?" Louis asked. "I don't know. They don't like me I think," Harry said.

"Wanna go over to the super dome?" Louis asked, to which Harry nodded his head. So they went over to the super dome, and Harry was surprised at how Louis wasn't at all hesitant to climb to the very top. Harry had never gone up that high; he'd never even thought about it. Louis was sat at the top, looking down on Harry with a puzzled face.

"Are you coming?" he asked. Harry shook his head. "Too high," he mumbled.

"Oh, come on! Stop being a scaredy-cat!" he said playfully. "It's not that scary up here. I promise," he said. Harry decided to listen to him and take a leap of faith by climbing up the super dome. He was taking it carefully; foot after foot, keeping in mind that Louis said it wasn't scary up where he was.

He grew more and more hesitant as he got higher up, but every time he looked up and saw Louis, it gave him courage to keep going; to go up there and sit with a new friend.

Louis helped him a bit when he reached the top by supporting him as he took to the same relaxed position at the top of the jungle gym. Louis scruffled Harry's hair once they got comfortable. "See, it's not that bad," he said, and they both laughed.

"I've never seen you before," Harry said. "I'm in a different class. I'm in Ms. Heartson's class," Louis explained. Harry's eyes grew a bit wide. "Second grade? Well I'm only in kindergarten," Harry said.

"I know that, because the only other class here is Ms. Kelly's, and she's a kindergarten teacher. But I'm not that much older than you, I think. How old are you?" Louis asked. "I'm six," Harry said proudly, holding up the corresponding number on his hands.