What Friends Are For

Chapter One

CHAPTER 1

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget." -Unknown

"This year is going terribly," I complained as me and my friends walked down the hallway. "I miss Mr. H and our old fifth-grade class 5H! I wanna go back to grade 5!"

"Me too, Izzy, but THAT isn't going to happen," my friend Bella sighed. She kicked a balled-up piece of paper on the ground with her shoe. "I mean, you can fail sixth grade and get sent back to the fifth grade."

"I wouldn't suggest that," Annabelle chuckled.

We all wished we were back in grade 5. We had the best teacher and the coolest students. Of course, nothing nice lasts forever. We were now stuck in grade 6.

My friends and I just started 6th grade, and so far, we didn't love it. The 3 of us were in the same class, but we were split up with our other best friends.

"Hey guys!" exclaimed Jacob, running over to us. "Too bad we're not in the same class. Well, at least I have Alexis."

He and Alexis were basically so close they were like siblings. They were the best of friends.

They were always there for each other. They had each other, after being separated from the rest of us.

We all sighed. Grade 6 would be SO much less-fun without our best friends. Despite how awesome Mr. H had been, he still split our big friend group up. Us and our friends were really close, and our friend group was just me, Bella, Annabelle, Jacob, Alexis, Sofia, and David.

The recess bell rang, and the hallway filled with sixth graders scrambling to get outside. As soon as we stepped outside, we saw Alexis running over.

"Some random girl kicked me!" She said, crying. "I don't even know her!"

Alexis was a super funny, nice, smart, and loud girl. I was her friend since kindergarten, and the school was like her home. Sometimes I would notice scrapes and bruises on her arms and legs, which didn't surprise me since Alexis was so adventurous.

This happened very often. Some random girl she didn't even know would hurt her.

She never knew who.

She never knew the reason.

There were these girls that started a rumour about Alexis. Alia and Michelle. They hated her for stupid reasons.

For not caring about being popular like they did.

For not liking the stuff they did.

For getting better grades then they did.

For being brave enough to stand up for the mean things that they did.

Alexis wiped her glasses with her long-sleeved cardigan and sighed. "So what do you want to do?"

"Hey, guys!" voices called out to us. "Over here!" I turned my head and saw David and Sofia waving their arms at us. We all ran over and sat beneath the 5H tree.

Near the end of grade 5, everyone knew we needed something to represent the 5H class of 2018-2019. So we chose the tree in the lower field and called it the 5H tree. Any time you had nothing to do at recess, you would go to the 5H tree. Other kids from 5H who also had nothing to do went to the tree as well, and everyone at the tree would hang out.

We sat beneath the 5H tree, talking and playing until the lunch bell rang.

We spun around in circles until we fell over dizzy, and raced each other to the playground to play grounders. Just normal 11-year-old stuff. We would yell and sing and dance until we had to go inside. It's what we would do every day.

We poured into the hallways joking around with each other when David came up from behind me.

"BOO!" He yelled.

I screamed.

"David!" I said angrily. "Don't do that!" I kick his shins.

He laughs. "You should have seen the look on your FACE! Hee hee! Priceless!"

"So anyways," I begin, "You and Sofia, huh?"

"EW, no. She's like my sister."

"I saw you guys dancing together at recess!"

"Yeah, cuz we thought it would be funny."
"With your hand on her shoulder and everything..."
"Would you like a BROKEN hand?"

We sat and joked around. I was happy. Grade 6 was better than I had hoped. I just needed to get through the year, which seemed easy. I mean, nothing had been going badly so far, right? How hard could grade six be?

After lunch, the day seemed to drag on forever. Math. L.A. Homeroom. Dismissal.

The next recess, Annabelle and I hung out at recess. We just laughed and talked when Alexis ran over to us, crying.

"Some girl punched me in the face!" She said between sobs.

"Who?!" I said, my voice becoming angry.

"I don't even know her!" She cried.

"Well, I'm going to find her," I said. "NO ONE messes with my friends."

I searched all recess, but never found out who punched her. Alexis just made a face like she was used to this kind of thing. The day trudged on.

The next day was Alexis and Jacob's day to eat in another class. Before that, another recess of joking. Then more subjects. P.E.

Science. Homeroom. Dismissal.

Every day was more or less the same. Homeroom. Boring subject. Break. Boring subject. Draw comics. Break. Boring subject. Recess. Lunch. Reading. Boring subject. Draw more comics. Break. Boring subject. Homeroom. Dismissal. Do it again the next day.

I can easily say the beginning of the year was as simple as grade 5. Happy and sad. Black and white. Hot and cold. Nothing interesting ever really happened. I mean, middle school isn't exactly the most interesting place on earth.

Every now and then, a random person would punch or push Alexis. We'd try to help, but she did nothing about it. She would just let people bully her.

Still, every day had no events worth mentioning. It didn't seem like it was going to get better, and it didn't seem like it was going to get worse.

It couldn't change. It wouldn't become a disaster. We'd just have to trudge through each day like a zombie. We wouldn't have to waste energy on stuff that's not school.

Right?

At least, that's what I wanted to think.

But I was wrong.

WAY wrong.