Little Differences

I walk into the school building and I pass a group of kids standing near the locker. As I stand near the group, waiting on Jessie to come from the supplies store, I notice a that something smells good. There are so many children coming and going, I can’t make out where the smell is coming from.

Jessie and I get to the last class of the day and – look! – there that smell is again! Sniff! Sniff! You smell that, too don’t you? After school, Jessie, Cali, Jaxson, Advik, and I meet up in the library to look for books on bullying. You know what? There that smell is again. “Okay, who in here is smelling so good?”, I ask. This smell has followed me around all day and I have no idea what it is or who it is, for that matter.

“I’m guilty, Advik says.” “I thought I was the only smelling it. That’s why I didn’t say anything”, Jessie says. “I smelled that nice smell on every hallway that I went down” Cali says while taking another big sniff of the fragrance in the air. “What are you wearing”, Jaxson asks Advik. “This is a new fragrance cologne that I am trying out from a brilliant company called Fragrance for Me. It’s called Blue Jeans by Versace.” “Do they have anything for girls?”, I ask curiously. Another thing about me is that I love to smell nice. “Sure, they have many fragrance items for girls, boys, men, and women”, Advik says “Just go to fragranceformepro.com and you’ll be able to see everything they have to offer!” “Cool, I’m definitely going to check them out”, I say writing down the website.

“There are so many books on bullying, I don’t even know where to begin”, Jaxson says. “How about we start over here”, Jessie says pointing to the new release book section. We all search the shelves high and low for a good book that will help us with our book assignment. “Ooh look at this one!” Cali says pointing to a book with a bunch of kids that look like us on the cover. “That one looks interesting”, I say.

“It says that this book is about children who all have been bullied and how they dealt with it. The children are all from different backgrounds and they all learn to accept the differences of the other person and become the best of friends”, Advik reads the paragraph on the back of the book. “Let’s go with this one”, I say. We check out the book and then we head home.

“I say we get together this weekend and begin working on our story”, Jessie says. We all agree to meet up at the park to begin work on our assignment. Jessie and I go one way to our neighborhood and Cali, Jaxson, and Advik all go the other way. Each of them lives only a few blocks away from Jessie and me.

Once we get on our street I can see Alani sitting on Mrs. Shiner’s porch with a big black bag next to her. “Hey, Alani. What are you doing?”, I ask her to eyeball the bag. “Just enjoying the breeze”, she says with a smile. I’ve notices that Alani has been a lot happier since she got away from her adoptive parents.

You’d be surprised the way family and friends can change a person. Pointing to her black bag, I say, “Are you going somewhere”? “Just here. I had to get the rest of my things because Shiner is going to take me in as her foster child”, she says. “Wow, Alani. That is good news”, I say. “Yeah, I guess it is”, she says. “Now you can play with us all the time”, Jessie says. We all laugh and run down the street to play kickball with some of the other kids in the neighborhood.