Little Differences

This week has been much too exciting for me. I need a break from all the drama. It’s Friday and I am looking forward to spending the weekend with Jessie. Jessie and I are in our last class of the day when the dismissal bell rings. I jump out my seat and race out the door, almost forgetting Jessie is behind me. “Hey, slow down. What’s the hurry?”, Jessie asks while trying to keep up with my pace. “No hurry, I’m just so excited for the weekend. I could really stand to sleep in this weekend”, I say. “While you are sleeping, I will be taking selfies on top of Mount Magazine, the tallest mountain in Arkansas”, Jessie says. Her voice is filled with excitement. “That sounds awesome”, I say as we walk over to our waiting bus. We climb on and head to our usual seats on the bus. “Hey, Jessica”, Samantha shouts from the back of the bus. Samantha is the most popular girl in the 6th grade. Her family has a lot of money and everyone wants to be her friend. She is mean though, she laughs and makes fun of everyone who doesn’t look like her. I’m not sure why she rides the bus home being that she rides a limousine to school. She’s weird, that’s all I know.

“Hey, Samantha”, Jessie replies. As we sit down in our seat, Jessie notices the awkward look that I am giving her. “What?”, She says. “How is it that you can’t stand the sight of Alani, but you can speak with Samantha?”, I ask curiously. “I don’t know, I guess because she’s cool”, Jessie replies. “Oh okay”, I say. I decide to just stop talking because it’s not as if she listens to me anyways. I just hope she doesn’t get too comfortable hanging around Samantha because that girl is a piece of work.

We head home from the bus stop and over in the distance I notice something brown over in the field. At first, I can’t see what it is. The brown thing starts coming towards us. As it gets closer I can now see that it’s a little puppy. “Hi there”, I say to him. He comes over and begins to rub his face against my leg. “Aww, he’s so cute. I wonder who he belongs to”, Jessie says reaching down to pat him.

“Are you lost, little guy?”, I ask while rubbing his soft coat of fur. The sweet little puppy begins to moan as if something is wrong. “Are you okay?”, I ask as if he can understand me. The puppy raises one of his paws and I see that there is a bad cut on his paw. “Oh, you poor thing”, I say while scooping him up into my arms. “We have to get you to mom and dad”, I tell him. I see dad pulling into the driveway in the distance. I begin to race home. “Call me tonight”, I tell Jessie before running into the driveway and over to dad. “Hey there, carebear, who is our little friend here?” dad asks me. He reaches over and gives the puppy a nice pat on the head. “I just found him up the street and he doesn’t have a collar on. He’s hurt we have to get him to a doctor”, I tell dad. “Let’s go”, he says. Taking me by the hand.