My feet couldn’t seem to find a direction that they wanted to go in. I was nervous and people’s glares weren’t helping. I was the new kid, the one who everyone stares at and giggles to their friends about. I knew from experience people wouldn’t approach me first.

A new school in a new town is every child’s worst nightmare. I couldn’t help but notice one beautiful girl sitting in the middle of the room with her red hair dangling around her shoulders. The seat next to her was empty, so I sat down. People seemed to gasp, so I looked around to see what they were looking at. It turned out almost all eyes were on me.

“Excuse me,” I said to the girl who had turned the other way.

“What do you want?” she said, while still turned away.

That is when I realized I shouldn’t be sitting there. I picked up my bag and left. For the next couple days, no one even looked at me. Even when I tried to make friends, everyone looked at me like I had broken the law or something. When I eventually started giving up all hope of having friends in this new town, I noticed a girl sitting alone at lunch. I went and sat down by her.

“Hello!” she said, her eyes lighting up. “I am Emma!”