Friends?

Prologue

   "I don't wanna go in Mama, what if they don't like me," I say while holding onto my mom's hand.

     "It's okay Rose, all the kids will like you, you have nothing to worry about," She comforts me.

  "I don't want you to go, please don't go Mama," I begged with my bottom lip starting to quiver.

  "I have to go to work baby, I can't stay here. I'll tell you what, if you go into the class room right now we'll go to McDonald's after I pick you up," she says trying to bargain with me.

  I immediately put a smile on my face and start walking into my class.

  "Wait Rose," I look back to see my mom laughing a little.

  "Yeah Mama?" I ask.

  "You forgot your lunch," She says smiling at me.

  I walk back and grab my lunch from her and start walking back to my class.

  "Bye Mama," I call back to her.

  "Bye baby," she says back in her sweet voice.

  I walk into the class room filled with kids and suddenly have second thoughts. I look back at the door wanting to find comfort in seeing my mom only to see that she's already left. I walk further into the class room with a frown now over taking my smile.

  "Rose Velasquez?" Someone asks. I look up and see a woman.

  "Yes," I say confirming that my name is Rose.

  "Hi, I'm your teacher Mrs. Carter. Your seat is over there," she says pointing towards my seat.

  I walk over to the seat which is in between two girls. I sit down and put my head in my hands.

  "Hi I'm Maya," I hear a cheerful voice say.

  "Hi I'm Rose," I say in an equally happy voice.

  "Hi Rose, the other girl next to you is Jayah, she's my best friend," she says.

  "Hi," Jayah says with a voice with filled with more joy than both mine and Maya's.

  "You're pretty, you should sit with us during lunch time," Jayah says making me smile.

"Ok," I say with even more happiness in my voice because of the compliment I just received.

Class goes on for about an hour until it's time for lunch. We walk into the cafeteria and I sit down at a table with Maya and Jayah along with two other girls.

"Look at him, why does he have no food? He probably has no money," Jayah laughs pointing at a boy sitting alone. I frown at her.

"Don't be mean, my mama said that if you don't have anything nice to say then you shouldn't say it at all," I say to Jayah.

"Don't be mean to Jayah, you can't tell her what to do," Maya says glaring at me. "Look he's so weird he doesn't even have any friends," Maya says laughing and pointing at the boy.

"Stop being mean," I say to her while trying to keep my voice down, not wanting to get in trouble on the first day of kindergarten.

I pick up my lunch box and walk over to the boy and sit next to him.

"Hi, I'm Rose," I say gleefully.

The boy looks at me and just puts his head down on the table.

"Do you want some of my food? I don't really like ham," I offer. He looks at me with his head still in his arms and looks away after looking at me for a few seconds.

"Here," I say giving him my sandwich.

He sits up and looks at the sandwich. He hesitantly picks up the sandwich and starts eating it. I smile at him and eat my apple.

"Do you want some of my apple juice too?" I ask passing it to him. He nods and starts drinking some of the apple juice.

"What's your name?" I ask.

"Jahseh," he says shyly.

"Hi I'm Rose," I say smiling big because he talked.

He starts laughing at me. "What?" I ask confused.

"You already said that," he says smiling and still laughing a little. I join him in laughing and giggle with him.

We stop laughing and just keep smiling at each other.

"Can I be your friend?" I ask him while smiling a goofy little smile.

"Yeah, we can be best friends," he says smiling a big smile back at me.

"Ew, why are you friends with him?" I hear Maya ask me from the other table.

"Because he's nice, unlike you and Jayah," I say.

"I am not mean! And at least me and Jayah aren't weird unlike him and because you're friends with him you're weird too," Maya says.

"He isn't weird," I say defending him.

"Uh huh," she says glaring at me.

"Nuh uh," I say glaring back.

"Uh huh!" She shouts.

"Stop yelling at her or I'm gonna hit you!" Jahseh says sending a glare her way.

"Nuh uh, you probably are to weak to hurt me. You're so weird Rose, why would you be his friend. Me and Jayah are so much better than him, he's stupid!" She yells.

"No he's not. Only stupid people like you are mean for no reason!" I yell back at her.

"Yeah, and don't call me stupid or I'm gonna hit you," Jahseh yells.

"You're stupid!" She yells.

"Don't call me that!" He yells back warning her.

"Stupid!" She calls back at him. He walks up to her and slaps her once leaving her holding her cheek and crying.

"Hey, you can't hit girls!" Jayah yells.

"Yeah I can, my mama said that I have to give them three warnings to stop messing with me and if they don't listen to the warnings that I can hit them!" Jahseh yells back.

"Well your mama is stupid!" Jayah screams.

I walk up to her and pull my hand back and slap her hard.

"His mama isn't stupid!" I yell defending my new best friend.

I hear Jahseh scream making me turn around only to see him being picked up by the teachers. Before I can react I feel myself being picked up by the teacher's assistant.

Me and Jahseh get put down in chairs in the principal's office.

"Rose why would you do that?" The principal asks.

I look him dead in the eyes and without hesitation I reply, "For my best friend."