Illustrated by: Kumari
Written by: Denaya
One day, I went to my new school. I was so scared but I wasn’t scared when I met my friend. Her name is Ariyana. Then I met Lena, then I met Tamea and my teacher, Miss Onke. When it was recess I was not so scared after all. I made so many friends. So after school I told my mom it was soooooooo fun, and she asked me what I ate for lunch. I had mozzarella sticks. They were sooooooooooooo cheesey. You should try it, everyone, because mozzarella sticks are good! I had so much fun with Aryiana because we were twinsys. It was sooooooo cool, because we both had ponytails in our hair and we had the same colored eyes. We play with each other. I also have one more friend. Her name is Adreana and we do everything, like belly bumps, it was sooo fun. We would spread apart then run really fast towards each other and bump our bellies together. We would make funny noises because it kind of hurt to bump bellies. We ran from my friend Mehilo. He always chases us for fun. I WAS KIDDING.
This story originally appeared in Facing Childhood and Adolescence in Iowa’s Cedar Valley, a publication of The Facing Project that was organized by the University of Northern Iowa in Waterloo, Iowa.