The boy with the black hair keeps looking at me like Daddy does when he’s yelling at Momma. Is he mad at me because I got the bucket of crayons first? I’ll share if he wants to color too. Momma is always telling me that people should share, so I’ll share if he wants.
Is he sitting in the corner because Miss Julie got him in trouble? Maybe that’s why he looks mad, and he really does like me.
Should I take him some crayons? Will Miss Julie get mad at me if I do? All the other kids are playing and having fun, so maybe she won’t get mad. I know, I’ll ask her first. If the black-haired boy is in trouble Miss Julie will tell me.
She’s picking up the read time books from our group table. I tug on her skirt, so she will look at me. “Miss Julie?” She looks down at me and smiles. Miss Julie is very pretty. She has soft, yellow hair, and she’s always putting flowers in it. Her eyes are blue and she is always laughing. She’s also very nice to me. I’m happy that Momma made her my teacher.
“Hey, Sweetie.”
“Is it okay if I share the crayons with the boy in the corner?” I whispered.
I guess she didn’t hear me because she bends her knees, so I don’t have to look up anymore. “I’m sorry, Fiona, I didn’t hear you.”
I looked over at the boy really fast. He’s still looks like he’s mad, so I looked back at Miss Julie. “Is the boy in the corner in time-out? I think he wants to color.”
Miss Julie looked over at the boy, and then she looked at me again. “No, sweetie, he’s not in trouble. He…uh…he just likes to play by himself sometimes.”
Oh, good. He wasn’t in trouble. “So then he can color?”
Miss Julie started biting on her lower lip and I wonder if it hurts when she does that. “Y…yes, Fiona. He can color if he wants to.”
I ran to pick up the colors I was using. After I put them all back in the bucket, I grabbed two color books and carried them over to the black-haired boy.
Hopefully, he would see that I was nice, and he’d want to be my friend. Momma says it’s good to have lots of friends. It means you’ll never be alone if you have lots of friends. I already had my new friend Victoria, but it was okay if we had more friends.
The boy didn’t say anything as I put the crayons and coloring books on the floor in front of him. He still looked mad, but once I tell him I’ll share the crayons, I know he’ll be happy.
“Hi. My name is Fiona.” I smiled at him because Momma says my smile makes people happy, and I wanted my new friend to be happy.
He didn’t tell me his name, though. He just sat there, still looking mad.
I know! He didn’t know I was sharing the crayons, so that’s why he was still mad. “I brought you a color book. It’s a boy color book, and it’s okay if you want to use the crayons. I’ll share and we can color together.”
He closed his green eyes. I’ve never seen green eyes before. Momma’s and Daddy’s eyes are brown, so my eyes are brown. I’ve seen blue eyes, like Miss Julie’s, but I’ve never seen green eyes. They were very pretty.
When he opened his eyes, he finally talked to me. “Why are you talking to me?”
Didn’t he know we were going to be friends? “Because I want you to be my friend,” I told him. “I’m Fiona. What’s your name?”
“I don’t want to be your friend, so leave me alone, Fiona.”
My nose started to tickle like when I’m going to start to cry. “Why don’t you want to be my friend? I’ll be a nice friend, I promise.”
“I don’t want to be your friend because I’m not friends with stupid girls.”
He was a meany. “I’m not stupid!”
“Yes, you are! My friends make me feel happy. You just make me feel weird.”
I can’t believe how mean he’s being to me. “What do I make you feel?” I asked.
He leaned into my face. “You make me feel like the bad guys on Halloween.”
He stood up and, walking away, he didn’t care that he had left me here crying.