A girl walks up to the gates of a new school, her yellow dress sways in the breeze as her parents call farewell.

The school stands looming above her

Laughter of other children surround her

Quiet, timid, she walks slowly forward, her hands gripping her new backpack tightly

Into a school she has never known

Full of hallways unknown

Opening the door at the end of the hall

Sitting in the seat with her name

Around her children cry out happily as they see friends of years

She sits there, hopeful, but holding back the terror, the tears

Holding back the tears

The teacher walks in, a kind lady

She tells them to introduce themselves

Most of them have stories to tell

Stories that never had her

When she stands silence holds the room

She is new, she is scary, she isn’t a part of that room

Sitting down she is now in a cone of loneliness

Loneliness that surrounds her at recess

No one comes to play

No one lets her join

No one lets her become a part of the group

She walks over to a tree and hugs her knees to her chest her little yellow dress now dirt stained

Days, weeks, months pass

Still she sits alone at recess. Still they don’t let her join. Still she knows nobody

At home she pretends everything is allright

At home they can’t tell what’s behind the smile as bright as her yellow dress

At home she cries silently in her room when her parents sleep before sleep claims her

Terrified of the next day she slowly rises from her bed, slowly grabs a plain shirt

No longer does she wear the bright colors she once loved

No longer does she take pride in the bright colors

Now she only cringes, Now she only cringes at the thought of the bright colors, so different from herself

The days pass, the teachers call her name, but no one else speaks it, no one else speaks it

No one speaks her name

Stares of suspicion, stares of loathing, stares of disdain

Not a single glance of shared friendship

Not a single hand held out to her

Not a single reason to wear those bright colors

Outside she sits next to the trees, bare of leaves, shivering in the cold

It is winter.

Yet more months have passed and there has yet to be a single hand

Maybe once or twice she has joined in a school wide game

Nobody notices she’s there, she doesn’t care

She wants to play She wants to play with friends

At least in those games she can pretend

She can pretend she’s not alone

One day she pulls out the yellow dress again

With a heavy heart she pulls it on With a heavy heart she walks out

With a heavy heart she gives a fake smile as she leaves

With a heavy heart she goes through school

With a heavy heart she sits by the trees, her knees against her chest

A little boy, his shirt stained by dirt notices the little girl in the yellow dress

He notices she’s not laughing, running, playing, smiling

Leaving his fun as his friends call out as he walks over, over to the girl in the yellow dress

He calls behind him to his friends, tells them he’ll be back soon, his friends shake their heads and continue to play

He stops, he stops in front of the girl in the yellow dress, his shadow falling across her face

Her face lifts, full of lonely thoughts, to meet the eyes of the dirt stained boy

He smiles at her, he smiles at the her that has not been smiled at in months

She blinks, not sure what the boy is doing, she blinks as he holds out a hand

Holding out his hand he waits, his smile a warm sunbeam in her lonely world, he waits for her to take it

Slowly, cautiously, hopefully, she reaches up her own hand and it touches his rough dirt-stained one

His smile brightens even more and he says one sentence that changes her world

“Will you be my friend?” “Will you be my friend?” That phrase, so simple, so normal, repeats forever in her head and she

She the girl who has been alone for months, months of sitting by the trees, months of watching others play, she so lonely, so used to being lonely

She smiles back. She smiles back at the boy that said “Will you be my friend?”