Coping Skills

Chapter 1

-2nd grade-

"Class? We have a new student," Mrs. Wilton announced to our classc gesturing to a small boy.

I looked up from my tower of blocks and stared. He was short, with chubby cheeks, freckles, and reddish-blond hair. Dimples showed in his face as he smiled awkwardly, clearly nervous.

"I want you to be extra nice to him, ok? He moved here all the way from Ireland. " She smiled at him encouragingly, and gestured for him to go play. He wobbled over to a group in the middle of the room who were playing with the kitchen stuff. The kids looked up curiously.

"Hi," he said, smiling a toothy grin. "I'm Aodhan. Can I play?"

Laura Mishnel laughed. "Aodhan? What a stupid name. Who even named you, your mom or your dog?"

He flinched, wounded by her words. "My mum's dead. That's why I'm here..we moved to put some distance from it, try to get over it you know?"

She snorted. "I don't care. She probably died from your ugly face anyway. Just go back to where you came from. You don't belong here. " Then she pushed him.

He fell, landing on his butt and hitting his head. His eyes widened, and he crawled away from them and sat in the corner of the room.

I glaned around the room. Where was the teacher? Wasn't she supposed to prevent this? She was sitting at her desk, on the phone laughing, paying no attention to us whatsoever. I looked back at Aodhan. He didn't look like me--I had black hair and hazel eyes-- and his voice sounded funny. But he smiled like I did and had a heartbeat and was breathing, so he couldn't be all bad. And he didn't deserve to be treated like that by Laura.

I stood up and made my way over to him. He was shaking when I got to him, and a tear rolled down his cheek. He looked up at me, eyes wide.

"D-d-d-don't hit me please. I get it."

I frowned. "I'm not gonna hit you."

He visibly relaxed. "You're not?"

My head shook back and forth widely. "I just wanted to see if you wanted to come play with me."

There were those dimples again. We walked over to my block castle and he grinned, plopping down. "I love blocks."

He even liked to play the same things as me? I just couldn't understand why Laura would be so mean.

I sat down and, picking up a block, looked at him. "Why does your voice sound funny?"

He shrugged, stacking a block. "The same reason yours sounds funny to me. I think my father said it's called an 'excent'." he quoted, widening his eyes as he said it. They were really blue.

I laughed. "That's a funny word."

"Coming from my funny voice?" he smiled. Then looked around. "Why are we playing and not learning?"

I gestured to the window. "We're supposed to be having recess but it's raining so we get to play."

He nodded and kept building. I stared at him, and he looked up, confused. "What?"

"I've never met anyone with red hair before."

He shook his head. "I've never met anyone with changing eyes before. Yours were grey when you walked over to me, now they're green. It's much stranger than my hair."

I grinned, tossing the block at him. "I like you."

He quickly lowered his gaze and looked away. "I'm glad at least someone does."

That's when Mrs. Wilton decided to finally get off the phone. She looked over at us disapprovingly. "Zena," she said, clucking her tongue at me, "be nice to Aodhan."

Hey guys! What do you think? Kinda long chapter so I hope you like it!

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