School Daze: Fifth Grade
| July 5, 2022Ruti or Adina ask to play with me almost every day after school, but act like they don’t know me in school
As told to Perel Stone
Tuesday, November 29
Vori invited me to play with her a few times, but I didn’t go. I feel bad for her, but I’m not even tempted to hang out with her anymore. It seemed funny to smear toothpaste on doorhandles in third grade, but now it’s just dumb. I’m starting to understand why Mommy looks sad whenever she mentions Vori.
Ruti or Adina ask to play with me almost every day after school, but act like they don’t know me in school. In school, I usually spend recess with Ayala. She doesn’t have any friends either.
This year they’ve added swimming to our schedule! I’m soooo excited. I love swimming. It’s such a nice break from endless, boring classes and mean teachers. We have to take the bus there and back and it takes lots of time out of the school day!
I always sit next to Ayala on the bus, but we’ve never been to each other’s houses. I don’t think we have much in common except that we both don’t have other friends.
Thursday, January 26
Today on the bus right before we got to the pool, Ayala got motion sickness and threw up. It was so gross that I almost threw up too.
After we got off the bus, I wanted to just run to the pool. It’s the best part of the week and I look forward to it from the moment we leave till the moment we get back there. I didn’t want to miss even one moment. But Ayala is my friend and it wouldn’t have been nice to leave her alone like that.
As soon as we got off the bus, I ran to get paper towels and water and helped her clean herself off. I tried not to look at my watch while I was helping her, so she wouldn’t feel bad. It wasn’t her fault that she threw up, but in my head, I was missing every moment I wasn’t in the pool.
Ayala didn’t even say thank you! She took it for granted that I would help her, even though she knows how much I love the pool. I hope, at least, it occurred to her what I had given up to help her. I bet if it were the other way around, she would’ve run to the pool and left me to manage alone.
Thursday, March 1
I can believe it. Today I went to sit next to Ayala on the bus and she said she was saving the seat for Yiska. She told me she’d rather be friends with other girls. Did she forget that just a few weeks ago I gave up my pool time to help her? Does she think Yiska — or any other girl in the whole class, for that matter — would miss their pool time to help her clean up after she threw up?! Even if they could miss the most boring class in school, they wouldn’t miss it to help her for THAT!
I was so angry; I didn’t even feel hurt. What a selfish, mean person. I don’t want to be her friend anymore anyway. If Yiska decides to stop being friends with her, and she tries to be friends with me again, I’ll say no thanks.
After Ayala wouldn’t let me sit next to her, I saw no one was sitting next to Ruti. I didn’t even ask her if I could sit down or if anyone was sitting there; I just sat down and smiled at her. She comes to my house almost every single day. I’m tired of this silly game in school like she barely knows me!
Ruti didn’t smile back, but she didn’t tell me to get up either. She looked like she was annoyed I sat there, but tough luck! By the end of the ride, we were talking and laughing like we always do.
(Originally featured in Mishpacha Jr., Issue 918)
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