Crunch, crunch, crunch, went Abigail’s shoes as she walked through her family’s new garden. Abigail’s family had just moved from Australia to the US and she was not happy about it. Abigail’s parents got new jobs in the US. Here was Abigail doing work on their new garden wishing she could go back to Australia. She missed all her friends so much. She sighed as she fell back on the bench in front of the little fountain in the middle of the small garden. 

“Oh how I wished I were home in Australia sitting on the front steps of my old house with my best friends,” Abigail said out loud even though she knew no one was listening. 

Tired and hot she got up and made her way out of the garden into the little greenhouse to put away the garden supplies. She put away her tools and walked up her back steps into the new unfamiliar house. She pulled off her garden boots by the door and then went into the kitchen and began to make dinner. Soon her parents would be home and they would ask her how much progress she had made in the garden. Right now the garden was filled with weeds and overgrown plants and her job was to clean it up. Just as she was pouring the last of the soop into her fathers bool, she heard her parents walking up the front steps. She quickly put the dirty bool in the sink and rushed to the door to let her parents in. As she opened the door she saw something strange: under her mothers arm was a big brown box with holes in the top. 

“Hi” said her mother, greeting her warmly, “Is dinner ready?”

“Yes,” Abigail replied.

Soon all three of them were sitting around the table eating and talking, all except Abigail. I wonder what is in that box, Abigail thought.

“Well we got our jobs” Abigail’s father said cheerfully.

“You did,”  Abigail asked, snapping back into focus.

“Yep we did,” replied her mom.

Abigail beamed at her parents.

“Oh that reminds me we have a little something for you,” her mom said smiling.

She got up and made her way across the room to the big box she had been carrying earlier.

“Here you go,” her mother said, placing the box on the new rug.

Abigail got out of her chair and sat down on the new unfamiliar rug with the strange box on it. She carefully lifted the lid of the box and peered inside. All curled up in a ball sleeping was…

“A kitten” Abigail whispered so she did not wake it up.

Her mom smiled, “I thought you’d like him”.

Abigail yawned as light streamed through her window. It was morning and the start of a new day in the big city Abigail wished she was not in.Groggy she sat up. Just as she did so her new kitten which she had named Pepper appeared in the doorway and then seeing she was awake, walked away.

“Ugg”, Abigail groaned at the light of the new day.

The truth was: she should not be afraid of the new city but she was. She should not wish she were back in Australia but she did.

“Breakfast,” called her mom.

She got out of bed, dressed and went down to breakfast.

“What’s this?” she asked, staring at what looked like a letter on her place mat.

“Oh it’s a letter from your new school” replied her mother cheerfully.

Abigail sat down at the table, as Pepper curled up at her feet. Gently she reached down and patted him behind the ears. Her mother placed a plate with waffles and eggs down in front of her. She picked up her fork and slowly began to eat her breakfast. When she was done, she said goodbye to her parents as they left for their new jobs. Abigail went back into the kitchen, took the letter from her place mat and sat down on the rug with Pepper. Yes, she was supposed to clean the dishes and then go and get some work done in the garden. But she figured she could do that later in the day, after all her parents would be gone all day. She tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter that was inside.

“I hope my new school is as good as my old one”, Abigail sided and began to read:

 To Abigail and family said the first line. The first paragraph after that said: Dear parents, so she skipped that part, and moved on to the second paragraph which said dear Abigail. 

Dear Abigail, we hope you are as excited to start the school year as much as we are! 

❤️,

The principal of Evergreen School.

“Well they did not put in very much effort into writing this note! It’s only one or two sentences long”! Abigail said with frustration “I bet all the letters they sent out said the same thing they just changed the dear part”!

Abigail felt like crying.

 At her old school in Australia the principal always took his time writing all the notes and they always said something different, not all the same with just one sentence changed. Besides, Evergreen School went from kindergarten to fifth grade! She knew that as a fact. And that ment all the kids knew each other from not only kindergarten but, first grade, and second grade! What was she going to do? But then she noticed a slip of paper she hadn’t noticed before.

“What’s this?” she whispered, wiping away her tears and picking it up.

 She unfolded the paper and turned it right side up. On it was a list of names, she counted them, there were fourteen names not including her own. This must be all the people that are going to be in my class she thought. But then she remembered seeing a link in the paragraph for the parents. She picked up the other sheet sheet of paper and there was the link! It said it was to the school page!

 “I have an idea” Abigail said excitedly, jumping up this caused Pepper to jump as well. She ran into the living room, grabbed her mom’s computer off the table and fell over on the couch, Pepper seeing her sit down came to sit next to her. As quickly as she could, she looked up the link and followed the directions on the paper to log in. When she was logged in it took her about one minute to find what she was looking for.

“There”! Abigail exclaimed.

She scrolled down and read the headline:

 We Have Two New Students In Third Grade This Year! There names Abigail who came from Australia, and Maple who is coming from Asia!

“Yay,” Abigail said excitedly “a girl named Maple is new at the school too so maybe I can be friends with her”!

Two long not nice weeks later Abigail walked down the street and into her house. One week ago school had started and so far it had been horrible! People had made fun of her and well you can guess what else happened in that courtyard. To make matters worse Maple who was supposed to be at the school too had not been there for the first week! This made Abigail think maybe the girl named Maple was not going to come to the school after all! She pushed the door open and tossed her back pack aside. 

“Pepper,” Abigail called, “food and water”.

As soon as she finished speaking Pepper came running up to the door clearly hungry and probably thirsty too. Abigail filled up his dishes with big helpings of food and water and then sat down on the couch. She did not know what to do. What she did know was that Evergreen School was not the place for her. Yes, Evergreen School might be better if that girl was there but she wasn’t so that school was a nightmare for Abigail. To calm herself down she went and got drawing materials, a pen, lots of paper, and some elopes. She went to her room with all the materials Pepper following closely behind. When she got to her room she sat down at her desk preparing to write some letters to her friends in Australia. Each day after school Abigail had three hours till her parents came home from their work. Today she spent two of the three hours working on letters for her friends. When she was finally finished she tucked them into envelopes, added addresses and put them in her backpack to mail tomorrow on the way to school. She quickly made dinner and by the time her parents got home she was sitting on the couch book in her hands.

“Hello”, Abigail’s mother smiled, “what did you do today after school”?

“I wrote some letters to my friends in Australia,”  Abigail replied, sitting down at the table.

“You did, did you!” her dad said sitting down at the table as well.

After dinner Abigail enjoyed playing different card and board games with her parents and Pepper too of course, who had curled up on the floor nearby. Before she knew it she was climbing in bed. The next morning Abigail woke up dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast. When she got there she said goodbye to her parents who were leaving for work. Soon after they left she was saying goodbye to Pepper. Abigail closed the door behind her as she prepared herself for another day at Evergreen School. At least it’s a Thursday, she thought as she stopped at the big blue mailbox at the end of the street, mailed her letters and continued on.

But as soon as she reached the hall leading to the classroom she saw something extremely exciting there in the hall was a girl she had never seen before. Her heart began to beat faster. She gathered her courage even though the girl looked nervous. “Are you Maple?” She asked, her voice just above a whisper.

“Is your name Maple?” Abigail asked the girl.

Maple nodded.

“Oh hi I’m Abigail I am new here too!”

Maple looked up, “oh really can we um be friends?”

“Of course,” Abigail replied.

Maple smiled and then said “maybe this school will be fun after all!”

They walked into the classroom together which was already filled with boys and girls from the state.

The teacher looked up from her desk, “hello there you must be Maple!” “Your seat is over there next to Abigail.”

Later after school…

“Where are you from again?” Maple asked Abigail, as she pulled a group of weeds from the ground.

 “Australia Abigail said, thanks for helping me out in the garden.” 

“No problem Maple said with a smile I love gardening!”

Abigail couldn’t have been happier. A new friend! She was that happy.

The End