Scared, alone and nervous, James the hamster spoke in front of the class. He was supposed to introduce himself to his new classmates since it was of course the first day of third grade. He said the usual like his name, favorite colors and hobbies, after he was done talking though he noticed some of the other animals giggling and shuffling like they were at a stand up show. This was when he noticed that some of the other animals were way bigger than him, some even intimidating and fear producing tigers and lions with big razor sharp teeth. He also noticed that there seemed to be a quite small innocent looking bunny, “ I could be friends with him he thought.”
Tears started forming around James’ eyes as he noticed no one was sitting next to him at lunch. “How come no one wants to eat with me,” he thought, “Did I say or do anything wrong?”
He looked up as soon as he saw a jumping thief stealing his fries, accompanied by more laughters. The jumping thief showed off the prized fries to his noticeably large friends. James didn’t like when people took things without asking or when people were disrespectful towards others. James got so filled with anger and wanted to stand up for himself, so he walked to the other side of the cafeteria. “Hey, what’s going on here, those were my fries,” James said. All the other animals in the cafeteria went silent and watched very attentively. “Oh yea and who are you to tell me if those were yours or not,” replied the snarky bunny. “I’m James.”
“Well I’m Jacky and I didn’t ask for your name, as if it mattered anyway”.
“You show that little mouse who’s boss, big Jacky”, said a Buffalo. Jacky held up an arm ready to smack James. James realised this and didn’t want to resort to violence as a way to defend himself. “Wait, what’s so wrong with me”, he yelled out loud for everyone to hear, “What is it, my size?”
“ So what if I’m not the mightiest, toughest, or biggest animal at this school, neither are you. That doesn’t just mean you can treat me horribly or laugh at me. Jacky all you do is put up this tough facade just to make people forget that me and you are about the same size.” Jacky thought about when he first started school, he remembered he would get picked on for being shy and tiny. This was when Jacky realized that what others thought of him didn’t matter, what was the point of being liked if you weren’t acting like yourself at all. At about this point Jacky was crying on the floor then he went over to his table, got the fries and returned to give James a hug.