By: Ellie Zhang 1

It was the middle of the school year, and I went to school on a Tuesday. It had been a normal day, sitting alone at the lunch table and watching others play at recess. I thought it would be like this forever, all the way until high school. I would never get any good friends.

I only thought that, but my life changed.

A new girl named Rachel had come to my school that week. Immediately, the whole school liked her. Except for me.
It seemed that her gloomy but eye-catching necklace had something to do with her popularity. Everybody inspected it, their eyes locked on it.
Every day, more attention grew to her, but she seemed to give some attention to me—she’d walk by and smile, dimples showing and her eyes wide and bubbly.

One day, Rachel asked me if I wanted to be her friend. I was quite surprised. Everybody else in the school was too, because they all hated me for some reason.
“Why her and not me?” Someone asked.
I ignored everyone else, because I actually had a chance and they didn’t.

Rachel started talking to me. “You looked quite sad that day…I thought maybe you were bullied by those others…” But while she talked, I was also focusing on her necklace.
I almost got too close to it.

The next day, people were all here and there, looking for Rachel as she had mysteriously disappeared.
“She was here this morning, where is she now?”
“Aw, I wanted to take a picture with her!”

All until I walked out of the girl’s bathroom. Everybody had eyes on me, exactly what I wanted! I brushed past the crowds just staring at me, frozen. There, I walked past the people with a smirk on my face; and with the necklace hung around my neck.