Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul 2 by Jack Canfield Mark Victor Hansen

Author:Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

The Cool Girls

I sat in my living room staring out of the bay window. I didn’t want to wait outside for the school bus—no, that would seem too anxious. I had decided that I would wait until I could see it coming down the street, and then casually walk out the front door. After all, I was cool now. I was entering the fifth grade.

Much to my dismay, the sight of the bright yellow bus coming toward my house sent me into a knee-jerk reaction, and I found myself running into the driveway—running and tripping. My backpack went flying and I landed on my hands and knees. Luckily, there were no major scrapes and I was able to return to a standing position almost immediately. The only thing I felt was the intense rush of heat to my red cheeks.

As I climbed the bus steps, the driver asked if I was okay. “Uh . . . yeah,” I quietly replied. “It’s nothing.” I quickly examined all the kids’ faces for any type of reaction. Most seemed to be staring out the window. Maybe no one had seen my spill.

I slowly moved toward the back of the bus to find two girls staring at me. As I sat down in front of them, I heard one of them burst out into a full-blown laugh, while the other quietly chuckled. They were whispering—about me, I was sure. I crossed my hands on my lap and pretended not to care.

I felt them watching me, even though my back was to them. They were definitely older—maybe seventh-graders—I wasn’t sure. I sat frozen in my seat, feeling like the dorkiest kid in the world, as tears formed in my eyes. This was not the impression I had been hoping to make, especially to the older kids. Then, much to my surprise, one of them tapped me on my shoulder and introduced herself.

“Hi, I’m Jessica!” she exclaimed. “Are you going into sixth?” In my mind, I quickly went from dork to super cool. Maybe they thought I was older. Wow! I shyly replied, “No, fifth,” as I turned around and smiled. “Oh,” the other girl giggled, “Fifth grade!”

I suddenly felt accepted. They knew how old I was, they had seen me fall—and yet they still wanted to talk to me. I had already made two friends and hadn’t even arrived at school yet! I was already seeing in my mind how cool it would be, to be walking through the halls and saying hi to my new seventh-grade buddies.

As it turned out, I rarely saw them in school, but I was happy enough to just be bus pals. I sat in the same seat every day on the bus, just in front of them, and waited for them to talk to me. One day, they asked to see my lunch box. “Wow, it’s really cool,” they both commented as they took my pink-and-white-checkered box from my hands. I couldn’t believe how much they liked me. They returned my lunch box and thanked me for letting them see it.

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