Theme: Friendship

The friends

Henry was apprehensive. It was his first day at the new school. His family had recently moved to the city of Campo Azul and he would start classes in the middle of the semester. The boy was worried if he was able to keep up with the other students.

At the beginning of the class, the teacher introduced Henry to the class and asked everyone to open the booklet to continue studying what had been taught in the previous class.

Henry tried to read the booklet to understand the subject, which he had not yet learned.

Afterwards, the teacher gave a list of exercises that the students should do and gave it to him at the end of the class.

Henry felt lost. He did not know how to solve the proposed exercises. He raised his hand to ask for the teacher's help, but she was busy with other students. Henry lowered his hand with a sigh, but soon he felt someone poke him and say:

- Hi Henry! I'm Joseph! Do you need help with the exercises?

Henry was shy and a little embarrassed, but with his colleague's friendly gesture he felt more confident and asked:

- I think so. I didn't understand how to do it. Can you help me?

Joseph willingly explained what should be done. Henry understood and was happy to be able to finish the activity before the ringing of the bell for break time. The students left the room and Joseph called Henry to play. The two boys had fun, talked, and walked together.

Joseph showed Henry the whole school and the coolest things about it, like the court and the playground.

Before the break ended, Joseph shared his lunch with Henry, who hadn't brought anything, since at his old school lunch was offered to students.

When classes were over, Henry took his material and went to the school gate, where his mother was already waiting for him. He gave her a hug and happily told his mother how his first day had been and how nice Joseph had been to him.

After a week, Henry was already more adapted to school. Colleagues spoke little to him, but the boy was happy for his friendship with Joseph. At the end of the class, the teacher asked for the attention of all the students and warned:

- Don't forget that tomorrow is Toy Day! Each one can bring their favorite toy to show the class and play together at break time.

Henry was very excited about the news. He soon thought about the toy he was going to bring.

The next day, Henry arrived at school carrying his set of walkie talkies. “I'll ask if Joseph wants to play spy with me” he thought.

But as soon as the other children saw the toy that Henry had brought, they began to ask him to play.

- Hi Henry! Come play with me, I'll lend you my toy and you lend me yours.

- Henry, can I play with you? I've never seen a walkie talkie before. Can I hold?

- Oh, Henry, your toy is so cool. I want to be the first to play with you!

Henry felt uncomfortable, as he had planned to play with Joseph. “When I arrived at school, Joseph was the only one who wanted to be my friend” he thought “Just because my toy is cool, now everyone wants to play with me.”

Henry walked and saw Joseph, who was sitting alone on one of the benches in the courtyard.

- It's just that now I'm going to play with Joseph, but later I can lend it to you - Henry said to the other children, going to meet his friend.

Joseph loved playing with the walkie talkies. The two boys had a great time, hiding around the school and communicating over the radios, imagining they were police officers looking for clues.

In addition, Joseph was also happy to see that Henry had preferred to play with him rather than with the most popular classmates.

- Thank you for choosing me for playing, Henry! I saw that everyone wanted to play too and there were only two radios.

- You're welcome! - said Henry putting his hand on Joseph's shoulder - Of course I was going to play with you, right? You are my friend!

Henry was a shy and quiet boy, but he was no fool. He knew how to value true friendship and he also knew that it is not in the moments when we are on top, but in the moments when we are more fragile, that we know people's hearts better.

Henry and Joseph's friendship was based on affinities and not on interests and that's why it was always a reason for happiness for both of them.

Translation:
Larissa Martine - larissa_am@hotmail.com

marcelapradacontato@gmail.com