"Mrs. Katy, what if I made a website? To help other kids that are being bullied? I know that it would help..."
Mrs. Katy smiled. "That sounds great, Ashley!" Hanna seemed to agree. She turned to me and burst out,
"Ashley! Can I help?!" She spoke so excitedly that she made me happy too! I glanced at Mrs. Katy's pleased expression, and then my gaze slid over to Anna's upset look. I looked at my feet, then calmly spoke to everybody in the room.
"I would love your help, Hanna, and thank you so much, Mrs. Katy." When I finished that sentence, everybody seemed happy. Except Anna. But I wasn't done talking yet.
"Anna, I know we aren't the best of friends, but I really don't hate you. Do you think we could be friends?" Hanna widened her eyes and turned to look at me in surprise. But I was more focused on Anna's reaction. I knew she wasn't very nice, but it was worth a shot. When Anna's expression changed from mad to confused, I smiled and waited for her to answer.
"Uh... I don't know? I mean, I don't think it would work out that well." But by the sound of Anna's voice, I knew that she didn't even agree with herself. So I decided to instead try a different approach.
"Anna, do you want to be my friend? This is totally up to you."
I wondered at the last second if that was the right thing to say. Oh well. To late now. I almost cringed when Anna started to speak, after all, it wouldn't be the first time she had been mean to me. But then I opened my eyes and listened.
"Ashley, I'm sorry." Three words. She said three words, and they changed everything. I didn't think that was possible.
"I'm sorry because I know I have been mean to you. Do you think we could... would it be possible to... I don't know..."
She was at a loss for words. But I got the gist of it.
"Sure, I'll be your friend." She smiled and her eyes lit up. The same went for Hanna and Mrs. Katy. In about 10 minutes, my entire 5th grade experience had changed.
Epilogue
For the entire week, we stayed friends. When we made our website together, I found that I was talented! I didn't know that I could put my thoughts into words so well! As it turned out, we all discovered something new about ourselves. Hanna was really smart when it came to computers! If you ever have a problem, I guarantee that Hanna can fix it. As for Anna, she was really talented. It was amazing that she had never known her talent. We put her in charge of talking and communicating with every single person that wrote something- anything- to us about our website. She could make anybody feel better, and she was very good at helping people that didn't think they could get help. For example, a little girl sent us a letter that included a picture of her. She was in 1st grade, and she was short for her age with bright blonde hair and glowing blue eyes. You would never think that out of her class of 27 kids, she was being bullied. For something that didn't matter. She was bullied about her height. Even though she was so pretty and the smartest student in the class, the bullies ignored all her good traits and decided to hurt her about something that she had no control over. Hanna and I were heartbroken, but we didn't know what to do! I mean, we're only kids! But Anna didn't listen to the problems, and she cheered the girl up and made sure that she knew how to stand up to those bullies. To this day, I no longer doubt what a group of kids can do to change the world.
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