The first day of school is always hard.

Even more when you move to a new place, separated and away from all your old friends and practically know no one here.

That’s what Kaya felt when she first came here, away from her home, her school, her friends and the places she loved.

She didn’t like it here but knew why they moved. She wasn’t stupid. But it didn’t make it any less sad or scary. Kaya was happy her sister was safe, but she could tell her sister was sad, really sad. Her eyes looked all cloudy and she didn’t smile.

But then… one day, she started smiling again, as if nothing was wrong.

Elain was hiding it, not wanting anyone to worry, and that just made Kaya even angrier, angry that her big sister would do that, but most of all, angry at the people who did such a thing and caused them to move.

People like that are the worst!

But… she was scared of one other thing… what if the people in her new school…

Didn’t like her?

When going to her new class, Kaya discovered that Amalie would be with her, it made her a little happy knowing that there was at least someone she knew, even if it wasn’t that well.

And as their homeroom teacher, gave rollcall, she stopped when reaching Kaya’s name. “Just so you all know, we have a new student today, she comes from across America, isn’t that right, Kaya?”

That surprised her, she didn’t like being called out like that on her first day. Even more so when all the kids in the class looked at her, Kaya just wanted to be a turtle and crawl into her shell so people would stop looking at her. The only one who didn’t was Amalie, besides a glance, she merely gave a slight smile before going back to her notebook while Kaya was asked a bunch of questions all at once. It made Kaya wonder if her big brother and sister were going through the same thing as her now too. That was until their teacher got everyone’s attention by clapping her hands.

“Alright, that’s enough,” she spoke loudly, really loudly, almost a yell, to get the kid’s attention, which scared everyone. “You can ask her during recess, so let’s finish rollcall and get on with what we’ll be learning for the week.”

As everyone responded, Kaya, looked at their homeroom teacher. Ms. Miller was a thin lady with white skin, dark brown hair that she kept in a clip, glasses, and dark brown eyes. And as the class progressed it seemed like she also seemed to get irritated easily and yell when the kids didn’t listen to her. Kaya couldn’t figure out why this lady was their teacher, she looked like she didn’t want to be there at all. Like she would smile happily at them, but it didn’t feel genuine like she was kind of faking, or partly, Kaya wasn’t sure.

Then when the bell for recess rang, Kaya wanted to get over to Amalie to see if she wanted to play, only to be bombarded by questions again by other classmates.

“Hey, so where did you grow up in America?” one girl asked.

“Are things super different there or the same?” a boy asked.

“What about your parents? What do they do?” another girl.

“Why’d you move?” another boy.

“Hey, hey what shows do you like to watch? What movies?”

“Do you have any family here?”

“Do you play video games?”

“What’s your house like?”

“Do you have siblings?”

“What about pets?”

“Do you like cats? Or dogs? Or both? Or neither?”

“Are you Spanish? Cause’ your last name sounds Spanish.”

“What’s your favourite colour?”

“What kind of books do you read?”

“Do you like comics?”

“Which superhero do you like the most?”

All these questions were enough to make Kaya’s head spin. She tried to find an opening to escape to go talk to Amalie, to call her out to help her escape but then saw something that bothered her.

Three girls were crowding Amalie, and one girl with a bobbed haircut and green eyes seemed to talk to Amalie smugly like she and the other two girls had it out for Amalie. And knocked a book out of her hand, and then pushed Amalie’s desk away. Kicking it to the side before laughing, but Amalie didn’t say anything. Kaya looked for their teacher but was already gone for the break.

“Mia’s at it again…” one of the boys said.

“You should stay out of it,” one of the girls told Kaya. “Unless you want to get bullied by them too. A lot of kids stay away from Amalie because she’s strange.”

“But it’s wrong,” Kaya said. “You know it’s wrong.” She then walked past the kids and pulled Amalie’s desk back and picked up the book while looking right at the girl who was in charge. “What’s wrong with you?” she asked Mia with a glare. Then grabbed Amalie’s hand and walked out of the class while muttering in Spanish. “Montón de idiotas...” Bunch of jerks…

“She is Spanish!” one of the classmates declared that Kaya could hear from the hall as they headed outside.

“Why’d you do that?” Amalie asked as Kaya continued to pull Amalie’s arm.

“Because they were jerks,” Kaya said.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Amalie says. “They’ll bully you too.”

“So what?” Kaya stopped in her tracks to look at Amalie. “I hate people like that, they’re the worst! Why do they even pick on you anyway?”

Amalie didn’t say, instead, she merely told Kaya as she gently had Kaya let go of her arm. “I don’t think you should do that; I don’t want you to get pulled into this.”

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Kaya puffed her cheeks in frustration. “No!”

“No?” she repeated with a tilt of her head.

“No!” she said again. “They’re jerks, and you’re nice!”

Again, Amalie didn’t say anything, so Kaya took Amalie’s hand. “Come on, we’re going to go on the swing set, let’s forget about those jerks for now!”

“Ah… okay… but we should put our stuff away or it might get stolen.” was all she could say as she was yanked, stumbling to keep up with Kaya, who then stopped, and turned around to head back to the classroom and nab all of their stuff and confused stares from other classmates while ignoring the looks from those who were bullying the quite seven-year-old girl before going back into the hall and to their locker and stuffed it all in.

But even as they played Kaya felt that Amalie was forcing herself, and seemed to be distracted, probably by the other bullies, even though Kaya couldn’t see them with all the other kids, she did see two adults watching the kids but other than that nothing else that Kaya noticed. Did Amalie just not like one of the teachers at this school?

She didn’t even seem to care about the kids who were bullying her like it was just something small to her as she trying to find someone.

“Are you looking for someone?” Kaya asked.

“Not really,” but then said. “Do you believe in monsters?”

Kaya tilted her head from where she sat on the swings. “Like goblins or trolls?”

Amalie merely glanced at Kaya from where she sat next to Amalie on the swings as the wind picked up, where she spoke softly. “Like those pretending to be good people. But who hurt others for their own gains… that’s the kind of monster I mean.”

Kaya slowed on the swing looking out at all the kids playing. “Yeah, I think I can understand.” Her grip on the chain of the swing set tightened. “I’ve heard of people like that…”

Amalie was silent for a moment. “You should do your best to try and stay away from people like that. It’ll be a bigger problem if you get caught in something if it’s bad.”

* * *

What did she mean by that? Kaya thought as she washed her hands in the girl’s washroom during class. What’s more, Amalie seemed different at school in comparison to how she acted outside on the playground near their homes.

Why was that?

Was it because of the bullies? Or the teacher lady?

What was it that made her act all distant and junk?

It was like a switch went off in her head, and made her seem a lot more mature for her age, but then Amalie was smart, smarter than a lot of the other kids. But there was just something more to it than that like there was something that Amalie knew that the rest of the kids and even adults didn’t.

What would it be?

Kaya gripped the sides of her head, all this thinking with no answers was making her dizzy. She could just ask Amalie, it wouldn’t have been that hard, but something in the back of her mind said it was a bad idea.

Then when she was about to leave while still lost in thought, a group of three girls entered the bathroom before she had the chance to leave.

“Hey you’re the new girl!” said the girl with the bobbed haircut as she grinned.

Kaya just looked at the three smiling girls with a blank stare. “And you’re the girl who was bugging Amalie. What do you want?”

“Nothing just wanted to see what was so special that you’d be friends with the freak.”

Freak? Kaya repeated in her head. “What did she ever do to you?”

The leader of the girls just scoffed. “Don’t you want to know why no one like’s her?”

Kaya frowned, she did wonder why, but she just wanted to ask Amalie that rather than talk to others, because others could lie easily. She intended to leave but saw the other two girls were in her way. “Move.”

“Aren’t you the least bit interested?”

Kaya turned to look at the other girl, to see her sitting on one of the sinks where she smiled almost mockingly at Kaya.

“Why do you care?” she asked the girl.

“Why do you not care?” the girl asked back then added. “The girl’s a freak, always acting strange at school. Probably because she’s rich, I bet she thinks she’s better than everyone. Even you.”

Kaya frowned, Amalie wasn’t like that, not at all. So, where did this girl think that? “You keep calling her a freak, why? What did she do to you?”

The girl didn’t say instead she smiled. “You know, I think I like you; you should hang out with us.”

“No way,” Kaya told them back quickly. “Why would I want to hang out with a bunch of jerks like you?”

“Because, if you don’t,” she jumped off the edge of the sink and went right up and close to Kaya’s face. “We’re going to do a shit ton worse to that arrogant rich girl. Like what happened to your sister, right? You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

Kaya couldn’t respond, she wanted to know how this girl could have known that when Kaya had just started at this school but then remembered the internet existed on their phones. “Do you even know why that happened to my sister? It’s because…” but was unable to say the rest because this girl cut her off.

“Right because she’s only half---” followed by a word that made Kaya’s ears burn.

“You can’t say that word,” Kaya tells her when she finally finds her voice. “It’s not a word you should say!”

“But your people say it, so why can’t I?” the girl said in an almost mocking tone. “Oh wait, only half of you is that. My Dad says it all the time and no one cares. Why should you?”

Kaya’s shoulders shook, this girl, this bully, what was she trying to do?

“Hey relax, I’m just joking. We wouldn’t do that anyway. The guys won’t even go near her because they’re scared of her girly-daddy. They say he’s scary, what a bunch of chickens.” She then looked at Kaya and grinned. “You know, I think I like you.” She leaned in and added. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll like me back and ditch the freak. Unless you want to join her little miss---” she then laughed, and the other two girls laughed along with her, leaving the bathroom where Kaya remained where she stood. And when she was alone tears began to fall.

Was this like what Elain had to deal with?

She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands trying to stop herself from crying. But what that girl said was so mean, and all Kaya did was become friends with Amalie. Why was that so wrong?

“Kaya?” Amalie’s voice came from the girl’s bathroom entrance as she slowly came in. “Are you okay?”

“No…” Kaya said as she turned away, not wanting Amalie to see her cry. “That girl is a jerk, a big one.”

The tone in Amalie’s voice changed a bit from concern to something else. “What did she say to you?”

“A bad word, a really, really bad word. One that no one should say.”

Amalie stepped closer. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

Kaya shook her head vigorously. “No, I just… I just want to be by myself.”

“Okay, I’ll be in the hallway if you need me.”

Kaya sat on a bench at the far end of the washroom, wondering what she could do, the teacher would be no good, and her Mom would just make things worse, probably, her mom was always an angry lion when someone messed with her kids. After all, she backhanded the girl who hurt Elain, while wearing rings too. The girl wanted Kaya’s Mom to get in trouble but backed off when her parents said that this was the least she deserved for what she did. Of course, she heard that through the bully’s younger brother, who was just a bit older than she was. But still, the last thing Kaya wanted was a bomb to go off at her new school with no one to take her side. She’d be alone, and that was the last thing Kaya wanted.

There was Amalie… but… because of this, Kaya began to wonder if it was a good idea even remain her friend, and with the sudden change that Amalie seemed to have when at school, it made Kaya wonder if she could even trust a girl who was like that.

I wish we never moved here… I… I wanna go home…

Only to stop when hearing the door open and see Amalie coming back inside with something in hand. And without a word, she sat next to Kaya and opened a container that had chocolate chip cookies inside and then placed it between them before indicating to Kaya to take one if she wanted.

Kaya did, and her tears began to fall anew. Why was Amalie so nice to her after just thinking that she shouldn’t be friends with Amalie?

As Kaya ate, she paused when hearing Amalie hum a song softly.

“What’s that song?”

“It’s an old song, my Dad says it’s from the Medieval times in France, he’d sing it to me sometimes to help me sleep. Do you like it?”

“It sounds pretty, can you sing it?”

Amalie smiled before sitting up straight and began to sing. The way her voice echoed off the walls of the girls’ bathroom gave Kaya a strange sense of peace. She didn’t know Amalie could sing, but she was really good, it sounded almost Latin, like the songs sung in church.

Yet, as much as this song brought Kaya comfort, what that girl said about Amalie wouldn’t leave her thoughts.

At some point, she’d either have to confront that girl or distance herself from Amalie, as much as she hated that, she didn’t want to get hurt. But did that give her the right to let someone else who was being bullied get hurt?

Suddenly the cookie didn’t taste as good as she felt something in the pit of her stomach.

I’m such a jerk…