Maggie nervously walked through the classroom door. She hated the first day of school, especially since she usually had to start at a new school. Because her dad was in the military, her family moved around a lot. Maggie loved getting to experience new cities so much but the beginning is always the hardest.
When she walked through the doorway a short blonde lady with clear round glasses and overalls greeted her with the biggest smile.
"You must be Maggie!" she exclaimed. "I'm Miss Martin. Welcome to our class. Fourth grade is going to be SO much fun."
Miss Martin showed Maggie around the classroom and took her to her desk before she introduced her to the class.
"Class, this is Maggie, our new classmate. She just moved here, so everyone, be sure to make her feel welcome."
Maggie sat down at her desk, feeling anxious about how the day would turn out. She began to reach for her notebook when a girl approached her desk. She had hair so blonde it was almost white, the bluest eyes she had ever seen, and a pink butterfly clip pulling back her hair.
"Hi, I'm Grace! Where did you move here from?"
"San Diego. My dad is in the military, so we move around a lot."
"Oh wow, that is so cool. You are going to love it in Colorado Springs. My mom is in the military too and I moved here last year so I know how nervous you must be. Do you want to sit with me at lunch?"
Maggie felt a weight lift off her shoulders and a smile grew on her face from ear to ear.
"Yes, thank you so much!"
At lunch, the two girls automatically became best friends. They realized they loved all of the same things and spent all of recess swinging, playing games, and getting to know everything about each other.
Maggie and Grace were inseparable for the entire year. They convinced Miss Martin to move their desks together, they sat at lunch together every day, played at recess together every day, and even played together after school as much as they could. When summer came around, Maggie took Grace on their family vacation and Grace took Maggie on hers. They spent nearly all their time together and never seemed to grow tired of each other's company.
That September, Maggie's dad got news that they were going to have to move again. Maggie's heart sank. She finally felt like she had made a lifelong best friend and she was going to have to move again. As much as she hated it, she knew her dad didn't have much control and she would have to move away from Grace.
A month later, Maggie and her family had fully moved into their new house in Charleston. As amazing as Charleston was, Maggie was sad that she was about to go to school and Grace wouldn't be there. She went through the processes of meeting new people again but didn't feel as eager to make friends as she had before. All she wanted was Grace to be there with her.
One day, Maggie walked into her classroom and started making her way to her desk when she saw Grace sitting at the desk next to hers. A smile grew on her face ear to ear. She ran up and gave her a big bear hug - a million thoughts running through her mind.
"What are you doing here?" Maggie asked.
"We moved! I go to school here now," Grace happily told her.
This was the happiest Maggie had been since her family moved. Her favorite person in the whole world was back in her life and she couldn't be more excited.
Author's Note:
I based this story off of "The Elephant and the Dog," a story in the Jataka Tales. In the story, a dog starts off eating an elephant's food and ends up becoming best friends with him. They are inseparable, eating and playing together every day when the elephant's keeper sells the dog to a farmer. The elephant is so sad that he stops eating and bathing. The king sees that the elephant is so sad and goes to great lengths to get the dog back from the farmer so the elephant could have his friend back.
My goal in writing this story was to capture the same feeling that the elephant had of missing his best friend but change the characters to people instead of animals, so I figured a military family would be a good concept to use. I know of some military families that have lived in San Diego and Charleston, so I knew I could use those, but did some research to figure out a third town to use. My sister's childhood best friend's name is Grace, so I used their names for the characters in the story.
Bibliography: "More Jataka Tales" Ellen C Babbitt
Image Info: two little girls