Looking for a Friend at a New School
Flash fiction based on a real life experience.
Sarah was new to Ranchero Middle School. All she could think was,
How could my parents move me to a new city during middle school!? I’ll never make new friends.
She was right. All the kids had known each other since preschool when they would take naps on mats and eat graham crackers together. Her parents didn’t consider any of that when they decided to move from their hometown.
Rrring!
Great, math is over. Lunchtime.
A whole hour of wandering around with no one to talk to or a place to sit.
Sarah had been at Ranchero for 3 weeks and met new kids in class and on the bus, but no one had included her in their group, and she was painfully shy as it was so she wouldn’t dream of imposing herself into a pack of girls — more things her parents didn’t consider when moving her away from her best friends.
Sarah started her new routine: Find a corner to eat lunch then begin walking around the vast open-air courtyard, so no one sees her sitting alone and thinks she has no friends.
