Savannah Johnson

English 1010

Dr. Haslam

January 4, 2022

Special Friend

Today at school, we got a new student in 1st grade. My teacher, Ms. Spencer introduced

her by saying, “Good morning friends! We got a new friend that’s going to join our class this

year! Her name is Olive, and she’s a special friend, so we are going to be super nice to her and

welcome her into our classroom”

Olive? That is my cousin's name and we are best friends. Maybe I can be best friends

with her too. I mean she has really cute purple jeans and a sparkly zebra fedora hat. Who

wouldn’t want to be her friend.

Olive turned her head to the side to look at the teacher where to sit. Ms. Spencer opened

her hand to gesture for her to sit wherever she’d like. I noticed that she has big headphones on. I

wonder what kind of music she is listening to. My dad always listens to crazy rock music.

She walked down the desks isles with a slumped back and a blank look on her face. As

Olive walked past me I saw a blue letter P that looked like it had some bite marks. Does she like

chewing on her necklaces? Is she hungry? She sat down at a desk that was in the back by the

teachers desk. Why would she sit all the way in the back? There were some seats in the front and

the middle. Everyone wants to sit in the front because Ms. Spencer has a pet gecko named Cleo,

and she is so cute. Plus Ms. Spencer said she could sit wherever she wanted.
 We started class by saying what we did over the weekend. Everyone started raising their

hands and shouting, “Me!” Olive put her head in between her knees and held her hands over her

ears. What happened? Did someone make her upset?

Ms. Spencer whispered,”if you can hear me touch your nose.” Some kids touched their

noses. Then she said a little softer,”If you can hear me, put your hands on your head.” Then the

majority of the class put their hands on their heads. She looked around the room with a kind

smile and said quietly,”We need to have indoor voices when we are in class.”

Olive looked up, and was looking around at everyone, as if she was examining them. I

wondered what she was thinking about

Ms. Spencer then gave us a dotted line paper to practice writing the months of the year in

order. Everyone started writing, but I looked back at Olive and she just sat at her desk drawing

lines all over her paper. Why wasn’t she writing the months of the year? Did she not hear Ms.

Spencer? I leaned back trying to look at her paper to see what she was writing. As I looked closer

I saw she wasn’t drawing any months of the year, let alone words.

I stood up and walked over to Olive to tell her what we were doing. “We are writing the

months of the year Olive. You should get out your dotted lined paper before Ms. Spencer sees

you are off task.” I whisper screamed in hopes of Olive getting the hint that she could get in

really big trouble. She just looked at the floor with an expressionless face. Did she not hear me?

Ms. Spencer walked over to me and bent down. She sighed and said quietly, “Why aren’t you at

your desk working on your paper?”

“I was telling Olive what we had to do because she was scibling.” I pouted with my head

down. I knew I was supposed to be at my desk, but she was just sitting scribbling at her desk.

“Our friend Olive has a little bit of a different paper to do instead of the month of the year”
 “But Mr. Spencer”

“What Taylor?”

“Why wouldn’t she need to do the months of the year?”

“We can talk after class, okay?”

“Okay,” I muttered. What could make Olive so different? Everyone else in class was

doing the months of the year.

After finishing writing and math we had recess. I love recess. Me and my best friend

Brynlee would play on the monkey bars till our hands got calluses. If we were lucky, we could

get a spot on the swings and we would do back flips off the swing.

I went over to Ms. Spencer's desk instead of getting in the recess line, so I could ask why

Olive didn’t have to do the months of the year. I shuffled my feet quickly, so Brynnlee wouldn’t

notice I'm not in line yet. “Ms. Spencer?”

“Yes Taylor”

“Why does Olive not have to do the work even though everyone else in the class is doing

it?” She crouched down and gestured for me to come closer. She whispered,”Olive has autism

which means she sometimes has a hard time learning and making new friends like all the other

kids.”

“Is she sick?”

“Oh no no. She is not sick; she was just born with a brain that works a little different than

everyone else in the class. ”

Everyone started calling for Ms. Spencer because they wanted to head out to recess. She

looked into my eyes with a stern soft voice,”Do not go around making assumptions about people
that you do not know about, just be nice to her, she's a kid just like you. Now go get in line for

recess.”

I ran over to Brynnlee. She looked at me confused and said,”What were you talking to

Ms. Spencer about? Are you in trouble?” I laughed,”No, I was just asking why Olive was not

doing the months of the year.” Brynnlee looked over at Olive and back at me,”That's weird. Why

didn’t she?”

“Ms. Spencer said that Olive has Autism and her brain is different.”

“Different?”

“Yeah. She said that it can be hard to make friends, so we should play with her at recess”

“But the second graders invited us to play tag at recess” Brynnlee exclaimed

I didn’t know what to do. I love playing tag, but I also want to be Olive's friend. I had to

make a choice now. I fiddled with my hands and said, “I am going to play with Olive this recess.

Maybe next time” Brynnlee gave me a shocked look and said,”Really? Your loss.” She walked

out the door without looking at me. Was this the right choice?

All the first graders walked outside in a single file line and right as we got out the doors

we all ran to our usual recess activities. The girly girls went to the grass to do handstands. The

super fast boys went to play soccer. The weird kids traded pokemon cards under the slide. But,

Olive went to the bench with the teachers and played with wood chips.

I’ll invite her to play with me. I walked over to the bench,”Do you want to play on the

swings with me Olive?” She shook her head back and forth while keeping her knees close to her

chest. “Well, do you want to play house?” She shook her head again. Maybe she just wanted to

sit and watch everyone play. I sat down next to her and said, “Do you want to just sit?” She

nodded. Why would she just want to sit and watch people play when she could be playing with
them? Ms. Spencer said I should be her friend, so I will sit with her and watch kids play. Maybe

one day we can have a playdate and play house.

I decided to change a few wordings and the ending of the story to change the mood

of the text. I changed how Ms. Spencer talked about Olive. In the first story she told Taylor

to not ask questions, just leave it alone. While in the second story I made it seem more

welcoming for questions and gave reasons why Olive had to do things differently. I also

changed how Taylor introduced Olive. I changed it from a negative outlook, to Taylor

wanting to be Olive's friend.

I changed brynnley character to be unaccepting like a lot of kids ahtt do not know

about kids with autism.

I also changed the ending from Taylor walking away from Olive wondering why

she is the way she is to sitting with her and wanting to be her friend. By changing this

ending it brings a kinder light to autism awareness, and that everyone should be kind no

matter what.

Lastly, I added a bit more descriptive phrases and changed some wording to change

the flow and feel of the text to be a bit more warm and light.