The weather got warmer and warmer and grass began growing. There was no snow outside.
One day, Maya came to school. She was wearing a nice dress and beautiful shoes. We understood that
the dress and the shoes were not Maya’s because they looked bigger on her.
“I have a new name for her,” Kendra whispered. “Never New. Everything she has comes from a
secondhand store.”
We all laughed. Maya stood in the schoolyard. She was holding a rope
, but she didn’t ask us to play
with her. After a few minutes, she started jumping. She jumped around the yard without stopping. She
didn’t look up. Just jumped, jumped, jumped.
The next day, Maya’s seat was empty. In class that morning, we were talking about kindness.
Mr Albert asked us to gather around his table.There was a big bowl on the table. He filled it with
water. He dropped a small stone into it. Small waves rippled out, away from the stone. “This is what
kindness does,” Mr Albert said. “Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple, into the world.”
Then Mr Albert asked us to drop the stone into the water and say what kind things we often did.