One fine morning in 16 Hudson, Lili and Amala were walking and chatting to themselves until they saw a truck pull up.
"I wonder if someone ordered anything?" Lili said to Amala.
"I don't think so." Amala replied.
Then the two girls saw people carrying boxes.
"Someone must be moving in." Lili said.
After the boxes were unloaded from the truck, a car pulled up behind the truck. A man and a lady stepped out of the car along with a boy who was the same age as Lili.
Lili and Amala were excited.
"Looks like we have a new kid in town." Amala said to Lili.
"Why don't we go up and say hello." Lili replied. And that's exactly what they did.
"Hello." Lili said to the boy.
The boy rubbed his arm and stared at the ground.
"Uh hi." The boy said quietly.
"Are you new here?" Amala asked.
"I am. My name is Ian." the boy muttered quietly.
"Your name's what?" Lili asked.
"Ian." the boy muttered quietly again.
"Can you talk a bit louder?" Lili asked.
"Yeah, we can't hear you." Amala asked.
"I'm Ian." the boy said as he looked down at the ground.
"Hi Ian. I'm Lili and this is Amala." Lili said.
"How come you're not looking at us?" Amala asked.
"He has autism." Ian's father answered.
"I've never heard of that before." Lili said.
"Autism is a disability where a person acts differently." Ian's father explained.
"Oh I see." Amala replied.
"Now since my son here has autism, he has a hard time with eye contact." Ian's father explained.
"So that's why he's looking at the ground and not at our faces." Lili said.
Lili then had an idea.
"Follow us Ian." Lili said.
Ian turned to his father.
"Go ahead son." his father said.
Ian followed Lili and Amala.
"Can you look at me?" Lili asked.
Ian tried lifting his head up.
"I don't think I can do it." Ian said.
"You can do it. Just try your best." Lili said.
Ian then lifted his head and looked at Lili right in the eye.
"There's your face." Lili said as she giggled.
"Can you look at me now?" Amala asked.
Ian then turned and looked at Amala.
"There you go." Amala said as she smiled.
"Y'know this isn't so bad." Ian said.
Lili giggled.
"I do like your glasses Lili." Ian said to Lili.
"Aww, thank you." Lili replied. "And I like your jacket." she added.
"Me too." Amala said to Ian.
"Thanks girls." Ian replied. "There is something I can say about friendship. Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity." he added.
"Ooooh!" Lili and Amala exclaimed.
"But the only problem is, I don't have any friends all because of my disability." Ian said as she sadly sighed.
"You poor kid." Amala said.
"How about we be your friends?" Lili offered.
Ian thought about it. Then agreed.
"Great. So what should we do first?" Amala asked.
"Well I could use some help getting mine and my parents stuff inside our new apartment. Can you help me out?" Ian asked.
"Sure. Of course we can help you." Lili replied.
Soon Ian and his new friends help him move his and his parents' stuff into the apartment.
It was a lot of work but in the end it was worth it.
Later in the apartment, Ian and his parents were thanking Lili and Amala for their help.
"Thank you so much for your help you two." Ian's Mom said to Lili and Amala.
"It was the best we could do." Amala replied.
Ian walked up to Lili and Amala.
"And I'm glad that you two are the first friends I ever had." Ian said smiling.
"Aww. That's so nice of you to say that." Lili replied.
"I'm so happy I could do something nice for you both."
"Aww, Group hug." Lili said.
Ian, Lili, and Amala shared a group hug together as they giggled.
The End.