Abby was sitting alone at lunch when a girl approached her.
"Hi! Do you mind if I sit here?" The girl asked.
Abby looked up at the girl. She had light blonde hair, freckles and a big smile across her face.
"Sure." Abby replied, though not sharing the other girl's enthusiasm. She enjoyed eating alone at school, nobody was mean to her and she would be left alone with her thoughts.
The girl didn't seem to notice Abby's lack of enthusiasm and sat down.
"I'm Carrie. What's your name?"
"Abby."
"Nice to meet you." Carrie said, her smile not fading.
Abby just nodded in response. She had never met someone as friendly as Carrie and being friendly back wasn't something that came naturally to Abby.
"My family just moved here a week ago." Carrie said. "This is my first day."
"That's cool." Abby said trying her best to be kind.
"That homework is really hard isn't it?"
"Not really." Abby said. "It's pretty simple math."
Carrie stopped smiling and looked down, embarrassed she had admitted having trouble with what Abby claimed was easy to do.
Abby suddenly felt guilty. She hadn't meant to be rude, she only meant to give her opinion of the work.
She tried to think of what her Mom or Aunt Paige would do in a scenario like this.
"I could help you if you want." She finally decided to say.
Carrie looked up, her smile slowly forming again.
"Yeah!" She said. "That would be great!"
Abby smiled at the girl and asked, "So what are you having trouble with?"
Carrie pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket and put it on the table. "I don't understand these five." She said pointing to the questions. "They might as well be in spanish."
"Well it's math so that's not possible." Abby said joking. "So anyways what you have to do here is…"
The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.
"I forgot this was lunch." Abby admitted, looking down at her uneaten food.
"Yeah!" Carrie said laughing. "See you back in class." She said while collecting her uneaten food as well.
When they got back to class the teacher announced that they had 30 minutes of work time so Abby went back over to Carrie and started to help her.
"So 84.6 plus 74.3 is…" Carrie said reaching for her calculator.
"158.9."
Carrie looked up at Abby with a look of surprise on her face.
"How do you do that?"
"I'm just guessing on all these."
"What?!"
"Just joking." Abby said smiling. "I don't know just comes naturally to me."
"Wish I had your confidence."
"If it makes you feel better, i'm usually bored senseless by this class."
"Try teaching it for 15 years." Their teacher said, not looking up from his book. "This crap gets old real fast."
Carrie looked surprised at the teacher's comment. "How are you a teacher?" She asked.
He looked up from his book with a look of contemplation on his face before just shrugging his shoulders.
After school that day Abby and Carrie were waiting outside for their rides to show up.
"Thanks for all the help." Carrie said smiling. "You're a lifesaver."
"No problem." Abby said smiling back.
The sound of a horn honing interrupted their conversation.
"Well that's my ride. Got to go." She said, walking to the car before hesitating and turning around.
"Hey Carrie, if you ever need anymore help, feel free to ask."
Carrie's smile somehow grew even bigger. "I will."
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