[Martin's POV]

I stared silently at my picture of me, Simon, and Baki as I unpacked the last of my things into my new room here in America. Oh, yeah. I got adopted the other day. Nothing special happened. A couple from the United States came in, talked to a few of us, then told me that they were adopting me. And I was like, "Yeah. Cool. I'll take it. Anything is better than staying in this place for the rest of my life." So we hopped on a plane, flew to New York, brought me to my new home (which has luxuries I didn't even know existed. I mean, a double bed in my room with my own bathroom that isn't rusty? I'm moving up in the world), then showed me around the city. Everything here was so cool! The park, the mall, basically everything Happy Days wasn't, this place was. So, awesome. So even though I was sad about leaving Simon and Baki, the only two friends I've ever had, I was excited for a new life in America. And as an added bonus, think of all the new people I can prank as Bodil! It'll be like paradise! A whole country full of new, unsuspecting victims! Smiling a bit, I reminisced on happy memories of me and my two best friends pranking everyone at Happy Days, then taped the picture above my new bed.

My new dad, Jeremy I think his name is, poked his head in my room. He was a fairly tall guy in his mid-forties, with buzz cut black hair and a goofy personality. "Time for dinner, Martin," he said in Bulgarian. "Lilly made chicken nuggets. Is that okay?"

"Any food is gourmet to me as long as it is edible. After all, we never got that at the orphanage."

We both laughed then headed down to the kitchen where Lilly, a short redhead with a sweet personality, was setting the table. "Come and eat boys," she said with a smile. Oh yeah, she can speak Bulgarian too. That was a bonus. That way I don't have to look up what every word means when they talk to me.

I sat down and ate most of the meal in a matter of minutes. The food was amazing compared to what I had lived with at the orphanage all my life! Chicken nuggets made with real chicken, apples that weren't brown, and for dessert, a cookie that wasn't basically cardboard! It was so beautiful! Unfortunately, Jeremy pulled me out of my food paradise. "So, Martin, how much English do you know?"

I racked my brain for the words we had learned in English class, then tried to speak the language. "A bit. I know enough to keep a con...cornven..cerversa..."

"Conversation?"

"Yes. That," I replied with a giggle.

"Well, that's good," Lilly said. "Maybe then next week when school starts, you'll be able to go right away without us having to teach you the basics."

I groaned and switched back to my familiar Bulgarian language. "School?! I thought that this place was a free country."

Jeremy laughed. "Well, it is, but that doesn't mean that the government doesn't like to torture people every once in awhile."

Lilly slapped him on his arm. "Don't listen to him, Martin. I bet that you'll like fifth grade here. It's probably a lot different than school back in Bulgaria, and you seem like the kind of kid who would make friends quickly."

"I still don't want to go," I mumbled.

"Hey, you still have an entire week Martin," Jeremy reminded me. "I bet by the end of it, you'll be bored out of your mind and want to go to school. Trust me. You'll be ready when we take you."


Well, I learned one thing about Jeremy; he's a great unintentional liar. After his little speech at dinner, he convinced me that's what would happen. The week went on, but I most certainly didn't get bored. Lilly took me to Central park several times, we went shopping for school and my room, decorated it, and I even made friends with the kid who lived next door. His name is Ryan, and we became friends because he though my laugh was funny.

So the week sped past, and the next thing I knew I was standing outside the doors of a giant tan brick building about the size of the orphanage. My new school, and I was certainly not even close to ready to go. But Jeremy put a hand on my shoulder and gently shoved me inside. We said a brief goodbye, then I headed up to my classroom. Kids were putting supplies in their desks, catching up with friends, and talking to the teacher. I glanced around, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ryan. Sadly, he was nowhere to be found. He probably goes to a different school.

The teacher, a middle aged man with grey hair and a friendly smile, approached me. "Hi, there. I'm Mr. Remington. What's your name?" He asked me, pulling out a clipboard of names.

"Martin," I replied.

"Jeremy and Lilly's new adoptive kid, right?" he asked, checking my name off the chart. I nodded. "So where are you from?"

"Bulgaria."

He nodded. "Well Martin, welcome to the States. Sorry that you didn't have much time to get used to your new home before coming here, but if you don't understand something, words or otherwise, feel free to ask, okay?"

"Okay." I said.

Mr. Remington smiled. "Good. Now that that's out of the way, your desk is over there." He pointed to a desk at the far left side of the room, and I walked over to it. I slipped my books in the little shelf, organized my folders, everything you usually do on the first day of school.

It took a good ten minutes, but when I was done with all that stuff other students were still coming in, and nearly everyone was talking to a friend. I just sat there awkwardly, missing Simon and Baki more and more.

After a couple minutes of just staring at my desk, someone tapped me on my shoulder. "Hey, I like your glasses dood." I turned around in my seat and saw a kid with dark brown hair, a navy blue shirt, black sunglasses, and a happy smile on his face. "I'm Ian, the way. I'm new. I just moved here last month from Vermont."

I smiled back at Ian, a huge wave of relief washing over me when I saw his sunglasses. Hopefully with two kids wearing them, the teacher and other kids won't bother to question it. "Hi! I'm Martin."

Ian laughed. "You have a funny accent."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Yeah. I just adopted by some people here last week."

Ian slid into the desk next to me. "Hey, I was adopted too! But that was a couple years ago. So, where you from?"

We talked for about half an hour, explaining where we were from, how we got adopted, joking, and Ian occasionally fixing words that I said wrong or couldn't figure out. Then Mr. Remington finally started class.

"Okay kids, settle down now. Take your seats." The talk in the room silenced and the teacher glanced at his clipboard. "Does anyone know where... Adam Dahlberg might be?"

Ian sighed. "I know where he is, Mr. Remington. He walked in with me. He's probably in the bathroom still."

"Well, why don't you go get him so we can start class?"

Ian walked out of the room, then returned three minutes later with a brown haired kid who wore a black shirt and sunglasses. Adam probably. They talked in hushed voices, but Adam never took his eyes off the floor. He just shook his head, then sat down in a desk at the back of the room. "That's my friend Adam," Ian told me. "I'll introduce you at lunch."

"Okay kids," Mr. Remington started. "First things first, we're going to get to know each other. Everybody form a circle!" Everyone groaned. "Now now, if you want, I can give you a test on your classmates if you really think you know them that well." After he said that, a circle of students was made in a blink of an eye. With twenty-eight kids in our class and a tiny classroom, it was a tight squeeze. I ended up being squashed in between Adam and Ian. "See? That wasn't so hard, now was it?" The teacher asked. "We're going to go around the circle, and you will say your name and two fun facts about yourself. How about you start Mitch?"

A boy in a red and black hoodie, Mitch glanced around the circle. I swear out of the corner of my eye, I saw Adam tense up a bit when he heard the name. "My name is Mitch, and...uh... I like cereal and... trees."

On one side of him, a boy with long brown hair and a headset chuckled, while on the other side a boy with wavy brown hair rolled his eyes. "Great answer, Mitch," the wavy haired kid muttered sarcastically.

"I'm glad you think so Jason," Mr. Remington said, "because your up next."

So we went around the rest of the circle doing the same thing as before. Everybody's answers were awkward like Mitch's. Speaking of Mitch, during the rest of the class, Adam wouldn't take his eyes off him. It was actually quite creepy. At one point, I even asked him what he was staring at. He just whipped his head around and, well, I think he glared at me. I couldn't tell behind his glasses. "Nothing." Then he went back to staring at Mitch, who was too busy drawing something in his notebook to notice. Great. I can't wait for Ian to introduce me to this guy. He seems like the kind of guy who would like me. Note the sarcasm.

Finally, lunch time came. I walked down to the cafeteria by myself, got my lunch from the lunch ladies (people were complaining about the food for some reason. Sure, it's not gourmet, but I'd like to see them try to eat the food back in Bulgaria. Off topic, I know. I just wanted to mention it), then scanned the room for any sign of Ian in the sea of tables and students.

"Over here Martin!" Ian was waving his hand at a table in the far corner with Adam, who was staring at his lunch. Nice to see him staring at something else for once today.

I joined them at the table and smiled at Ian. "Hi Ian."

Ian poked Adam in the shoulder. "Adam, quit moping and meet the new member of the sunglasses crew." Adam just grunted in reply.

"What is up with him?" I asked.

Adam's head immediately shot up. "What's up with me?! Oh, nothing just the fact that I accidentally killed my dad and several other people! Now I was forced to move a state away from everything I've ever known with a death wish on a man I barely even know! So don't ask 'what's up with me'! I'm just a worthless pile of grief who just wants all my problems to disappear for two seconds! Is that too much to ask?" He screamed, more at the world rather than me.

I don't know what came over me, but the next thing I knew I was pounding the table and giving Adam a lecture in perfect English. "Look, don't talk to me about grief or being worthless! I came from an crappy orphanage where I was neglected, bullied, and never knew either of my parents! And you know what, I died when I was eight. Like, I full on stopped breathing for four hours or something! You don't think that those experiences still haunt me? Well, they do. But I moved here to a whole other country, and got a new start, so I pushed all those bad memories away. So you have two choices here Adam. Keep on grieving over something you did on accident, never do anything with your life, and push people away. That's fine. You'll never be happy again, but you can still do it. Or you can forget all those things that happened, make some friends, and enjoy life. Because you never know when you're gonna lose it. Your choice."

The entire cafeteria was staring at us, Ian looking the most shocked of them all. I didn't notice them. I was too busy staring down Adam, who stood up, then walked away. I glanced around and blushed at the people staring. "Sorry. I don't know where that came from." After that, everybody went back to eating, but quietly whispering about what just happened. Ian and I, however, didn't say a word for the rest of lunch time.


No one really talked for the rest of the school day, but there were small whispers and glances my way, so there's really no doubt about what they're talking about. Even Ian didn't talk to me much and shot a weird look at me every once in awhile. Great. First day at school in a new country, and I've already made a fool of myself.

The last bell finally rang, and everybody scurried out into the hallway. I shoved my books into my backpack and tried to slip out into the parking lot undetected where Lilly would be picking me up. I escaped from the crowd of kids and was about to cross the street when someone called my name, "Hey! Martin!" I turned around, expecting Ian to be there. Instead, to my surprise, it was Adam. "I need to talk to you," he called.

"I know, I'm sorry for yelling at you in the lunchroom," I told him. "I honestly don't know what happened in there. It's just that you were talking about how your dad is dead and how sad you are and-"

He cut me off halfway through my little ramble. "No, it's okay Martin. Really. You actually made a pretty good point."

"Wait, I did?"

"Yeah. I mean, the whole…incident happened half a year ago now, and if I think about it I really do have a pretty good life living at Ian's home. I just was feeling bad for myself and, again, mad at a guy who really caused me to kill my dad. But my dad would want me to move on from all that, you know? Just have a good life and stuff."

"That was really cheesy," I laughed.

Adam shrugged. "Yeah, it really was. My point is though, I'm going to do what you said and move on. So, do you think we could be friends?"

I smiled. "Sure. Do you think you can let me into that sunglasses crew of yours?"

He laughed. "You seem like a good candidate, considering that you're wearing sunglasses. We'll make a sunglasses army and take over New York!"

A loud beep came from the parking lot and Lilly poked her head out of the car. "Martin! We've got to go!"

I smiled and waved goodbye to Adam. "Bye Adam."

He waved back. "See you tomorrow, Martin."

I sat next to Lilly in the car and told her about my day. She smiled at me once I had finished my little story. "Sounds like you had a great day Martin. I'm glad you managed to make some friends here."

"Yeah. I was really worried earlier about that, but I think I'll like it here in America," I replied in Bulgarian.

"You know what, you should write to your friends back in Bulgaria," Lilly suggested. "I'm sure they'd love to hear about it too."

So when we got home, Lilly gave me a sheet of paper and a pencil. I picked up the pencil and began to write my letter.

Dear Simon and Baki,

You guys didn't really ask me to write to you, but I'm doing it anyways. America's really cool, and I started school today by yelling at a kid in the cafeteria because you guys know how good I am at making friends.

I laughed at my own introduction then continued writing. Something tells me that school won't be as bad as it was in Bulgaria, even without Simon and Baki. Poor guys. I hope they get out of the prison soon.

I finished my letter then realized I forgot the most important part. I guess I'll just add a PS.

Your friend,

Martin.

PS: Bodil is planning a big prank right now. These Americans won't even know what hit them.