Outstanding Stories » The New Girl

“The New Girl” is one of the outstanding stories (junior) of the second biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Aadya Sharma, GIIS, Punggol Smart Campus, Singapore.

The New Girl

Once there was a young girl named Jewel. She was born and brought up in a town in England. Everything started to change as the town was attacked by an earthquake, and Jewel and her family had to flee to London. They travelled by a train. The next morning they reached the wonderful city of Britain, London. There were taxis, the people wore fur coats, the children were neatly dressed up and all their demands were fulfilled. They saw a rich girl scolding a woman at the train station. “Oh my! Look at that girl. Does she have any manners or what? Look how she’s scolding a woman elder than her.” Jewel thought out loud. “I’m glad our Jewel is not like that.” said Jewel’s mom. On the way to their new home Jewel saw that arrogant girl again in the diner where they were having their dinner in. They continued the rest of their journey after having a hearty dinner.

Jewel’s house was a normal sized bungalow. It was smaller than the rest but it was really cozy and it reminded her of her house in the town. The next day Jewel’ school was going to start. How excited she was!!! The next morning she had a lovely breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes and milk. Her father walked with her to her school. “Good bye daddy,” said Jewel. When she reached her class 4D, she took a seat in the first row in the middle of the class. Soon children started to enter the classroom. Everyone gathered around her and asked her questions. She soon made new friends. Their names were Ava, Mia and Elly. After a while her teacher arrived. She looked very pretty and kind hearted. She wore a red tulip top with sky denim jeans and light blue sandals. She introduced herself as Ms Bird. She asked Jewel to introduce herself. After she was done her teacher assigned her a buddy who would help her complete her incomplete work and show her around the school. Her buddy was Mia. Jewel was so happy because she got her friend as her buddy. Then, to spoil her happiness, there came Ms Arrogant, the girl who was at the train station. Ms Bird scolded her as she was very late but the missy scowled at her. Ms Bird told that the girl was new to this school. She assigned her a buddy too. Her buddy was Ava. Oh no! That was her friend.

After a good morning, Jewel sat down with her friends and Lucy, the mean girl. She bragged about herself the whole day. Finally it was time to go home. Her mother asked about her day and Jewel told what happened at school. Her mother made friends with their neighbours. Jewel quickly did her homework and watched TV. She had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Her father was coming home late that day. After a delicious meal she had chocolate pudding for dinner.

After a month of nice school days, Jewel was famous in her class for discipline and other good things, while Lucy was the most hated. No one liked her because of her mean behavior. She had no one as her friend. One day when Ms Bird sent Jewel to the music room to get something which she had forgotten there she saw Lucy crying in the dark. Jewel went to her and asked that why was she crying. Lucy replied, “I have no friends. I always feel left out in everything.” Jewel told her that this was due to her mean behavior. “But I wasn’t trying to be mean. I just wanted everyone to like me’ so I started praising myself,” said Lucy. “But you shouldn’t do that. Give a chance to yourself to be worthy to others. You should not be mean to other people.” said Jewel. “Ok! I promise I won’t do that again.” said Lucy. Then Jewel and Lucy became best friends and, Lucy understood the meaning of friendship and being polite and made many good friends like Jewel in her life.