Butterfly by Amie Park (polar express read aloud .TXT) 📕

When I was seven years old, I was excited for school. No, I was more than excited. I was ecstatic. But when I arrived to school for the first time with my friend Alice, I was bombarded with curious eyes. I expected a few stares but this was too much. Almost everyone was glancing at us. Alice held my hand in reassurance.

"It's okay, this is normal. School is like this when someone new comes during the middle of the school year." I squeezed her hand with thanks. Pulling on my bravest smile, I walked through the towering and whispering students until I reached the main office with my 3'2" figure.

"Yuri," Alice pushed the door open as she calls my name and guides me inside.

"Mother, I brought Yuri!" Alice ran to her mother with a wide grin. Jessica, Alice's mother, held her close and glanced at me as I stood by the door. Pulling apart, Jessica walked over to me.

"It's been a while since I've last seen you. How are you?" She brushed her short black hair back into a loose ponytail. I smiled.

"I'm fine. Thank you for your concern Mrs. Rousseau." Jessica Rousseau was the director of the school,
Imperial Academy. Hearing my reply, she nods in approval.

“I’m under the impression that you are a more advanced than those your age. I’ve been told by your mother that you’ve been homeschooled until now. How far have you gone in your studies?” I thought for a while.

“I’ve gone over science and math with professors and scientists. I’ve also went over English, Korean, and Swedish. I know little history based on science and different countries. But if you want, I can take the placement tests.” Alice’s mother laughed. Then she placed a hand on my head a smoothed out my hair.

“I’ll place you in the same class as Alice. Alice should have the same amount of education as you but I’ll be giving you placement tests on different subjects every Friday to see where you are okay?” I nodded excitedly. Alice came up to me and held my hand. Then she glanced at Jessica and went out the door, pulling me with her. Someone motioned Alice over.

"I'll be back Yuri, can you wait for me? It'll take a minute." So I sat on one of the benches nearby outside of the hallway and watched the leaves of the trees flutter by. Then I heard rustling noises.

"Yuri! Over here!" She waved her hand and ran to me.

"My friends want to meet you." As I walked over to the group of girls and boys I noticed that I was the shortest of them all. Pulling on a smile, I waved.

"Hello. My name is Yuri Kim. Nice to meet you." Everyone greeted me and asked me where I went to school.

"Oh, I've been homeschooled. Today is my first day at a school." They laughed and I laughed along with them. Alice was grinning.

"No way! You were really homeschooled? What is it like?" I told them all about my experiences and told them that it was very boring.

"I was always took online classes and my teachers gave me so much homework," I laughed nervously. "It was tiring." They bombarded me with more questions until the warning bell rang.

"Eat with us during lunch Yuri." I was excited to make my first friends. Walking to class with my new friends, they warned me about the boys. From what they told me, the boys were all troublemakers.

"They really like making fun of us. Sometimes they push you and they don't say 'sorry'!"

"Right! The other day, David flipped Ashley's skirt up. She was so embarrassed."

"Yeah! I heard she was crying in the bathroom. I feel so sorry for her. I gave her the homework assignments after school since she didn't come to the rest of class."

"I heard David and the others were making a bet on what color she was wearing. I wonder what they mean..." A girl with her head down was walking towards our class. We all entered at the same time.

"Ashley looks so sad right now. Her head is down and everything. I bet she didn't want to come today!"

"No way, she has to come. I heard her mommy was really stricted!" All the girls were whispering to each other. Alice was already in her seat and she motioned me over. There was an empty seat next to her.

"Yuri, our teacher is assigning seats today. Sit next to me." We started talking about Ashley and how tough she was to come to school today. Our teacher came in and he was young. Looking over his face, I realised that he looked a lot like my dad when he was in college. He tripped and fell.

"Mr. Thomson! Are you okay?" I watched him sit and laugh. Why was he laughing?

Publication Date: 12-27-2012

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