No Friends Around(Noor Wadhah) I joined the private school that my parent's chose for me outside my origin country, where we settled down for a while escaping war incidents inside my country.

When I and my little brother went to my private school in Amman, Jordan, accompanied by Dad, a girl suddenly wanted to fish friends, so she fished me first! "Hello" she said to me. I turned to her and said "Hello". "What's your name?" she asked. "My name is Noor" I answered her. Then she asked me another question, "I'm from Palestine, where are you from?" Then I answered her "I'm from Iraq" and she complimented me by saying "but you are a beautiful girl". I met other girls bigger than me and they were nice. After several minutes the school's buzzer chimed, and I joined the morning queue, waived bye to Dad, and then joined my 5th grade class.

My first friend was Yussor, she was Iraqi too. I was happy to have her by my side. But days uncovered her mean attitudes. She showed a strange friendly feeling when she broke my ruler. I hated it.

I decided to leave Yussor and met Miriam who came from Sweden. Miriam was of Iraqi origin but rarely familiar with Iraqi accent. The teacher asked me to help her out; I proved good marks and activity right from the start and thus was able to give help to others.

Then I did not believe it when Yussor made Miriam turn against me. Was her friendship another ruler to get broken? I asked myself. For days I stayed alone outside class in the school playing yard with tears shed every now and then; and still don't understand how Yussor was happy to see me crying. Sahem, who was a nice boy, comforted me and said "Don't worry, I will play with you." Sahem was a nice Jordanian boy and full of fun.

My mother told me not to let such things trouble me and to keep on studying hard when I told her about my sadness. She told me that my high marks are my weapon and Yussor is jealous of them!

I kept on fighting my feelings of sorrow of being alone. Every time I tried to bring attention, Yussor made fun of it. She always made others hate me and turn against me. I kept studying hard and got first rank among all class. I tried to tell the teacher about Yussor's strange attitudes, but changed my mind, I did not want to make troubles and disturb Mom and Dad. I kept bearing this situation until something really strange happened.

I saw Yussor crying one day. It was final examination of second semester. When I asked other students of the reason for her crying, they told me that boys beat her and accused her of making troubles. I confess that inside my heart I felt justice. But also felt sorry for her. Crying Yussor will not bring back lonely days of staying all by myself in play yards.

The last day of school was a big celebrity sport and open day. I had fun and bought a little baby chicken from the open bazaar. I did not pay attention to anyone, I was all by myself as usual. I had a great time playing with Sahem, though he was a boy, and it is not a familiar attitude for girls to play with boys in the Middle East. Although I had dreamed of Yussor and Miriam apologizing for their attitude, they did not apologize. No one paid attention to my deep longing for friends liking me the way I am and in the end nothing changed, and I stopped thinking whether it was my fault or theirs.

Holiday plans set by Mom and Dad were joyful and I'm excited to see Disneyland next August. But I always draw a sad lip shape when I sit with my family. My Mom came to me one day and said: "I know how you feel. You have all the teachers of your school who love you for your excellent English and marks. Do you know what? I saw your stories on my laptop and I did not believe they were yours. You are a gifted girl, Noor. I will bring you more books and stories to read. Guess what, you will find better friends when you meet Peter Pan, Moby Dick, Harry Potter and other characters from fantasy stories! Read about them Noor, and soon we will meet them in reality when we reach Disneyland.

My mother's eyes were sparkling with hidden tears. I thought I should smile in turn and also I told her that I have my little sister, and she is wonderful as a grown up girlfriend in future, and secretly planned to write a story about the whole thing and post it through this nice site of storystar. With the help of my mother correcting some phrases, I hope it will be suitable to read for you all.

Sometimes, there are no friends around to share your good and bad times. This is happening to me, and I am not a big person to decide how to pass over it, but still there are other means to create friendship and it is not necessarily with humans!

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