Cole hung his head, letting his hair curtain his face. It was one of those days, you know, the ones where you feel like the entire universe is conspiring against you? This morning, his teacher had glared at him when he passed back a test with a fat red D stamped on top. He and his sister weren’t on speaking terms. His shirt had been inside-out until 10:30, when he blushed a deep vermillion and had to change in the bathroom. He was resisting a strong urge to bang his forehead on the cheerfully orange locker in front of him.
Wearily, Cole trudged into Math, feeling like he had been deprived of sleep for the last week. He reached under his desks to store his binders away, only to feel something round and plastic-covered. Slowly, Cole closed his fingers around the four rotund objects and pulled them toward his chest. A quartet of colorful happy faces beamed up at him.
Cole hesitantly smiled back, then looked up to see a human smile from his friends across the room. He smiled back, this time from ear to ear.