The new girl in class

Komal Madan, the new girl, joined our school in Class III. She was from Canada, spoke English with a Canadian accent and towered a good one foot over us. She was very polished, said thank you and please all the time, spoke strangely and looked so different that no one wanted to be her friend. Everybody ignored her.

Then one day, the ball we were playing with fell in the ditch. Everybody was debating whose turn it was to go fetch the ball out of the ditch. Suddenly, Komal just jumped down in to the ditch. She threw the ball to us and then climbed back out. All of us looked at her in awe.

Komal Madan, the ever so proper girl, was quite ordinary after all. She was just like the rest of us would do anything to continue playing ball. This incident changed our attitude towards Komal. After that, we never let her feel new again.