I can vividly recall my feeling of agitation and annoyance as me and my friends desperately tried to get away from our shadow of a classmate, LiAnn.

“Guys, stop! Wait up for me!” shouted LiAnn. She desperately tried to keep up with us as the four of us continued to quickly walk away.

“What’s wrong with her? Why does she keep following us?” I whispered to my extremely tall friend Rachel.

“I really don’t know,” she replied, seeming agitated.

My sister, Ashley,  who was standing on Rachel’s right, appeared in my view as she turned to face the entire group. “Can y’all even remember how long she’s been following us for? It’s got to be years now, right?” Ashley inquired.

“I’d say about two years now.” I answered her, “Since second grade, the year Rachel started coming to school here.” Both Rachel and my sister seemed satisfied by this answer and turned towards each other, beginning to plan how we could somehow outmaneuver LiAnn to keep her from following us.

As I turned to see if LiAnn was still following us, (she was, of course, but was a good amount of distance away) I realized that the fourth member of our friend group, Joneé, wasn’t speaking much to us today. She seemed to be thinking hard about something, and I couldn’t help but wonder what thought could be preventing her from contributing to our conversation.

“Joneé, is something wrong?” I gently asked her, trying not to seem nosy. “If it’s something personal, you don’t have to tell me.”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that!” she quickly answered, turning her head in my direction. “I’ve just been thinking about LiAnn and her situation lately. I’ve also been wondering why she’s been following us for so long, just as y’all have, but from a different angle.”

“What exactly do you mean?” I asked, slightly confused.

“I’ve tried to put myself in LiAnn’s shoes.” Joneé clarified, “and I think I’ve come up with a reason to why she follows us so much.”

I swallowed hard, both nervous and anxious to here Joneé’s answer. But is this really a surprise? I do consider Joneé to be the smartest and most thoughtful person in our friend group. She is the kind of person to take her time to see all sides of a situation before coming to a conclusion and developing an answer.

“What if… what if LiAnn is just looking for a friend?”

A… friend? Is the answer really that simple? That all LiAnn is looking for is a friend?

Rachel’s scoffing response jolted me from my thoughts, “A friend? Really? You think that anyone would want to be friends with someone as weird and creepy as LiAnn?!”

Rachel and Ashley must have overheard what Joneé and I were talking about and came over to us while I was lost in my own thoughts. After hearing Rachel’s remark, I looked at Joneé; her head was pointed at the ground and her dismal expression illustrated that she was hurt to hear her reasoning put down so easily by one of her closest friends. I glanced at Ashley whose eyes were wide with shock at Rachel’s response, though the rest of her face did not portray the same emotion. Just as I thought Ashley was about to speak out against what Rachel said, she seemed to second guess herself and, once again, sided with Rachel.

Looking past Joneé, I saw LiAnn jogging away from us. That’s weird. I thought, Why would LiAnn run away from us instead of continuing to follow us like she normally does?

At that moment, our teachers blew their whistles which was the signal for our classes to line up on the blacktop so the teachers could take a head count and lead us back inside for our afternoon classes. I tried to look for LiAnn in line, but I couldn’t find her.

When we got back inside of our classrooms, my teacher, Mrs. Carerra, told the students that we could have a short bathroom break before we started class. Ashley, Rachel, and Joneé left, but I didn’t need to go to the bathroom so I stayed behind.

As I headed towards my desk, I saw that LiAnn was sitting at her desk with her head down. What’s going on over there? I looked closer and then noticed that her body was silently shaking. Oh! She’s crying! I’ve got to do something to help her! Other classmates of mine, Collin and Jenna, were trying their best to comfort her, but to no avail. I quickly jogged to the back of the classroom and grabbed a tissue. I brought it over to LiAnn and held it out to her. She looked up and I saw that her face had turned red and she had large tears streaming down her face.

“Thank you,” she said, as she gently grabbed the tissue from my hand and used it to wipe her tears and blow her nose.

“Can you tell me why you’re crying? What happened?” I asked her, already knowing the answer. This must have to do with why she was running away from us after Rachel’s offensive comment.

“I… I heard what Rachel said about me during recess.” LiAnn stammered. “How could she say that about me?! That I’m weird and creepy and that no one will ever be my friend?!” She put her head back down on her desk and began to sob again.

“I’m so sorry, LiAnn,” I said as tears began to well up in my eyes. “We, no I, should have said something; I should have stood up to Rachel. I know what she said was wrong, but I was caught up in a moment of weakness and realization. I understand now that bullying you for so long was extremely wrong and that I was just blindly following what Rachel was doing. I… I’m so sorry.” I said once again, now crying as well.

I first heard a small giggle coming from in front of me, and then a louder laugh. “Hey, don’t you cry too!” LiAnn said more cheerfully as she sniffled. As I looked up, I could see the genuine gratitude and joy in the once-victimized girl’s face: her eyes shone with thankfulness and her small smile easily portrayed her happiness that someone who was once her enemy was opening up to her.

Just then, Rachel, Ashley, and Joneé walked back into the room. As Rachel saw me talking with LiAnn, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. She did not have time to talk to me about what was going on, however, because our teacher announced that class was about to begin. I gave LiAnn one last, quick smile before heading back to my desk.

Rachel called me over to her, Ashley, and Joneé in the hallway during our next bathroom and water break: “Caroline, can you come with us for a moment?” We walked towards the bathroom and waited until everyone else had exited until Rachel confronted me. “What was happening after recess? Did I see you actually talking and being nice to LiAnn?!”

“Did you see what your words had done to her!” I shouted back. “Your bullying had crossed the line this time!”

“Look,” said Rachel, “if you are going to be LiAnn’s friend now, then you can’t be mine anymore!” She turned and then stormed out of the bathroom, but both Ashley and Joneé stayed behind.

In a state of complete shock, I, once again, began to cry realizing that I was losing one of my closest and best friends. As I cried, Joneé put her hand on my right shoulder and said, “I won’t leave you. I’ll still be your friend. If Rachel doesn’t understand the values of kindness and forgiveness, then she doesn’t deserve to be your friend.” I smiled and wiped away my tears. That’s the Joneé I know and love! Then, Ashley flung her arm over my right shoulder and gave me a side hug. “And don’t forget about me! Do you really think I’d abandon my sister?! No way!”

I laughed and gave her a quick squeeze to show my appreciation. “Thanks, guys. Y’all are the best friends a girl could ever ask for!”

After school ended that day, I walked up to LiAnn and gave her a friendly nudge. “You know,” I began, “I never got an opportunity to ask you a question that I wanted to before.”

“Oh yeah, and what would that be?” she inquired.

“Can we put the past behind us and become friends?”

“Freinds? Us? You… you want to be my friend? Of course we can! That’s all I’ve ever wanted! Oh, thank you!” LiAnn exclaimed as she gave me a hug. “You know what, Caroline? I think you are the most kind person that I’ve ever met. You’ve taken a chance on me and have actively tried to become my friend; I will always thank you for that.”

Kind. That word from LiAnn is one that has always stuck out to me from this event. When I learned about the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in religion class, the Fruit of kindness caught my attention. To others, kindness may seem like the most broad Fruit of the Holy Spirit and that it can be interpreted in many different ways. However, I believe that I finally realized that, while learning about these Fruits, I fully understood what LiAnn was trying to tell me by saying I was kind. She was thanking me for spreading the love and gentleness of Christ to her that she truly needed in her life.