One day, there was a boy named Mike. He was as normal as you. Mike had friends, had fun on the weekend, but had some bad days. This bad day started on the first day of his 8th grade year.

Mike is getting ready for his first day of 8th grade. His hair combed well and his clothes ironed. After thirty minutes of getting ready he heads to his bus. Mike meets a boy named James and another named Tyler. He tries to act normal and just waves. The boys get on the bus and head towards the best middle school in the country.

Mike starts making a few friends that are different from him, one kid wearing well known brands like Jordan and Aeropostale., then another boy with not so fashionable clothing. Mike was stuck with hand me downs. The boys look and him weird and don’t pay him much attention after they saw what he was wearing. This to mike was not a good way to start out his first day of the 8th grade.

James and Tyler approach him when they get off the bus and ask “what’s wrong?”. Mike simply replies “nothing, I just feel a little tired”. As the day goes on the boy with the new jordans comes up to him and says ”what are you wearing?”. Mike replies “ just some clothes my brother wore last year”. The boy just walks away and laughs. Little did the boy know Mike was not part of a middle class or rich family. Mikes parents could hardly get him school supplies.

As Mike gets off the bus he sees his mother waiting for him. His mother asks him “how was school today?”. Mike says “I need new clothes”. His mom looks at him puzzled and they walk inside the house. Mikes mom asks “Why? You look fine”. Mike quickly talks back and says “my clothes are lame! I need Nikes and some clothes from Pacsun!”. His mom knows that his clothes don’t look that great so she considers it.

The next day, Mike gets a ride to school from his mother. As Mike gets out of the car he sees the boy again, this time with a group of kids wearing the newest shoes, shirts, pants, basically anything you can put on your body. The boys walk up to him and start pushing him calling him “lame” and telling him to go to a store and buy “real clothes”. Mike questions them and asks “then what should I wear”. The boys make a list for him and the prices of everything added up to $400. He was in tears. Mike knew that his mom would not say yes to this. Mike threw away the paper, ditched school, and headed towards the mall that was down the street.

When mike arrived at the front of the mall he then began to ask for money from random people. After 30 minutes of begging he accumulated a total of $40. He headed into the mall and went into pacsun to see what he could get. Mike asked the employee “what can I get with $40”. The employee laughed in his face until he realized mike was serious and replied “you can get a shirt with that”. Mikes day just became even worse! he bought the shirt anyway and he saw something from the corner of his eye. The same group of kids that were picking on him shop lifting. Mike decided not to say anything to the employee and walked up to the boys. He asked “what are you doing?”. The boys replied “if you say anything about this we will get you, you can tag along if you want”. Mike gave in and joined. He took enough clothes to last him at least till Christmas. Mike also took a pair of shoes that the boys grabbed. Mike was as happy as ever, he felt like he was cool. Mike walked out of the mall first without anyone questioning him and told the boys the coast was clear. But it wasn’t. a security guard in a golf cart drives up and gets them. Mike knows he’s in a lot of trouble.

The security guard turns out to be his uncle!. Mike starts to cry and says “they told me to do it”. The group of boys yell and taunt him. Mikes uncle simply takes the clothes away from them and bans them from the mall.

The moral of the story is that you do not have to change yourself to be “normal” or “cool”. Just be you .