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On the first day of school, Eleanor found her desk. She leaned her crutches against it and sat down. She nervously looked at the girl next to her.
“Oh no,” the girl said. “I have to sit next to a cripple.”
Ms. Hall rushed over. She gave the girl a stern look. “We do not use that word in my classroom,” she said
“Fine,” the girl said. “Sorry.”
Ms. Hall pointed to Eleanor. “Tell her that.”
The girl looked over at Eleanor. “Sorry.”
“It-it’s okay. Just don’t say that again.”
“Are you okay?” Ms. Hall asked.
“Yeah,” Eleanor said. “I’m used to it.”
Ms. Hall greeted the class and then told everyone to talk to the person next to them and tell them something about themselves.
Eleanor turned to the girl. “Hi, I’m Eleanor.”
“Hi,” the girl said. “I’m Lesily.”
“My favorite thing to do is ride horses,” Eleanor said.
“You ride horses,” the girl said. “I find that kind of hard to believe since you can't even walk.”
“Well I do, ride horses, at Pine Hollow, and I can walk with crutches,” Eleanor said. "One of my friends, at the stable, can't walk at all and he can still ride horses."
“I’m not even going to talk to you anymore, since you are lying.”
Later that morning. Ms. Halls talked to the class about being nice to each other. “You know that saying – sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me – that’s just not true. Words hurt a lot.”
Eleanor had never heard that saying before. It seemed odd to her. It did not make sense that a saying that was so untrue would exist.
She opened her notebook to a new page. She wrote the saying down and then tore the page out. She folded it up and put it in her pocket.
After school, Eleanor was happy to be home. “How was school?” her father asked.
“It was okay. May I use your computer?”
“Is it for school?”
“Yes.”
“Then yes.”
Eleanor sat at the computer. She went online. She pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket. She typed the saying into the search box. She clicked search, and then clicked on the first thing to come up.
The page was just what she wanted to find. What it said made much more sense than what Ms. Halls had said.
The next day, Eleanor sat down next to Lesily and turned to her. “It’s no use saying anything mean today. I have decided that sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.”
Lesily gave her a weird look and turned away.
At lunch that day, Eleanor sat down across from Maxine. She glanced at the big group of girls at the table in front of her. Lesily went up to them.
“No,” one of the girls said. “You can’t sit with us today either. You’re too fat.”
Lesily started to cry, but then looked up. “Well, sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me.”
“Hey Lesily,” Eleanor called. “You can sit over here.”
Lesily sat down next to Eleanor. “I’m sorry,” she said.
“I forgive you," Eleanor said. She turned to Maxine. "Maxi, this is Lesily. She's in my class. Lesily, this is my friend Maxi, from Pine Hollow, she's only one grade below us."