At Sunshine Elementary School, there were once two girls named Anna and Emily. They were best friends for as long as they could remember. They both liked cakes, pink skirts, and rainbow unicorns. They were a perfect match.

    Anna and Emily always played together at recess. Every day, they played with a rainbow teddy bear that they agreed belonged to both of them. They always had so much fun with the teddy bear. They could play "family" or even pretend to be fairies!    

(Exposition)

We're BFFs!

    But one day, Emily brought over a new girl named Janet during recess. Emily and Janet told jokes to each other and laughed a lot. Anna didn't like this very much. Emily didn't talk to her as much as before. Anna began to dislike Janet more and more.

    Then, one afternoon, Anna saw Emily give their rainbow teddy bear to Janet to play with. Anna grew very angry. She stomped over to Janet and Emily with a red face. She grabbed the teddy bear and pushed Janet to the floor.

    "That's my teddy bear!" Anna shouted. "You can't touch that!"

    Emily pulled the teddy bear out from Anna's arms.

    "You can't do that to my new friend!" Emily yelled. "It is our teddy bear! We shouldn't be friends anymore!"

    "Fine!" Anna yelled back. "I can't stand being your friend anyway!"

(Conflict Introduced)

    Anna ran away towards the swings. Hot tears fell from her eyes.

    I never knew Emily could be so mean, Anna thought. I don't know how I could be friends with a person like that.

    Anna sat on the swings all alone. As she watched her classmates laugh and play together, she began to grow sad. She had no friends left to play with. 

    When school was over, Anna got off the bus and walked home by herself. As she turned onto her street, she saw three of her neighbors outside in the front yard. They were Mrs. Lee, Mr. Smith, and Ms. Chavos.

I'm all alone. . . 

    Anna reached Mrs. Lee's house first. Mrs. Lee noticed the frown on Anna's face. She asked Anna what was wrong.

    "Emily is a terrible person. She said she didn't want to be my friend anymore for no reason," Anna said.

    Mrs. Lee patted Anna on the back. She asked, "Are you sure you didn't do something that made her stop being your friend?"

    Anna stopped to think about this. She tried to think of what made Emily get mad.

    Mrs. Lee told Anna that she was a Buddhist. This meant she believed that the actions she took made certain things happen (Sayadaw). This is called karma (Sayadaw). People could choose between doing good and bad things. The only reason Mrs. Lee felt good and happy at that moment was because she made good choices earlier ("What is Karma in Buddhism?").

(Rising Action 1)

Maybe you made her mad.

    "How about your day at school?" asked Ms. Lee. "Why are you feeling sad right now?"

    Anna was able to understand. "It was because I chose to leave Emily and sit alone on the swings."

    "That is right!" Ms. Lee smiled. "Now you must look for a way to do the right actions moving forward. I follow a list of steps called the Eightfold Path to help me do this (Mindworks Team). I must speak only nice words about other people and stop doing things that hurt them (Mindworks Team). By doing this, I can make sure I am also happy later on."

    Anna thought about this quietly in her head. She did push Janet to the floor. It didn't seem to be the right thing to do.

Maybe it was my fault.

(Rising Action 2)

        Anna thanked Mrs. Lee. She knew that Mrs. Lee's kind help would be rewarding later on. She continued to walk down the street until she saw Mr. Smith. He was picking up trash that fell on his neighbor's yard.

    "Hello, Mr. Smith," Anna said. "Why are you cleaning for your neighbor? He is always grumpy and never does that for you."

    "I just wanted to do it for him since he is sick right now," Mr. Smith replied. 

    Anna was confused. She would never do that for Janet because she didn't like her. Anna asked Mr. Smith why he was being so kind.

    "I am a Christian," Mr. Smith said. "I believe that I should love other people and treat them like how I would like to be treated ("Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself"). That means I should help everyone if they are having problems, even people I don't like as much." 

Just picking up trash!

What are you doing?

    Mr. Smith went on to tell her about a man named Jesus. Jesus was kind to everyone (Ponio). He helped a sick man who did not have money to pay him (Forton). He even ate dinner with a man who went to prison when other people did not want to (Ponio). Jesus made so many people happy, so Christians like Mr. Smith wanted to do good like him and saw Jesus as the son of God (Smith 216). God was someone you couldn't see or touch. He didn't live on Earth but he had the power to do anything. He was also very nice to people.

    Anna understood Mr. Smith now. She felt bad for what she did to Janet. She would not want someone else to push her down like that. Anna began to see that she might have been wrong after all.

     Anna kept walking. She wanted to tell Emily that she was sorry, but she was afraid. She was scared of talking to Emily alone. 

    Anna soon met Ms. Chavos in her front yard. Ms. Chavos waved at her when she saw Anna's scared face.

    "What's wrong, Anna?" Ms. Chavos asked. "You look a little scared."

    Anna began to cry. "I want to try to be friends with someone again but I don't think I can do it."

    "Why not?" said Ms. Chavos. "You do not have to be afraid. You will never be alone when you need to do scary things."

(Rising Action 3)

You're never alone!

Really?

    "What do you mean?" asked Anna. 

    Ms. Chavos held Anna's hand. She told Anna that she was part of a group of people called the Cherokee. The Cherokee believed that there were spirits of family members who died that protected them ("Religious and Ceremonial Life"). A spirit was something that could not be seen but it was inside everything. It gave things energy when they were alive. A tree had one. A human also had one. Spirits were very important to the Cherokee. They came to help people feel safe and do things they were afraid of doing ("Religious and Ceremonial Life").

     "I look up to my grandparents a lot," said Ms. Chavos. "I remember the things they did for me to live. I follow them to make the right choices (Smith 220)." 

    Ms. Chavos brought Anna into her backyard. She put out food and asked the family spirits to help Anna ("Religious and Ceremonial Life"). Anna felt much better.

    Anna went home. She sat on her bed and thought about what she learned. Mrs. Lee helped Anna see that she started the fight by pushing Janet. Mr. Smith showed her she should be kind to everyone. Ms. Chavos helped her become brave like her family members. 

    Anna saw that they all taught her how to be a good human and friend. They helped her see what was wrong and right. Anna now felt ready to talk to Emily. Tomorrow was going to be the big day.