It was a warm and sunny day, with birds singing a lovely morning tune. 

The wind whistled in Claire’s ears as she walked to school with her best friend Layla.     They were just about to round the corner to school when Layla asked, 

          “You know what I heard our friend Eddie say yesterday?”

       “What?” Claire asked with a curious look on her face. 

         “He said that you had a funny nose!” Layla answered. 

              Claire started to grow a heavy frown. 

      “My nose?” Claire asked, touching it with both hands.  

    Suddenly, Claire wanted to hide her nose far, far away.

As the girls entered class, 

their teacher’s booming voice echoed off the walls. 

“Good morning, Students!” she said, “You will be happy to hear we have a new student joining us today! Please welcome Bella!"

As the new student stepped into the room, the class went into a ruckus. “She is so pretty!” Layla exclaimed. Claire could see that Layla was right, and with a frown tugging down her face, she thought. “I bet Eddie wouldn’t say she has a funny nose…”

Once it was time to play outside, Claire decided to sit on the swings. She watched her friends Eddie and Leah as they called out to Bella.           “Hey!” Eddie shouted. “Want to play tag with us?” 

           Bella smiled and shouted back, “Sure!” 

              Claire could not believe it!

“Eddie never asks me to play tag! It must be because he thinks my    nose is funny!” Claire thought and thought. 

There had to be something she could do.

When Claire went home from school that night, she rushed through her room, trying to find something that might help her. She tried on a big pair of sunglasses, thinking that they would help distract people from her nose.

As she walked into school the next day, Claire quickly realized  she had another problem now. 

          She could hardly see with those sunglasses on!

When she arrived in class, her teacher smiled at her and shook her head. “Now, Claire, how are you going to enjoy today’s lesson if you are wearing sunglasses?” she asked. Claire plopped the sunglasses down and gave a huff. “This just isn’t going to work.” She thought, “I’ll have to find something else.”

That night, when Claire returned home from school, she began to search her room again. 

When she opened her closet, she found a winter hoodie. 

“Maybe this could work?” She said.