School mornings were always busy. The first sentence I usually heard was, “It's time to rise!” It was Mom's loudest voice, and there was no way I could pretend not to hear it or avoid it.

By then, I couldn't get to the kitchen fast enough. In fact, it was a race between my sister and me. We usually seated ourselves at the same time, sometimes knocking each other out of our places. After breakfast, we all rushed out to the bus stop as we took our lunch bags that contained a sandwich, fruit, and a dessert.

Then, one day, much to my surprise, there was no dessert in my lunch! What could have happened to it? Did Mom forget to make or buy it? Oh, well, I thought. It's only one time, so it's no big deal. But, for the next few days, my lunch contained no dessert! So one day, after school, as soon as I got home, I asked, “Mom! Why haven't you been putting a dessert in my school lunch?”

Mom answered, “Why, Eugene, I have been including a dessert in your lunch. If you're not getting it, then who is?”

So then we thought of my activities, and what I did with my lunch each day. As soon as I arrived at school, I always put my lunch in the classroom closet (储物间) along with all of the other lunches. And that brought us to Carl—the bad boy of the third-grade class. The teacher didn't like him in class and would send him to the closet, where he would spend most of his time each day.

Carl lived in a foster home (寄养家庭). He was loud and somewhat of a thief. He would take just about anything that wasn't fastened (盖好), so he wasn't welcome at school. Mom and I decided that with nothing else to do Carl was probably going through the lunches and eating what he liked.

My mother and I talked about ways to solve this problem.

Another day, Carl asked me if he could come to my house and meet my mother.

Robert and Henry were two friends in the same class. They always played together and went home together. One day, Robert and Henry were going home from school, when, on turning a corner, Robert cried out, “A fight! Let's go and see!”

“No,” said Henry. “Let us go quietly home and not meddle with (插手) this quarrel. We have nothing to do with it and may get into trouble. Also our parents are expecting to have dinner with us together at home and I don't want them to worry about me.”

“You are a coward (懦夫), and afraid to go,” said Robert, and he ran. Henry went straight home and in the afternoon went to school as usual.

But Robert had told all the boys that Henry was a coward, and they laughed at him a great deal. From then on, they looked down upon Henry and didn’t want to play with him together. Henry was sad but he wasn't angry with Robert for his rude behavior, because he learned that true courage is shown most in bearing misunderstanding when it was not deserved, and that he ought to be afraid of nothing but doing wrong. Thus, he just ignored (忽视) the other boys' laughter and continued to go to school and study as well. However, Robert didn't invite Henry to go home with him anymore. Instead, he had some other boys who also thought Henry was a coward. Everyday after school, they didn't go home directly but went to the river or somewhere to play games and had a lot of fun.

A few days later, Robert was bathing with his new friends in a river, and got out of his depth. He struggled, and screamed for help, but all in vain. The boys who had called Henry a coward got out of the water as fast as they could, but they did not even try to help him.

I wasn’t the most popular kid in my freshman year, not into fashion, and preferred reading the books about sports. As a result, I had no close friends, mostly keeping to myself with my head buried in a book, which is why I was so surprised when Ashley and I became friends the summer before sophomore (大二) year.

Ashley was very different from me. She was outspoken and fashionable. She listened to the bands I had never heard of and was very artistic. These were qualities I knew nothing about. We had always been in the same classes throughout school, but had never really talked much.

During summer schools we were both taking classes in hopes of graduating early. The teacher paired us up on an assignment (任务). Ashley seemed unwilling to work with me at first, but she gave in, I imagine, because none of her “cool” friends were in the class. We met at the library to work on the project and really hit it off. We sat by each other the rest of the summer and when classes ended, we continued to hang out.

I looked up to Ashley; she was all of the things I thought I wanted to be. I began listening to the music she listened to, wearing the clothes she wore. I started watching the TV programs Ashley watched. When we started school again, Ashley introduced me to her group of friends. Finally I fit in. I followed them around, laughing when they told jokes, agreeing when they had opinions.

One day, I overheard their talk in the school canteen (食堂). “She’s such a loser,” one girl said. “I know, Ashley. She just follows you around trying to be you. She copies you; she doesn’t have a personality of her own, ” another girl added.

Then Ashley replied, “I know, I wish she would leave us alone. We were in summer school together and now she thinks we’re best friends or something. ”