A New Friend

By Anonymous (not verified), 16 March, 2026
A New Friend I looked sorrowfully at the lunch table next to mine. Most called it the “loser table”, mainly because all the unpopular kids sat there. Even though I was only in the second grade, there was already the popular group and well . . . the not-so-popular group. As I glared at the table while opening my lunch, a girl caught my eye. She was Sara Little. Sara sure fit her name. She was very small for her age. She always ate by herself and had practically no friends. When I looked at her a second time, I realized that she didn’t have a lunch. Her head was hanging down, but when she looked up, it looked like she would burst into tears at any minute. Her eyes were all red. I thought about going over to her and giving her my lunch since I had spare change to buy another. I thought some more and finally jumped out of my seat and started to approach her. She looked up and said, “Hi.” I responded by saying hi back. There was a long pause. I finally asked her if she wanted my lunch. There was another pause. “Sure,” she said. I turned around and walked back to my table. As I sat down, all the rest of the girls started asking me why I gave my lunch to that loser Sara Little? I didn’t respond. I was thinking about what I had done and how good it made me feel, even though all my friends thought that I was now under some “geek curse”. Later on that night when the whole incident was put to the back of my head, the doorbell rang. My mom came to the door and told me that it was for me. I came to the hallway and saw that it was Sara and her mom. Sara thanked me for the lunch and her mom thanked me for being so generous. It was funny, but Sara didn’t look so little anymore, and her eyes were really shining. Ever since then Sara Little and I have been best friends. Giving my lunch to her that day made me a more giving person even though it was very hard. I’m so glad I walked across the lunchroom that day.
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Interactive Rubric

Narrative Rubric

Name:

Title:

Ideas

The writing . . .

  • focuses on a specific experience or time in the writer’s life.
  • uses sensory details and dialogue to show rather than tell.
  • makes the reader want to know what happens next.

Organization

  • pulls the reader into the story.
  • includes a beginning, a middle, and an ending.
  • gives the events in an order that is easy to follow.

Voice

  • shows the writer’s personality.
  • sounds honest and engaging.

Word Choice

  • contains specific nouns, vivid verbs, and colorful modifiers.

Sentence Fluency

  • flows smoothly from one idea to the next.
  • uses a variety of sentence lengths and beginnings.

Conventions

  • uses correct punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar.
  • uses the format provided by the teacher or follows another effective design.

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