Josh
Term 3. Week 1. Friday.

Josh stared at his laptop which sat open on the desk, his eyes wide and heart beating like the flapping wings of a humming bird. The video had stopped playing on the screen but not in Josh’s brain. Over and over again images repeated in his mind of smiling children and adults all around the world – smiling because someone, a stranger, had done a thing so kind and selfless and unexpected that they were overcome with gratitude and joy.

He forced down a swallow, fingers digging into his thighs, and blinked, a strange emptiness burning in his belly.

Wow.

There were so many amazing humans making big differences every single day. People donating money or goods to charity, rescuing animals in need, delivering food to communities – even spending time with elderly people and taking them shopping. Why had he never done anything kind like this before?

He was kind, wasn’t he?

Josh took in a deep breath, and then bent and straightened his fingers over and over, trying to loosen them. Mr Parham’s voice grew louder, and he looked up.

‘Okay, hopefully this news bulletin has given you all something to think about, even maybe inspired you to help out here in the classroom,’ the teacher said, hopefully, standing in front of the whiteboard, red marker wiggling between his chunky fingers.

Mr Parham had only been Josh’s year five teacher for a week when Josh worked out that red was his favourite marker pen colour. And now at the start of term three, he knew it was Mr Parham’s favourite colour overall. The teacher wrote in red way more often than blue or black. Josh liked red but if he were the teacher, he’d use black the most. He liked the colour black best. And dark grey second. Silver third. Red was his neighbour Andrew’s favourite colour and so, for their own club, Andrew had designed a cool logo that had black and red swirls intertwining – their two favourite colours together.

Josh tensed his fingers again. He missed that club. He missed hanging out with Andrew since Andrew won a scholarship and moved to a high school in a different town at the start of the year…

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