in a small town of California, there lives a little girl with her mother and father, Milly was her name. in the morning, Milly is playing on her swing, her mother attends to her flower garden, and her father mowing the lawn. while Milly was swinging back and forth, she saw a big lizard on top of the tree of her swing.

"mommy, daddy look, a big lizard is on top of the tree" she said while pointing to the big lizard.

"oh, that is called a chameleon, sweety" after her mother said that, the chameleon disappears.

"mommy! mommy look, the big lizard turn invinsible." after she said that, her mother let out a light chuckle.

"no Milly, the chameleon is using what is called camouflage. it turns its skin to the environment around it."

after awhile, her father called her after putting away his garden shears.

"Milly! go inside and get ready, it's time to go to your first day of school."

After that, her cute little smile slowly faded.

“hey, look at me. You are a smart little girl, so don’t worry, ok?” she says while patting her little girl’s head.

“y-yes mommy, I’m going to learn and become smart”

“that’s my girl.” After that, she kissed her forehead. Milly runs inside the house and starts getting ready. She takes a shower, brushed her teeth with her favorite pink hippo toothbrush, and wears her favorite little blue dress. She went down the stairs and goes inside of her dad’s car.

“I’m going mommy, bye.” she said while waving to her mother. After an 8 minute drive, they arrive at her kindergarten. She gets off the car and wave to her father.

“bye sweety, have fun on your first day, and be good okay?”

Okay daddy, I’ll be good, bye!” after their exchange of goodbyes, her father leaves for work. She turns around and sees that her school was bigger than the picture that her mother showed her, it almost made her anxious. Then she tries to calm down, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and starts walking inside her new school. When she is inside, she was shocked because of how pretty and colourful the inside is. She was awestruck, like she feels in another world. As she was feeling the moment, she bumps into another girl and accidentally drops her bow tie.

“oof! Watch it. Oh no, my bowtie is now dirty.”

“o-oh no, I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking becau-“

“then watch where your going next time!” without anymore words, the blonde girl leaves. When she is trying to process the situation, a teacher comes to her to take her to class. After she was seated, a girl with brown hair seats next to her.

“hello, my name is Sarah, nice to meet you.” She said while lending out her hand for a handshake.

“o-oh, my name is Milly, nice to meet you too.” She said while giving her a handshake.

“are you okay? why are you sad?” she asks sincerely.

“well, there’s this girl that I accidentally bumped, I wanted to apologize but she was angry and walked away. I hope I can see her again.”

“then, let me help you if we see her, maybe she was late herself and don’t have time to talk to you.” After talking to her new friend Sarah, Milly offers to play house with her. After awhile, the teacher group up the children and teach them math.

“alright children, today we are going to learn about math, math is a lesson about numbers. Now, can anyone tell me what is 1+1?” she waited for a student to answer

“well, if nobody doesn’t want to answer, then I’ll just pick one of you. How about…you, with the blue dress.” The teacher said pointing at Milly.

“umm…is the answer 11?” the other children started laughing at her.

“now children, it is not nice to laugh at your friend.” She said before looking to Milly.

“Milly, I appreciate that you answered my question, but the right answer is 2. You are not wrong, it’s just that you are, umm…”

“IT’S BECAUSE SHE’S STUPID!” yelled a girl from the middle of the room. Milly was shocked because the one who yelled was the blonde girl from earlier.

“what!? n-no I’m not.” She said before her eyes began to water

“yeaah, because she bumped me, and made me drop my favourite pink bow, maybe that’s because she doesn’t know where to look, that’s why she is stupid.” Everybody in the class starts pointing and laughing at Milly, except for Sarah.

“hey you, leave her alone! She bumped into you because she was distracted, it was an accident.”

“Silly Milly, Silly Milly, Silly Milly.” Chanted the kids in the classroom. While everything was out of hand, the teacher began to blow her whistle, then the room became silent.

“now everyone, I want to remind you that it is not good to mock another, it’ll only make them feel bad, am I understood?”

“yes, miss.” The children answered unanimously. Then the teacher looked at the direction of the blonde girl.

“and you Samantha, go to the timeout corner.”

“tsk, whatever.” She said while standing up, wailing her arms as she walks. After that, Sarah checks up on Milly, hanging her head down to hide her crying.

“Milly, are you okay?” Milly responded with a weak nod, while trying to dry her tears.

“jeez, that girl is a jerk! If I saw her stupid face again, I’m gonna teach her a lesson.” Said Sarah while cracking her knuckles. After a long day of school, the day has ended. as she waits for her dad, she saw Samantha going outside passing her, then looks back sticking her tongue out to mock her. Before Milly’s tears started to come out, Sarah tapped her on the shoulder.

“hey Milly, are you waiting for your dad?”

“huh? Oh yeah, he should be here any minute” Milly replied before looking down.

“hey, don’t listen to what that jerk says. You’ve made a mistake, so what? math is hard anyways, bugs are way cooler.” Milly looked to her direction with a bit of disgust. Then, they hear a honk from a car horn.

“it’s my dad, see you tomorrow Milly.” Sarah waved goodbye to her, and Milly waved back, before going back to frowning. After a while, Milly’s dad arrive at school, and Milly went straight in to the car. Her dad tried to ask how was her day, she didn’t utter a single word. Feeling that his daughter was not in the mood, he only drives in silent to home. When they got back and Milly comes out of the car, she saw mom opening the front door.

“welcome back honey, how was your first day?” she said with a smile. Milly didn’t respond, and walks through her. When her mom wants to ask, her dad stops her and shakes his head. When mom checks in to her room, Milly hid herself under her blankets, with her stuff toys guarding around it.

“honey, are you okay?” she responds with a shaking motion.

“did something happened at school?” she responds with a nod.

“do you…want to talk about it?” Milly pauses, then responds with a headshake.

“well, at least can you come eat dinner later, you don’t want to sleep with an empty stomach.” Milly responds with a nod.

At dinner time, Milly walks down the stairs with a sad look on her face, sitting down to the dining table. Non was speaking at the table, especially Milly who usually talks about her little adventures. After they finished, Milly goes straight to her room, after saying goodnight to her parents. In bed, Milly remembers her classmate’s chanting, making her hard to sleep. then, a knocking sound came from her door, before revealing her mother, with some snacks in her hand.

“hey honey, I brought some treats with me, I thought you might like it.” Milly didn’t respond.

“Milly, can you tell me what’s going on? Mommy’s worried about you. Mommy will try to help, I promise.” Milly starts shedding a tear.”

“sniff…I was bullied at school. Sniff…sniff…someone named Samantha was calling me SILLY MILLY because, sniff…because I accidentally bumped into her.” Milly started crying even more. Her mother tried to calm her with snacks. After she calms down a little, she continued.

“sniff…munch…munch…and everybody else starts calling me that, too.” While Milly was chewing while crying, her mom put her hand on her head, and caresses her hair.

“Milly, I want you to listen to mommy’s words, you are not Silly, nor dumb. You just…learn something differently, all of people are, even mommy.” She led out a chuckle.

“I remember when your grandma found a spider in the bathroom, she was so scared she almost wreck the bathroom apart. Luckily mommy has thought fast enough to get rid of the spider with a cup and paper. Your grandma wanted to kill it, but mommy thought of another way and it was solved.”

“sniff…how was grandma after that?” asked Milly.

“she calmed down and said good thing you showed up, I thought it was going to lay eggs in my hair.” Milly then chuckled weakly.

“there’s that cute little smile.” Her mother leaned in and kisses her forehead.

“now get some sleep, I know tomorrow will be better. Goodnight, mommy loves you.”

“goodnight mommy, I love you too.” With Milly feeling a bit better, she sleeps peacefully. Tomorrow at school, recess time, Milly went to meet up with Sarah at her favorite bug place.

“hey Milly, check out this bug. It’s a rhinoceros beetle, look at it’s horn. Oh, and a caterpillar, look at it’s spiky body.”

“they look funny, what can they do?” Milly asked.

“they can do really cool stuff, like the rhinoceros beetle ca lift things much heavier than it. And for the caterpillar, it has spikes on it’s body. It’s not really spikes, but still don’t touch it, you’ll feel itchy after. Oh and this-“ a scream interrupted Sarah mid talk. When they found the source of the scream, they saw Samantha cornered by a dog, barking loud and aggressively. Samantha pleads for help, but the other kids doesn’t dare to try help her.

“oh no! Samantha’s in danger, what should we” she saw Milly Looked at something. When she saw what Milly was looking, there was a hose left by the gardener, placed near the dog.

“I think I know what you’re planning, I’ll follow your lead.” Knowing Sarah understands the plan, Milly slowly Shimmies to the faucet attached to the hose. The dog slowly inches toward Samantha, readying itself to pounce her. Without a second thought, Sarah grabbed a pile of dirt, and threw it to the dog.

“NOW MILLY!” Milly turns the faucet, making it spray water through the hose. The dog, surprise and drenched, runs away yelping to the gardener. After turning the faucet off, Milly heads toward the shocked Samantha, accompanied with Sarah.

“Samantha, are you okay? are you hurt?” Milly asked.

Then Samantha whimpers whilst covering her face.

“ sniff…sniff…hueeee-“

“w-what’s the matter? The doggy is not here anymore.”

“I was being a jerk to you, a-and I called you SILLY, I-I-I’m sooo sorry.” She said while wiping her tears.

“yeah, what you did to Milly was not nice, and you got what you deserve. But it’s up to Milly to forgive you.” Said Sarah.

“sniff…Milly, I’m really REALLY sorry, please forgive meeee.”

“it’s okay, Samantha, you don’t have to apologize, I already forgive you yesterday.”

“sniff…I don’t deserve a friend like you.”

“everyone deserves a good friend, even you.”

Samantha started to cry again after Milly said that.

“oh man.” Sarah face palms, Milly trying to calm Samantha down, but at the end of it all, they laughed it all together. When school day ends, Milly waits for her dad, with a gleeful smile on her face. When her dad arrived, he saw her daughter’s smile, and Milly hoped in to the car.

“hey, sweetie, how was your d-.” he looks at his daughter, who falls asleep after entering the car, whilst holding a pink bowtie on her hand. He smiles, starts the car and drive home.