Written by Finn Rotert (age 7)
My name is Jack and I go to South Washington school. I’m in sixth grade. There’s a boy in my class named Jeff and he does troublemaker stuff. Sometimes he says bad words and pinches people in class. He even says he smokes cigarettes on the bus. But Jeff is really nice to me. He never hurts me or calls me names. I decided to try to be friends with him. He always says good boy to me in class and I like that, but he pats me on the head and I don’t really like that. He says bad boy to other people and then punches their belly. He tries to tackle other kids on the playground. One time he tried to tackle me and I dragged him because he wasn’t strong enough because I play real football. I thought he could fix his bad behavior.
There’s one girl that is picked on the most by Jeff. Her name is Emily. She gets picked on because he is mean to other people, and Emily, she’s so nice to other people, especially Axel. Jeff picks on Axel too. One time Jeff punched her in the face and her nose was bleeding. Jeff calls her fat sometimes.
I said, “Can you please stop, Jeff because I’m your friend.” But he told me no.
Jeff pushed Emily down the stairs and almost broke her face. She hit her eye on the hard concrete stairs. She screamed and cried and an ambulance came. I ran right back upstairs because I was so scared it was going to happen to me. That’s when I decided to stop being friends with Jeff.
He told me, “Stop being mean, I’m your friend.”
I said, “This isn’t worth it.”
I wish I had never decided to be friends with Jeff.
FRIENDS | Original artwork by FINN ROTERT (age 7)
.
Finn Rotert is a second-grade student with a love for reading graphic novels and playing tackle football. Last Kids on Earth and Hilo are two of his favorites. This is his third time being published. He has other work in Nimblewitlit and Litkids Magazine. He loves his dogs Ophelia and Otis and loves playing with Nerf guns.