A shy Cajun kid from Louisiana has trouble fitting in.
Got the idea for this story after watching a movie. Enjoy! :)
I first saw him in class. I don't think I will ever get over the sight of him, sitting in the back of the room, looking dejected.
The kid's name was Billy. Billy Bouchet. He was a transfer student to our school; he came to our school just this last year from Louisiana. He came to flee the devastation of Hurricane Katrina; one only wonders what hell he must have experienced to render him so quiet.
Billy was a social reject from the start: he had no friends. He was hopelessly alone.
He also had special needs. He had serious learning disabilities, and there was talk circulating 'round that he may have been born retarded.
Billy was fourteen, but looked closer to nine. He was as skinny as a pole, scrawny, with a shock of wild black hair spilling into his dark, pain-filled eyes. He hardly said a word, he was that shy. When he did speak, he had a lisp attached to his Cajun-accented voice.
I would see Billy sitting in class, and my heart would break. I felt sorry for him. I wanted to be his friend, but I was one of the "popular crowd". If my friends knew I wanted to befriend a "loser" like Billy Bouchet, they would laugh me right out of school.
I couldn't help my feelings when I would see some of the sports jocks purposely putting their long, muscular legs out, so Billy could fall over them and land, hard, onto the ground in a rush of air. I felt bad for him, and my eyes would fill with tears when I'd hear the older kids laughing like donkeys at the hapless Billy Bouchet. They would call him names: "Ragin' Cajun", "Frenchie", and worse. Much worse.
He probably went through this countless times during a given day; there was no telling what this may have done to his psyche.
How sad, how kids treat those "different". An excellent beginning to a new story; I can't wait to see how this will develop. As your writing has--BRAVA!
Pengey Penguin takes us on a memorable journey where an unlikely character, twists of fate, and minor miracles help him and his rag-tag Army of little fury animals save Christmas.325 page read to me 4-8 - 9 up reads very quickly.
This book was written for children to stress the importance of being able to choose who gets to hug or touch them and being able to say NO if they don't want to be hugged or touched.
