Nobody Is Dumb

Kelly didn’t have many friends. She never thought of herself as smart, pretty, or popular. Tests were hard for her and she always knew she had a learning disability. Kelly never told her classmates about her learning disability. Some kids didn’t even know she existed.

Kelly thought she was dumb. That was the case until Mario came to town. Mario was a new student from Italy. He had blonde hair, blue eyes, and an Italian accent. Mario was really smart. Since he was new at Oakwood Middle School, Kelly decided to say hi.

Mario thought it was nice of Kelly to greet him. Instantly, Mario and Kelly became friends. Kelly told Mario about the fact that she had no friends. She also told him about her learning disability and how she was dumb. Immediately Mario said, “Nobody is dumb. Dumb is just a word that doesn’t mean anything.” Kelly thought he was a liar.

The next day, Kelly and Mario had a quiz. Kelly was scared to take it. Mario didn’t care about it. The quiz had two essay questions and no multiple choice questions. When they got their test grades back, Mario got a 98% and Kelly got a 72%. Kelly almost cried.

The next week, Kelly and Mario found out that mid-term exams were coming up. Kelly was really nervous. Mario told her to stay calm. Kelly thought to herself, “How can I stay calm? If I fail, I will have to stay in 7th grade forever!” Mario knew Kelly was bad in math so he taught her ways to do well on the math test.

Finally it was test time. Kelly’s hands started to sweat, her knees began to feel like Jello, and she took a deep breath. She picked up her pencil and started to write. Suddenly her mind became blank. She tried to remember, but she couldn’t. Then she remembered what Mario taught her and it all came back to her.

A week later, Mario and Kelly got their test grades back. Mario got a 98%. Kelly got a 90%. Kelly was so happy. Mario was so happy for her. From then on, they became best friends for life.