“How was school?” Mum asked.

I dumped my school bag on the kitchen floor and sat at the table, watching Mum fold laundry from the drier. “There’s this one girl, Susannah, I don’t like her much. She’s the popular girl, you know, she says what games everyone plays at break and who gets to play in her group. She never includes me.”

“She doesn’t know you yet Katie, give it time. I bet there are new games you could teach her,” Mum said.

“She keeps whispering with her friends and pointing at my shoes and socks, and then they all run off giggling. I know she’s making fun of me…” I waited to see if she’d say anything. Sensible brown shoes and colored socks had become an issue recently. “And the worst thing is, all the other girls go along with her so no-one even talks to me.” I felt tears welling in my eyes but I wasn’t going to let them fall. I blinked them away.

“I know it’s hard to begin with, but it’s only been a week. You’ll make friends soon and before you know it you won’t feel like the new girl any more,” Mum said. I knew she was trying hard to make the best of a difficult situation. You see, my Dad is a pilot in the military and he has to go where they tell him to go. This is my second school this year.  

“But Mum, all the other girls wear white socks, why do I have to wear these?” I held up a pair of dark red knee highs from the pile of laundry. I held them as if they smelt and I needed physical distance from them. 

“Just because everyone else wears white socks doesn’t mean you have to,” she said. It was her standard answer to everything. 

“But Mu-um,” I whined, “why do I have to be the different one? It’s hard enough being the new girl without having to dress weird too,” I wasn’t going to let this one go. “All the other girls wear white socks and shiny, black patent leather shoes, why can’t I?” It just seemed so unfair I couldn’t have what the others had. Didn’t she understand how important it was to fit in?

“Katie, I’m not going to fight with you over this. White socks and shiny black shoes just aren’t practical. They wouldn’t last long after you’d climbed a couple of trees now would they? Besides, it’s not important what you have, it’s who you are as a person that matters,” Mum said. I scowled at her. I’d heard this too many times. “I’ve got an idea,” Mum said and pulled a recipe book from the shelf, “why don’t we make something for you to take into school tomorrow?”

Oooh, I liked that idea and spent the next few minutes leafing though the big color pages, looking for the perfect thing. Mum thought she was being clever by distracting me. I knew this, but decided to play along anyway.  

“Peanut butter and oatmeal cookies,” I said pointing to the picture. They looked so good I was sure the kids in my class would love them. So we set about collecting all the ingredients. Now that I’m eleven Mum lets me do most of the work, the oven is the only thing I’m not allowed to touch. I burned my hand once when I touched the hob while it was still on. I still have the scars to prove it. 

Mum watched as I measured and mixed all the ingredients, following the recipe exactly. I greased a baking sheet and spooned out mounds of cookie mixture so there were six rows of four, that’s 24. There’d be enough for one each with three left over for Mrs Wilson, my teacher. Then came my favorite part, licking the bowl. I watched as the tray was loaded onto the middle shelf of the oven and felt the hot air blow in my face when I leant too close, it made my eyes water. 

“If they take 25 minutes to cook and its 3.45pm now, what time do I need to set the alarm for?”

“Mum, why do we always have to do this?” I asked. 

“You wanted to make cookies, now you have to do something for me,” she explained. She always tested me with math questions like this and it annoyed me because I wasn’t at school any more. But, I knew it wasn’t worth arguing over, that was just the way it was. I looked up at the big kitchen clock and counted on 25 minutes, “4.10pm,” I said. 

I heard the buzzer from my bedroom and smelt that wonderful cookie smell wafting up the stairs even before I reached the kitchen. I was excited to see how they’d turned out. The cookies were laid out on a wire cooling rack, they looked fantastic, but something was missing. 

“Mum, can I put M&Ms on top? It would make them look really good.” I knew there was a big bag of them in the sweetie box kept on the top shelf of the larder. Mum and Dad have always been really strict about how many sweets I eat. I’m allowed one ‘lunchtime sweetie’ a day, then the box goes back on the top shelf. “Please?” I smiled up at her the way I knew she couldn’t resist. 

She returned from the larder with the big plastic sweetie box and peeled back the lid, revealing a candy shop of yummy things. Just as I remembered, there was a jumbo sized bag of M&Ms. 

I spent the next few minutes pressing a single M&M onto each warm cookie so they wouldn’t fall off. While Mum wasn’t watching I popped a couple in my mouth and sucked on them so she wouldn’t know I had them.

The next day after lunch, I placed a Tupperware box on Mrs Wilson’s desk. She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head, I knew what her question was. “In my last school we had Cookie Friday,” I explained. “Since its Friday, I made these for the class,” I said and sat at my desk in the third row.

“Children,” Mrs Wilson raised her voice to get everyone’s attention, “Look what Katie brought in for us,” she tipped the container so everyone could see. I was dying to look around to see everyone’s faces, but I didn’t want to turn round and stare, especially as Susannah sat directly behind me. “We’ll save these ‘til the end of the day for storybook corner. Now settle down everyone and let’s get started. Open your history books to page 23.” 

When Mrs Wilson wasn’t looking Susannah poked me in the back with her ruler, “Teacher’s pet,” she said under her breath. 

I didn’t like Susannah much.

The afternoon lessons dragged by. I spent a lot of time gazing out of the window wishing I could go outside and climb the tree on the other side of the school yard. None of the other girls had dared to climb it, but I knew I could. I wasn’t a tom-boy or anything, I just liked climbing trees, it always impressed my Dad. I wondered if I climbed the tree the others would think I was the cool one instead of Susannah. Sure, Susannah had the nicest clothes and wore white socks and patent leather black shoes, but she was a girlie girl and had probably never climbed a tree in her life. 

When story time came, Mrs Wilson asked me to hand the cookies out to the class while Susannah distributed the reading books. If anyone was teacher’s pet, it was her not me.  

Mrs Wilson began reading while we followed along in our own reading books. I still used my finger to follow the words, it was easier than using a ruler. After she’d read the first page each member of the class read until she rang the small brass bell that sat on the corner of her desk. I liked the sound it made, it reminded me of the bell we tied to Punchy the cat’s collar to warn mice of her presence. Punchy was a great mouser but would often leave her latest catch on the front door mat as a gift for Mum to find first thing in the morning. That’s when we’d decided to put the bell around her neck. It worked too.

The class was reading a book I hadn’t read before and I was excited waiting for my turn because it’s one my favorite things to do, reading out loud. Every school I’ve been to, the teacher always says what a beautiful reading voice I have. I think it’s because I put expression into what I’m reading and sometimes I use different voices, just like my Dad does when he reads me a bedtime story. 

It was my turn, “Then Charlie laughed. He laughed so hard he…,” but I didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. Behind me Susannah had begun to cough. She held the cookie in her hand and you could see she’d taken a big bite. It looked as if her face was turning the color of red grapes. I could see the patent leather, shiny black shoes kicking out under her desk. Mrs Wilson jumped to her feet and slammed her hand on the big red alarm button by the door. The bell rang in bursts, it was different from the end of school bell.

I’d seen this happen before. I pulled Susannah from her seat, stood behind her and clasped my arms around her body and pulled in and up. The air was knocked out of her and with it the piece of cookie that must have been stuck in her throat. She coughed again and again and started to cry. 

“It’s okay Susannah, you’re okay now,” I told her. I could feel her heart beating really fast inside her chest. “You just had a bad shock.” 

Mrs Wilson hurried over with a glass of water. “Where did you learn to do that?” she looked at me in disbelief.

“One of the schools, I don’t remember which,” I said. “It’s called the Heimlich maneuver.”

The door burst open and the school nurse bustled into the classroom. “Stand back everyone, let me through,” she ordered. Nurse Bolt was a formidable woman in a starched uniform. She had a no nonsense attitude that made her seem a little scary. I’d met her on my first day when I’d cut my hand on some broken glass.

Mrs Wilson explained what happened and what I’d done. Nurse Bolt gave me a brief nod before she checked on Susannah. For a moment I thought I saw a smile twitch at the corners of her lips. I was really glad I’d been paying attention when they taught us emergency first aid at one of my schools.

The bell rang for the end of school. Out in the playground I had my eye on the tree in the far corner and decided to climb it at the weekend. Then I’d climb it again when everyone was at school so I could show off my gymnastic abilities. 

On Monday morning, as we gathered in the Assembly Hall, I felt a tap on my shoulder. There stood Susannah, looking demure. She handed me something wrapped in colorful paper and whispered, “thank you for saving my life Katie.”

As I sat listening to the headmistress talk about the importance of friendship, I opened the package. Inside were five pairs of snow white knee length socks and a gift voucher from the shoe shop in town. 

Now I have a group of friends, including the most popular girl in the class. I also have a new pair of shiny, black patent leather shoes and all it took was saving the life of the girl I had once disliked the most.