Three weeks after school started an exciting thing happened to me and my three best friends beginning with a chair. At start of new school year I get pocket money to buy my stationery set. This year, I bought a Tintin and Snowy set. Mr Thompson, our teacher last year, had such a boring voice. My best friends are Tom and Josie and Michael and we do every- thing together. Tom’s got short spiky hair, he’s the smallest, the funniest, skinny, always super-hungry and from America. Josie has brown eyes, freckles, tall and gangly. She’s the fastest girl in our year and can kick a football past any goalie.  Michael has the neatest, puffiest Afro, his glasses are always broken. He's quiet and he's clever. He can't run fast or kick a ball in a straight line. His dad is a professor and his mum is a lawyer so they are rich.
     Michael is the best at history and Josie is the best at maths. But I’m better at reading and spelling than both of them. Mrs Khan new teacher has made school a lot more fun. The third Tuesday, the Head. Mrs Sanders, pointed to the empty chair at the back of the class. It was empty because no one wanted to sit next to Clarissa. A boy none of us had ever seen before was with Mrs Saunders. It was Ahmet, who’d just moved to London. Mrs Sanders led him to the empty chair. I decided I would be friends with the new boy. I would ask Josie and Tom and Michael if they would be his friends too.
     After all, having four new friends would be much better than having none. Especially for a boy who looked as scared and as sad as the one now sitting at the back of our class. The new boy is called Ahmet, he was a refugee. The narrator was 6 father was killed in a car crash. Uncle Lenny is mum’s brother, he mended dad’s record player and visits at weekends.
     At supper the narrator asks mum, who is a librarian, what a refugee kid is. She talked about the people on the news coming to the country in small boats because they couldn’t live in their own country anymore. She explained that those people are called refugees. She explained some of the reasons why they were looking for new homes. Mum tucked the narrator up in bed which gave a feeling of being special and loved.
The narrator had 11 questions to ask the new boy if the opportunity arises.
Josie said her dad told her refugees were dangerous criminals.
Tom’s parents told him to be nice to the new boy and had a big bag of sweets for him.
Michael’s parents agreed with Tom’s and had a banana for him.
Mr Thompson taught them about World War I last year: about poppies and a trip to see them at the Tower of London.
In class the new boy had started to wear school uniform. When they arrived in class a lady was sitting next to the new boy in Clarrisa’s seat. Mrs Khan introduced the new classroom assistant, Ms Hemsi.
Mrs Khan told the children that Ms Hemsi would help Ahmet. She was wearing a hijab. They gave Ahmet gifts, he was happy. Tom invited Ahmet to join him playing football. The new boy is from Syria and speaks Kurdish.

The new boy was better than them all at football. Brendan-the-bully kicked the ball across the playground and started causing trouble. Mr Irons, a tall teacher with a long face, big moustache and long nose which whistled when he was angry, came over to them. Brendan told him that Josie and the new boy wouldn’t let him play with them. The narrator tried to explain the new boy couldn’t speak English. Mr Irons wouldn’t listen and gave them detention. They went to Mrs Khan, told her everything. She went to Mr Irons who had to change his decision about detention. After that Mr Irons walked past them with his whistling nose in the air!