Lulu Has Got to Move

written when I was 4th grade!!

Rika

Rika

10 April 2019

�"� Lulu has got to move 😟

Lulu is nervous. She’s beginning to worry about everything while she is packing her things in her room.

“Will the plane crash? Is the teacher mean? Is the student going to tease me? Is this what my life’s  going to be?” Lulu asked her self.

“Why do we have to move anyway? I don’t even want to move!” shouted Lulu.

“I told you a million times already Lulu! Dad has to get a new job to get enough money for our family,” Mom replied.

“You didn’t even tell me a million times yet!” Lulu said.

“That’s just what people say when it feels like a lot of times already.” Lulu’s Mom replied.

“But that is definitely not what I say,” she mumbled to herself while rolling her eyes, “I bet Thailand isn’t as good as Japan! Also, she should tell me nicely, not scolle at me!”

Lulu carefully packed her favourite Japanese doll, named Sora, in her blue suitcase and she was ready to go. She sighed. Lulu went down stairs and took some pictures of her house for memories. 

“Ah, I will miss you house, and I appreciate that so much,” Lulu sighed and went back up stairs.

The next morning, her family woke up at 4:30 am and when Lulu got onto the plane, her hands were sweaty. She held her armrests so tight it was like she was going to make the seat crumble. She was so scared. This was the first time she was going on a real airplane! Her mom sat beside her on the left and her dad sat on the right. She held her mom and dad’s hands so tightly while the plane was taking off.

“We will be taking off now,” the pilot said, “Please stay in your seat and buckle your seatbelts.”

And the plane took off! Lulu’s ears hurt really bad while it took off, she covered her ears and closed her eyes really tight. “Ouch! That hurts so bad!” Lulu yelled. 

She tried to drink water to make her ears hurt a little less. But it didn’t work. She squeezed her legs together, then she looked up, and she saw a tablet. She thought it was just a normal screen that just showed her commercials. Her mom noticed that Lulu was really getting bored so, Lulu’s mom decided to show her how the touch screen tablet worked.

 “Oh my, oh my! This is really cool! I’ve never seen anything like this before!” Lulu exclaimed.

Lulu thought it was the most amazing thing she had ever seen in her life! And before she knew it, she had tried all the games there were. After 6 hours, they arrived in Bangkok, Thailand.

“Thank you for flying Japan Airlines. We have arrived in Thailand at Bangkok’s Suwannaphum airport,” The pilot said on the microphone. 

Lulu watched as her mom and dad took off their seatbelts. 

“Come on, Lulu, take off your seatbelt. We’re going to have a whole new life here!” said her mom.

After a while, they got into the airport.

“Mom, Dad, I need to go to the toilet first! I can’t hold it anymore!” Lulu said while squeezing her legs together.

“Why didn’t you go to the toilet in the airplane?” Mom asked.

“There’s a toilet on the airplane?!” Lulu said in surprise.

So, Lulu’s family went to the closest bathroom to where they were now. Lulu rushed to the bathroom.

“Ahh! I wet my pants a little!” Lulu said rushing to the toilet.

Just when Lulu finished, her mom and dad walked her to the place where you get your luggages or suitcases from the airplane. 

“I’ll get your suitcase for you!” Lulu excitedly ran to get her mom’s white suitcase, “I’ll get it for you too, Dad!” Lulu also got dad’s brown suitcase.

“Do you need any help honey?” Mom asked.

“Yes please, Dad’s suitcase is so so heavy!” Lulu exclaimed.

“I’ll help get your blue suitcase for you.” Dad insisted to help too.

Then Lulu’s dad called a taxi to drive them to their apartment. Lulu’s family rented an apartment that was close to the school and dad’s new job’s office, this way they can get around easier.

The next day, Lulu woke up in her new bedroom. Everything was still boxed around her. She had to sleep on the floor and she did not like it.

“It’s so hard!” she said while banging on the floor.

“Lulu! Get up it is time for school! Otherwise, you’ll be late for your first day of school!” her mom shouted from downstairs.

“Can I sleep for 10 more minutes?” Lulu shouted back to her mom.

“No! Come down, do you want to be late for your first day of school?” mom said back to Lulu.

“I don’t even want to go to school!” Lulu said ignoring what her mom said. 

“Lulu!” her mom shouted.

“Okay, okay! I’m coming! I’m coming!” Lulu replied to her mom. Lulu sighed.

Lulu slowly walked into the bathroom like she is a sloth. She got her toothbrush from the counter. She squeezes the toothpaste out of the tube. 

“Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!” went her electric toothbrush.

She put on her uniform. Her eyes is like it’s going to drop out of Lulu’s face. 

“Uhhhhhh!” Lulu complained.

Lulu picked up her new uniform. She stared at it, she thought, “this uniform is weird, I don’t like it. Sniff, sniff. Ew! It smells weird too!”

When Lulu finished putting on her uniform for school, she went downstairs to eat her breakfast.

“Mmm, what is that delicious smell?” Lulu asked her mom.

“It’s your favorite, cucumber with salad sauce,” her mom replied.

Then, Dad ran downstairs and to get his hat and coat. He got an apple on the table and he hugged Lulu really tight and said, “Bye Lulu, I have to go to work now. Good luck on your first day of school!”

Dad walked out the door and drove out of the house. As Lulu watched dad drive away, she waved goodbye to her dad.

“It’s almost time to go to school, go get your backpack Lulu,” her mom said to her.

Lulu went to the bag hanger beside the front door and got her bag for school. Then she put her finished bowl in the sink and wore her favorite blue sneakers.

“Come on Lulu, let’s go now,” her mom said.

While Lulu and her mom were walking to school, they talked together.

“I like your uniform, it’s so cute,” Mom said to Lulu while putting her arm around Lulu’s shoulders. 

“I don’t really like it,” Lulu said, “It’s so thai-ee. I like my old japanese-ee uniform more.”

“Is all this just because you don’t want to move here, the not wanting to go to school, not liking the uniform?” Mom asked Lulu.

“Can she even read my mind?” Lulu hesitated and thought to herself.

“So, is it true, Lulu?” her mom asked again.

“Yes, I guess?” Lulu mumbled.

“Hmmm….” Lulu’s mom said back.

So, Lulu’s mom walked Lulu to her new school to meet her new teacher. When she walked into the school, she felt like everyone was staring at her. She felt scared, very scared. Her hands shivered, she felt like she was in the arctic.

“W-why are those people s-staring at me? I’m just a normal k-kid from J-Japan that is starting a new s-school?!” Lulu thought to herself, shivering. 

Lulu pulled her mom backwards like she was trying to get home and not go to school. Her mom made a disappointed face and looked down at Lulu. Lulu felt like all the pressure was on her. They walked in, and Lulu continued pulling her mom backwards.

“Lulu, please stop pulling me backwards. We are going to go meet your new teacher, Ms. Sandy, no excuses.” Mom explained to Lulu. “Lulu, walk nicely please, don’t creep like a creep. When I was starting a new school in Japan, I was not scared at all, that’s why I made friends really quickly! So, do you want to be like me, or want to continue your life like this?” 

“Don’t you think maybe we are not the same, and I don’t even know this language, mom, you now the language that’s why it’s easy for you but not for me, okay?” Lulu thought to herself disappointedly.

Step by step, they finally got to Ms. Sandy’s classroom. Lulu’s mom knocked on the door. So, Ms. Sandy opened the door.

“Why hello, Lulu, welcome to our classroom! Come in, come in! Everyone is so excited to see you Lulu!” said Ms. Sandy with excitement.

Lulu said nothing. She didn’t even know this language! Ms. Sandy took her to the front of the room and Lulu waved goodbye to her mom. Her mom went back to their house. Ms. Sandy also waved goodbye to Lulu’s mom, and then she continued her talking.

“Good morning everyone, this is our new classmate from Japan. Her name is Lulu. Please take care of her and treat her with respect, or in other words, treat her like how you want to be treated. Lulu, please go to your seat beside Kaew. She’s at the edge of the room,” Ms. Sandy said to the whole class. 

Lulu walked slowly to her seat. She didn’t act like normal. She sat on her chair and squeezed her arms and legs together. Then she felt a poke on her shoulder, it was Kaew. 

“What’s your name again?” Kaew asked 

But Lulu don’t know what Kaew asked, so she still didn’t talk. Kaew ignored Lulu. She thought Lulu didn’t like her and didn’t want to talk to her, so she went to Ms. Sandy’s desk and asked Ms. Sandy herself.

“What is that new girl’s name again? She just ignores me, she doesn’t answer,” Kaew complained.

“That is because she doesn’t know how to speak English yet. She just moved here yesterday.”

“She also doesn’t know how to speak Thai?” Kaew asked surprised.

“Yes,” Ms. Sandy replied, “Her name is Lulu. Now, please go back to your seat, Kaew.”

They learned English for the first part of school for 1 hour.

“Ringggggggg!!!!!!!!!!!” the bell rang so loud and that was a sign that it is recess already! But too bad Lulu didn’t understand the word, “Recess” so she just watched her classmates rush out of the room.

“What are you waiting for Lulu? Are you waiting for your mom? Your mom is going to pick you in the afternoon,” Ms. Sandy told Lulu,  “Now you have to go to recess. Just follow your other classmates outside.”

Ms. Sandy pointed to the door, so Lulu walked out of the room and followed the other kids into the playground. She slowly walked to the bench under the tree watching the other kids playing happily, and that made her want to go play too. After a while, a gang of boys came to see her, they leaned on the bench.

The group’s leader said, “Are you the new girl in school? You must have been afraid that your hair became short!”

“Ha ha ha ha ha!” then the other boys copied him, “Ha ha ha ha ha!” 

Then another boy added, “Good one, Charlie!” 

Lulu didn’t understand a thing they said, but she knew that whatever they said was not nice and they are trying to hurt her feelings. When she thought of that, it made her heart sink, like it sank into a 5 kilometer long tunnel into the water. She looked up at the boys, made an angry face, and walked away pretending that didn’t happen to her. 

She walked sadly with her face down. She could only see the whitish-grey ground and some grass on it. It made her think of her old house and how much she wanted to go back, and that made her heart sink even further than 5 kilometers.

“I wish I could go back to Japan to go back to my house. I would even mail myself back to my real home and let my uncle, auntie, grandma, grandpa take care of me and my parents could stay here in Thailand if they really wanted to,” she thought to herself.

“Boom! Swang!” Lulu crashed into another girl that was playing basketball with her basketball friends.

“Sorry! I’m so so sorry! I didn’t see you there! Are you okay?” the girl asked Lulu.

Lulu looked up, she saw the girl that bumped into her looked like a Japanese girl more than a Thai girl!

 So she asked that girl in Japanese, “Are you from Japan?”

The girl answered in Japanese, “Yes, I am from Hokkaido, Japan. Are you from Japan, too?”

“Yes, I am from Tokyo, Japan. I just moved here yesterday. My name is Lulu,” Lulu said to the girl in Japanese.

“You must be the new girl in school. Hi Lulu, my name is Sora,” Sora said back to Lulu in Japanese.

“Your name is just like my doll’s name, Sora. She likes to watch the sky so I named her Sora,” Lulu said smiling. 

“I’m so sorry I bumped into you,” Sora said.

“It’s ok, I forgive you. Do you want to play with me? I was hoping to have friends from Japan to play with. I don’t even know how to speak the language you guys speak,” Lulu sadly said.

“Sure, I can play with you and I can teach you a little bit of the language after school, do you want to?” Sora asked.

“Sure! This is getting exciting! Let’s play my favorite game in Japan…” Lulu got cut out of the last word.

“Is it Tag?” Sora interrupted Lulu.

“Yes, Tag, that is my favorite game! But Tag has to have a lot of kids to play,” Lulu said disappointedly.

“It’s okay, I have friends, I can invite them to play with us,” Sora said excitedly.

“Kaew! Violet! Do you want to play tag with us? It is so fun but we need more people to play the game!” Sora shouted to her friends. 

“That sounds fun!” Kaew said to Violet, “Let’s play with them!”

“Umm… okay. Sure, we can play!” Violet shouted back.

They ran to Lulu and Sora and helped them get up.

“Hi, I’m Violet. This is Kaew and what’s your name?” Violet asked Lulu.

“She can’t talk yet. I’m going to help her with the language after school. Do you want to help, too? By the way, her name is Lulu,” Sora told Violet.

“I know her. She sits beside me in class. And I’m sorry to think that you were bad,” said Kaew to Lulu.

“And we are happy to have you here!” they all said together.

Lulu just smiled and they played tag together.

“Tag, you’re it Sora! Ha ha ha!” Violet said quickly and ran away with the other girls.

“I’m going to get you for this Violet!” Sora said chasing the other girls. 

�'�--�'�--�'�--�'�--�'�--�'�--�'�--�'�--�'�

Author's Note

written: April 2019