my best friend bella - the heroes of...
TRANSCRIPT
My Best Friend Bella
By Dooley Short
Illustrated by Helen Short
My Best Friend Bella
This is my best friend Bella. Bella wasn’t always my best friend though.
1
I always wanted to be Bella’s best friend because she has the coolest pink
wheelchair with stickers all over it.
2
When our teacher, Ms. Hudson, told us about peer praise notes, I knew I had to
send one to Bella to tell her how cool her wheelchair was. This is how me and
Bella became best friends.
Bella
Paige
I like your wheelchair! Pink is my favorite color too!!
Bella told me that she’s never had a best friend. Bella thinks that people don’t
want to be her friend because her wheelchair makes her different.
But Bella is just like me. We both like the color Pink, playing with babies, and
we both love pizza!
Bella misses class sometimes for something called physical therapy. I’m not
really sure what that is but I am sure that I miss Bella when she’s gone.
Since Bella misses class a lot, Ms. Hudson always gives her guided notes.
Guided notes tell Bella the most important stuff.
Bella always works so hard to get caught up in class. If I were Bella, I would be
mad that I have to work so much harder than everyone else but she always
stays so positive.
There was one time when Bella wasn’t so positive though.
Since Bella is in a wheelchair, it’s harder for her to move around. Bella can
move her arms, hands, and head, but she can’t move her legs.
One day in music class we were singing a song where we had to stomp our feet
with the beat. Bella got really sad that she couldn’t stomp her feet like all of us.
Mr. Taylor, our music teacher, told Bella that instead of stomping, she could
clap.
Bella didn’t really like that idea because she would be the only one doing
something different.
Then, Bella had an idea.
“What if we all had a choice?” Bella said to Mr. Taylor. “Everyone could choose
if they want to stomp or clap. That way I won’t be the only one that’s
different.”
Mr. Taylor loved Bella’s idea and so did everyone else!
The stomping and clapping sounded so good together, Mr. Taylor decided to
give all the other classes a choice too.
15
Bella taught me that being different isn’t so bad. If everyone was the same,
then we wouldn’t have made such a good song!
16
Bella still gets sad sometimes, but now she has all these ideas that Ms. Hudson
taught her that will help her make new friends, get caught up in class, and use
our differences to make something beautiful!
17