Cowgirl

When James was new at school for the first time, Jess thought he looked funny straight away. He had long curly hair and big blue eyes. Jess had never seen a boy with long hair before, and she wondered exactly how long his hair was, because he kept it tied up in a ponytail and so she couldn’t see. So when miss Johnson told James to go and sit at the table with her friends Janine, Sonja and Sundus and her, Jess was very excited.
“How long is your hair?” she asked him as soon as he’d sat down. James didn’t reply, but just smiled at her.
“Jess, his English isn’t very good,” Miss Johnson told her “Try to talk more slowly, please. And I think he’s a little shy, so just leave him alone for a bit and let him settle in.”
“Where is he from?” Sundus wanted to know.
“He’s come from a Swedish school, he’s never been to an international school like ours.” Miss Johnson explained.
Jess couldn’t stop looking at the strange boy. She didn’t pay any attention to miss Johnson all through English class because she was staring at his long, blond hair. Suddenly, she had a brilliant idea.
“Janine,” She hissed, nudging her friend “If he can’t tell us how long his hair is, we’ll find out another way. When we go out to break time, let’s pull out his hair band. I bet his hair goes all the way down to his waist!”
The four girls giggled. As soon as the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson, they walked over to the door and pretended to be talking, but really they were waiting for James to pass them on his way outside. When James finally pushed his way past them, Jess lunged for his rubber hair band and pulled. She pulled a little harder than she had meant to, because she was nervous.
“Ouch!” The new boy exclaimed, and looked around at her. There he stood massaging his head with his shoulder length hair open in the middle of a circle of onlookers.
“I thought it was way longer!” Jess shouted, looking disappointed. Everybody laughed. Nobody saw that James looked like he was about to cry.

Soon, all the kids liked James because he was so entertaining. Everything about him was just too funny! The way he walked, for example. He looked like he was skipping whenever he walked. When he ran it was even better. He lifted his feet up really high and moved his legs like a horse. Soon everybody called him “Our friend, the cowboy.”
Jess really wanted to be friends with him. Every day she would try to talk to him, but because she didn’t know him she never had a good topic to talk to him about. So she ended up trying to make him laugh by teasing him.
“Cowboy!” She would call in the morning before school, “Are you sure you’re a cowboy? Your hair makes you look more like you’re a cowgirl!”
When the whole class laughed at her jokes, Jess forgot to check weather James found them funny too. She didn’t notice that he often ran to the bathroom after she’d called him “cowgirl” and didn’t come back because he was crying.



One morning, Jess found a note on her desk. It said:

I will prove to you that I’m not a girl
If they want to see, I will prove it to everyone
Come to the bell tower at break time.

Jess’s school was built inside a small, very old castle. The castle had once overlooked the village, and a rich lord had lived there. At that time, nobody in the village carried a watch, and the only way to tell the time was to look at the bell tower belonging to the castle, where there was a big heavy clock. There had also once been two big bells witch had rung every hour, so that the people could hear what time it was. But now those days were long past and the old tower wasn’t used for anything anymore.
Jess was confused. “Why does he want to prove that to me?” She asked her friends.
“I think he didn’t like your jokes about him very much, Jess.” Sundus told her, “We shouldn’t have teased him so much. Now, no one can say what he’s planning to do.”
“But it was just a joke! “ Jess defended herself, “Seriously! I didn’t mean to be mean. I just wanted to talk to him, I wanted to be nice and make him laugh!”
“I think he doesn’t know that.” Sonja mumbled.
All through the morning, Jess couldn’t sit still. She grew more and more worried. Whatever James was planning to do, the whole school would see it at break time, because the tower was so high. Her conscience wouldn’t leaver her alone. Why hadn’t James come to class?

When the bell rang for break, she was the first out of the door. She sprinted to the playground and found a group of students and teachers already gathered at the bottom of the tower. At the top, she could see the figure of James. He was carrying an umbrella.
“James! Come down from there at once!” Principal Gupta shouted, but she sounded like she was begging him. Some of the younger girls were crying.
“He’s going to kill himself,” Jess thought “He’s going to kill himself and its all my fault!”
Suddenly, she heard a faint shout from above. “Jess!” James was shouting “And all you other kids! Listen to me! I’m going to jump off this tower now. The umbrella will act like a parachute, if I’m lucky. If I’m not, well, at least nobody will be able to call me a cowgirl again! I will prove to you now that I’m brave. Watch me. ”
Jess’s heart stopped beating. She felt like crying, but she couldn’t. What had she done? She saw the figure at the top of the tower open the umbrella. She felt dizzy. “NO!” She screamed, “No, James please don’t do it, please, we know that you’re not a cowgirl! Please come down! You’re going to kill yourself!”
But then she saw the small figure at the top of the tower fall like a puppet. Everybody screamed, but Jess screamed the loudest. When James hit the playground, there was a nasty crunch. One of his arms was sticking out under his body at a very strange angle.
“He’s broken his arm, his leg and he might have brain damage,” The nurse announced into the silence.
Never had Jess been so relieved. He wasn’t dead! She hadn’t caused him to die! Suddenly the tears came into her eyes, and she started sobbing. “I’m so sorry,” she sobbed “I’m so sorry, everyone.”

Never ever did Jess forget the lesson she’d learned that day. She went to see James at the hospital, and apologized so much that he believed she hadn’t meant to be mean at all. Even when the two became best friends, Jess never ever forgot: Words can hurt just as much as a fist. Words are powerful. If you don’t think about what you’re saying you can hurt somebody’s feelings without meaning to. Never ever again would she make a mean joke about someone without asking them if they thought it was funny too, first, because now she knew that not everything we think is funny seems funny to the other people around us.