I was in one of the most boring classes of my junior year. Thank god it was almost Christmas vacation.

While I was spacing out on something else, an unfamiliar face walked in and looked around the classroom. Who is that, I wondered? Then the old grumpy teacher, Mr. Jinx, said, "Oh, uh, class, this is Jeremy Cage. He is the new student you students have heard about. Why don't you have a seat and get familiar with your surroundings." Jeremy sat down and looked around. He payed attention like he was doing the work too. "Look at him," said Jerome. "What a dark!" said Shale.

Jeremy was the first colored student who had gone to that school in years. And everybody acted differently towards him. But even though I felt sorry for him I had to act like I was ignoring him. It was hard for me to do. Nobody liked talking to him, except the teachers. When people walked by him they would look at him like he was from outer space. Then finally I got the guts to ask where he lived. He told me, and it wasn't too far from where I lived. I smiled and walked off. I planned to go visit him after school, even though I knew what people might say to me while I was at school. They would make fun of me and put me down because I'd talked to someone that the students had decided not to talk too.

After school I went home and thought some more about visiting Jeremy. I talked to my mom about the other students' behavior towards the colored boy. She told me not to mind them because they would always cause trouble. After we had a long talk about racism and peoples' actions I made my risky decision to visit Jeremy. I didn't care whether other people talked about me. l wanted to show I wasn't like some of the other students from school.

I walked down the street and looked for the apartment that Jeremy was staying in. There were so many different kinds of apartment buildings and they all looked alike, so it took me a while to find it. When I finally found it I rang the door bell. His mother answered the door. She looked young and very nice. She politely said, "Hi, may I help you?" "Yes," I said. I'm looking for your son, Jeremy. I told him that I would be over after school, and I was wondering if I could come in and see him?" She

called upstairs and told Jeremy that he had a visitor. He came down and asked if I would like to come in. I gladly walked in and looked around. We sat in the living room and talked about life in San Diego. Jeremy told me about the school that he had gone to in Boise, Idaho. He had the same problem there. I asked him if he wanted me to show him around the block. He agreed and we went out. I didn't really care if people saw us or not because I was having a good time talking to him.

The next day at school everybody was looking at me like I was from outer space too. When Jeremy got to school I showed him where his class was and then went to mine. By then I really didn't care what people said about me or to me. During lunch Lisa asked me what I was doing with the nigger. So I told her all about him and how easy he was to talk to. She became so curious she wanted to meet him, so I introduced them. She found that he wasn't so bad after all. Somehow by the end of the day most of the students were a lot kinder to Jeremy. They had learned that they shouldn't judge people by the color of their skin.

Cheryl Hunter