Hi, I'm Joseph Brown. I'm 14 years old and was born in London and came to the United States with my mom with very little money. I'm a freshman at Schenectady High School and I heard a bunch of stories about how freshmen get picked on. I wasn't scared of them but I didn't want to be a target. One day I came to school and a guy named James Martinez walked up to me and started making fun of the way I spoke. I was never made fun of for the way that I spoke before so I didn't know what to do. I'm not a fighter so I couldn't fight my way through this. This made me feel so bad that I started trying to be invisible and not want to get noticed. One sunny day Mid-October, a new girl named Phoebe Williams came up to Me and asked for help. I hadn't talked to anyone since James picked on me but I helped Phoebe and showed her around the school. I felt happy being able to talk to someone but didn't want the same thing that happened to me to happen to her so once I helped her I left and every time I saw Phoebe I turned around and tried to ignore her. One day I was walking to school and saw Phoebe being picked on by a group of girls.
I didn't like to see Phoebe being picked on so I stuck up for her. Phoebe thanked me and asked for my name, at first I was hesitant to give her my name but eventually I told her it was Joseph Brown. It turns out that Phoebe lives next door to me so every day we would walk to school and walk home. I asked phoebe what grade she was on and she said she was a Junior. This completely shocked me and I didn't know what to do. Phoebe was My only friend at school and I never saw her in the halls anymore. One day I asked a group of guys if I could hang out with them. This made me very nervous because I have been in school for 7 months and only had one friend. One of the guys said "Yes you can join us" It turns out the group of guys is part of a club meant for leaving no kid out. The only reason they haven't asked me is that I'm always avoiding everyone.
The group of guys consisted of 3 seniors and a junior. Their names were John, Eric, Matthew, Amber. John played a few sports including Baseball and was one of the popular kids, Eric was also an athlete that enjoyed playing Football and Basketball, Matthew didn't play any sports but had a lot of knowledge on every sport, and Amber plays soccer, is a cheerleader, plays basketball and softball. Joseph was a fast runner but has never played a sport. One day John asked me if I had any interest in Track And Field and I said: "I've never played a sport and I know nothing about it". John told me to try out for the team and give it a try. Two weeks later were tryouts for the team and I have been running every day trying to get ready. I tried out to be a runner and I showed that I could bring the school to sectionals. I made it on the team as a runner. As the season started to end I knew everyone on the team and made a bunch of new friends. Freshman year wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. 3 years left of high school until I graduate.