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Today Eric goes to school, just like any other day. He does not think that anything special will be happening to him today. And possibly, nothing will happen. Eric is very proud to be a pure American, and does not hide this pride in any way. As usual, Eric steps onto the bus, and immediately starts tormenting Juan. Eric and Juan are the same in many aspects, they are both eighth graders, they have nearly the same athletic ability; but Eric feels that he is better than Juan, simply because Juan is Hispanic. It is hard for Juan to put up with it every day. There are many people who ridicule him about his race, and Juan can only guess that they presume that he has control over his heritage.
�History is a hard time for a lot of students, but for Charles it is extremely hard. Every day Harry is continually making racial slurs towards his color. Like Eric with Juan, Charles and Harry are quite alike. They both are highly gifted, as well as the fact that they come from wealthy families. The major difference is that Charles is African-American, and Harry is a 100% �White Guy.� Little does Harry know how much he is hurting Charles by harassing him. He thinks of Charles to be lower than him, which is a bad state of mind to enter life with, especially at such a young age.
� Little do Eric and Harry know that before long they are to be taking part in an unusual phenomenon.
� The next day Eric wakes up, and while looking in the mirror notices something different about himself. He begins to talk, and his tongue does not seem to be working properly. He has developed some type of an accent, a Spanish one. What will this do to his reputation? He tries to say some easy English words, but they do not seem to come out right. He tries some words that he remembers Juan saying before, they sound crystal clear
� Harry wakes up, and this difference is not easy to miss. His skin color seemed so have changed color dramatically over night, to a very dark tone, much like that of Charles� skin. He can not go to school like this! Surely his parents will take him to the finest doctor in the state to see what is going on�but when he talks to his parents, they seem completely normal, like nothing is out of the ordinary.
� Meanwhile, Eric is struggling to find his way back to his old self again. He knows that he must go to school, and immediately on the bus, he is ridiculed. He explains that it is not his fault! But they don�t seem to want to hear him. This hurts Eric even more, so he sits alone, quietly trying to ignore the remarks, and withstand the rest of the bus ride. School is no better. The people he thought were his friends now start to make fun of him. Eric begs of them to stop, but they simply carry on laughing. Eric is heartbroken, and wonders what has happened to him.
� Sean can not convince his parents that anything is wrong, and they send him off to school like any other day. He feels really out of place at school, but History is next period. He has been dreading that all day long. He gets in there and sits where he normally sits, when his old friends yell at him, and tell him to go sit with the other guys. Sean hates this segregation, and is nearly in tears having his friends laugh at him. If only they knew.
� Eric decides that it is time to find Juan. He feels like Juan would be the only one that would befriend him today. He finds him quickly at lunch, and they hit it off. Eric is pleased to see how much that they have in common, and cannot believe how he missed it all of this time. They go their separate ways, but before they leave, Eric yells out an apology to Juan, he says that it was for all of the times that Juan was made fun of�They both leave very speechless.
� Sean takes refuge right next to Charles. Like Eric and Juan, Sean notices that him and Charles have a lot in common. They talk nearly the whole period, and it is only when the teacher splits them up that they stop. They both get laughed at, and although it hurts Sean really bad, he is proud to be sharing it with Charles for a change.
� The next morning Eric wakes up, flabbergasted to see that he is back to his old self again. He is really pleased, but today he wants to be different than he used to be. When he gets on the bus, he asks Juan if the seat next to him is taken. Juan is taken aback, but welcomes Eric to sit next to him. The rest of the bus ride they talk, and soon, they become really good friends.
� Sean wakes up, and is relieved to be back, but makes himself a promise that he will talk to Charles, and stop the hatred. In history instead of sitting with his normal friends, he goes back to Charles, which shuns him away, but eventually is convinced that Sean is sincere. Sean calls his friends over, who are really stunned, but they all start to work together.
� Why do people have to prejudge other people? It is not on the outside that one can help, but on the inside. Next time that you are faced with somebody, that you may not want to be around because of how they look, or their heritage, think about the pain that you are causing them. Put yourself in their shoes, like what Eric and Sean experienced. Then maybe the pain and hurt that people feel will be unmasked, and stopped.