By Olivia Campbell

Lately, I’ve been thinking about kindness. Or really, it’s less that I’ve been thinking about kindness, and more that kindness has just been coming to me, and I’ve been seeing it. Or maybe kindness like this has always come, and I’m just now taking note?

It started with Ava; her name isn’t really Ava, but that’s what I’ll call her here. She knows that I love D&D, and so on the first day back at school for the year, she gave me a little hand-crocheted bag for my dice. Green, with a blue thread to tie it: my favourite colours.

One of my best friends introduced me to White Rabbit Candies last year, and ever since I’ve adored them. We met up over a weekend, and she brought a bag with a whole fistful of different flavours. Neither of us could read what the wrappers said, so we picked them blind and I pulled them each into two pieces for us to share. Soon enough I stumbled on the mustard one, which I’d thought she’d been lying about, and I swear it tasted just like the stuff you put on steaks or sausage sizzles. I screwed up my face but somehow it was good? I went to the fridge and tried some real mustard seeds for comparison, and sure enough, it was the same; we couldn’t stop  laughing.

On the second Monday back of term, I opened my locker in the morning to find four mini Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups and a blue sticky-note, all set atop my biology textbook on the middle shelf. I was already smiling, because I love peanut butter, but then I read the note and my face broke out into an honest grin. “First week done!! Well done Livi <33.” Signed by the same friend who brought me the White Rabbit candies, and following her name, a smiley face.

I went to see a hairdresser for the first time in about two years after my sister finally succeeded in pestering me. The hairdresser made sure to be gentle with her brush, and she told me that I looked like Rapunzel. And then changed her mind and said that I looked like Willow, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy’s one of my favourite shows; I used to watch it with my sister and dad every Friday night back when I was in primary school. We had to stop once Angel turned evil because it made my sister too sad, but I think I’ve watched everything that comes before season 2 episode 14 at least three times.

A girl in my homeroom brought in the most incredible portable fan I’d ever seen; this was a 37 degree day. I ran up to her to marvel at it, and knelt by her chair and soaked in the breeze, and begged her to show me where she bought it. It was some dollar store; she couldn’t remember its name, so she found the right street on Google Maps and zoomed in and showed me.

I was at Zoe’s house to celebrate her 17th, and we chased each other all around her backyard with water guns taken from a tub in her basement, filled up using the garden hose. When mine jammed, she gave me hers. Later, we played firing-squad truth or dare, and set up Spotify to act out ‘Ten Duel Commandments’.

I went out in the city with Amy and Jess. Jess came with three of every kind of snack in her bag, and at the train station, Amy bought a mochi ice cream for us all to sit down and share.

Kayla, who sits next to me in biology, waited for me to pack my things so that we could walk out together, and while I was looking down and juggling my books, she put a hand on my back to steer me away from a head-on collision with another girl walking towards us.

I was in assembly, trying to braid my hair, and Scarlett, sitting behind me, asked if she could help I told her yes; please. I felt her tugging lightly on the strands, and a few minutes later while a teacher was up giving his speech, she placed the finished plait over onto the front of my shoulder. I felt all along it, and it was so much better than I could have done.

My sister came home from work while I was in a meeting over Zoom, and she called out “Oy, Liv!” and came in without knocking and set some kind of hair-serum that she’d bought for me down on my desk.

On Valentine's Day, the student leadership team stationed themselves outside all the gates of the school, handing out heart-shaped bonbons wrapped in red foil. Dylan, who last year I was on the debate team with, saw me approaching, and he launched himself forward, shouting “Olivia!”. I ran towards him too so that we met halfway, laughing; he dropped on one knee to present me with my chocolate, and spread his arms wide when I took it. The other thing that the student leadership team did was print out the worst pun-meme-card things they could find, and tape one onto every locker in the school. I got a low-res picture of a young suited-up Leonardo DiCaprio, with comic sans text reading ‘u be the ship & i’ll be the iceberg hittin on u’. I snorted and slipped it into my pocket.

For all my thoughts, I don’t think that I have any grand moral to share. The story is: my friends are kind, and I love them, and I’m happy. Writing this reminds me that kindness exists. It’s such an easy thing, but I forget sometimes: that it’s an option to smile, or hold open a door, or say to a person “I’m glad you’re in my life.” My friends help me remember. I hope that this helps you to remember, or at least, that it makes you smile.