Sunnie the elephant was a little elephant with one great big trunk. And she was loved.

She played with her friends at school and she got along with everyone. And she loved them all.

One day, one of the other little elephants in the class, named Callie, spilled paint all over the room and ruined everyone’s class projects. They all got very upset about what happened. And Sunnie felt upset too.

Some of the other animal friends in the class got angry about their projects being ruined. They started to be mean and say hurtful things to all the elephants. Sunnie didn’t understand why.

She hadn’t done anything wrong. She felt confused.

On her way to school the next day, Leo the Leopard pushed her down on the ground and yelled at her. He told her it was all her fault he had to rebuild his project. Then, he said he didn’t like any of the elephants anymore and he wished they weren’t in his class. And she cried.

The teacher even made all the elephants sit in the corner so no one else’s project would get ruined. And she felt ashamed.

Sunnie didn’t like how she was being treated. She didn’t think it was fair. She knew she had to do something about it, but she didn’t know what. And she was scared.

“Excuse me class,” she stood up from the corner and looked at everyone staring at her. “I know you all are angry, but so are we. Callie shouldn’t have ruined all of our projects. But the rest of us elephants didn’t do anything wrong. Please stop hurting us and being mean. It really makes me sad and I just want us all to be friends.” And she felt brave.