"Hey, I'm Ashley," said a dark-haired girl at the locker next to hers removing her backpack from her shoulders. "You new here?"
Yes, Nothukula wanted to say. But not just to Freedman High School, she was also new to the country. She had arrived in the summer from Zimbabwe.
"Can you speak English?" Ashley asked. Nothukula stared at her. It wasn't that she didn't understand English. They had spoken it at school back home, and then there were the American soap operas that she loved to watch. "Are you new?" Ashley spoke loudly and slowly, like Nothukula had trouble hearing. She was still standing there, staring at Nothukula, as if tapping the glass of a fish tank, waiting for any reaction. It made Nothukula nervous, stiffening her tongue. With each wordless second that passed, she felt more pressure to make up for the awkwardness, say the right thing to Ashley and ensure it came out perfectly. She opened her mouth, but not a single thing came out.
Rolling her eyes, Ashley looked away, checking her face in a compact mirror and calling after one of her friends. Nothukula just stood there, like a deer in headlights.

License information: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
MPAA: G
Go to source: https://www.commonlit.org/texts/sweet-difficult-sounds