Nora peeked into her new classroom. Thirty kids with glossy black hair and almond-shaped eyes stared back at her. She swallowed hard.

“Ohayo gozaimasu, Nora-chan,” her new teacher called. “Welcome to Japan, Nora, and welcome to our school. My name is Mrs. Ito. The other children call me Ito-sensei. Sensei means teacher. I can speak English, and I will help you learn Japanese.”

Nora nodded. All she had learned to say so far was konnichiwa, or hello. Her family had lived in Japan for only three days.

“Your mother told me you are an artist, Nora,” Ito- sensei said. “If you'd like, you can draw the Pacific Ocean today. We will have a picnic at the beach.”

Nora nodded and quietly sat at her new desk. The girl next to her grinned a huge, toothy grin. Nora tried to smile back, but her mouth was stiff from trying not to cry. She missed her old school and friends. Everything in Japan was so different.

“Kesa kaku wa hajimemasho!” Ito-sensei told the class. Then she turned to Nora. “We'll begin with writing today, Nora.”

Nora smiled. She loved writing! At her old school, she wrote a long story about a girl living in a castle. Her teacher had liked it so much, she had asked Nora to read it to the whole class. Nora reached into her backpack and pulled out a pencil. Today she wanted to write about a mermaid who had to go on a dangerous journey.

The girl next to her began writing strange lines and shapes on her paper. Then Nora remembered: The Japanese language had its own type of writing. Nora didn't even know how to write simple words like boy or cat in Japanese. How could she ever write a whole story?

Ito-sensei put a piece of paper on Nora's desk and drew two symbols at the top. “This is how you write your name in Japanese,” Ito-sensei explained. “Watch carefully.” She drew the symbols again, very slowly, and said, “ 'No . . . ra.' This morning you can practice writing your name.”

Nora shut her eyes to squish back the tears. She felt dumb but started writing the two symbols, over and over. She tried not to think about her mermaid story.

When lunchtime came, Nora followed her class along a narrow, crooked road to the beach. Everyone spread small, plastic mats on the sand and sat down. Everyone except Nora. Her mom had packed an old towel for her to sit on. She spread her towel at the very edge of the group.

Everyone else's lunch came in small plastic boxes. They ate rice and fish and different colored pickles with chopsticks.

A big, fat lump rose in Nora's throat. She picked up her peanut butter and jelly sandwich and took a bite. But her tongue felt like a hunk of wet sand. She dropped her sandwich on its wrapper and sighed.

Nora took out her artist's notebook and crayons. Pressing her lips together, she began to draw her old school, where nothing was different. She drew the wide, straight streets of her hometown. She drew lunchtime, where lots of kids ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. A tear rolled down her sweaty cheek. At her old school, everyone was just like her.

At that moment, a huge gust of wind tore across the beach. It pulled kids' plastic picnic mats right out from under them. It lifted napkins and sweatshirts and hats into the air. And it sucked Nora's picture right into the ocean.

Without stopping to think, Nora splashed into the warm, salty waves. She jumped over plastic mats and soggy napkins. She pushed through seaweed.

“Nora! Come back!” Ito-sensei shouted. By then, the other kids were splashing in the ocean, too.

Nora picked up a piece of soggy white paper. But the picture wasn't hers. Someone else had drawn a tall mountain covered with snow.

“Watashi no desu!” a voice shouted. The grinning girl splashed up to her. She had Nora's picture in her hand. The girl pointed to the picture of the mountain, then to herself. She repeated, “Watashi no desu.”

“Oh.” Nora held out the picture and pointed at the girl. “Are you saying this is yours?” The girl nodded. They traded pictures. “You like to draw, too?” Nora asked.

The girl tilted her head. Nora could tell that she didn't understand.

“Konnichiwa,” Nora said.

The girl grinned her big, toothy grin. “Konnichiwa,” she said. Then she pointed to her nose. “Emi desu.”

At first, Nora didn't know what the girl meant. Then Nora pointed to her nose. “Nora desu.”

As they waded to shore, Emi tripped over a bump of sand. She tumbled into Nora. With an enormous splash, Emi and Nora were soaked up to their eyebrows. Their faces were covered with sand. They smelled like salty fish.

Ito-sensei's face twitched with laughter. Nora's wet, sticky classmates chuckled. Then Emi burst into snorts and giggles big enough to hear all along the beach.

Nora looked around. Everyone was wet and sticky and sandy. Everyone was laughing and chasing and splashing. Everyone was having a great time-just like Nora.