Chapter 1

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DEDICATION For every kid who was scared and helped anyway.

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Except Amina.

Amina was seven, and she wasn't brave because she wasn't scared. She was brave because she was scared AND she did things anyway. This was an important distinction that her mother had explained to her during the last thunderstorm.

"Being brave doesn't mean not being afraid," Mama had said. "It means being afraid and still doing what needs to be done."

Right now, what needed to be done was help.

She knocked on three doors. Noah came out with a flashlight. Priya came out with her dad's tool belt (which was too big for her but she wore it like a championship belt). And Sam came out because Sam always came out when there was something happening.

"We're going to help Mrs. Garcia," Amina said.

"How?" asked Noah. "We're kids."

"Kids with a flashlight, a tool belt, and at least two functioning brains. Let's go."

They couldn't move the tree. They were seven. But they could pick up the branches. They could sweep the sidewalk. They could bring Mrs. Garcia a glass of water and sit with her while she waited for the tree service.

"You didn't have to do this," Mrs. Garcia said, looking at the four kids sitting on her porch in the dark.

"We wanted to," Amina said.

"Why?"

"Because you're our neighbor. And neighbors help each other. That's what neighbors are for."

Mrs. Garcia smiled. It was the kind of smile that made the darkness feel a little less dark.

By the time the power came back on, every kid on Birch Street had come outside. Not because the storm was over — it wasn't — but because they'd seen Amina and her friends helping, and they wanted to help too.

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After the storm, the Brave Ones made a list.

That wasn't their official name. They didn't have an official name. But Noah had called them "the brave ones" when telling his mom about helping Mrs. Garcia, and the name stuck like gum on a shoe.

1. Help someone every day (even if it's small) 2. Be kind even when nobody is watching 3. Stand up for someone who can't stand up for themselves 4. Tell the truth even when it's hard 5. Try new things even when they're scary

"That's a lot of bravery," said Sam, reading over her shoulder.

"That's the point. Bravery isn't a one-time thing. It's a practice. Like piano."

"I don't practice piano," Sam said.

"And that's why you're bad at it."

"Fair point."

They started small. Noah held the door for people. Every day. Without being asked. He held it for kids, teachers, the janitor, the principal, and once a very confused delivery person who wasn't sure if she was in the right building.

Priya started a "compliment chain" — she complimented one person every morning, and asked them to compliment someone else. By the end of the first week, the whole second grade was saying nice things to each other with suspicious frequency.

Sam's brave thing was standing up for Eli Kim, who was being teased about his glasses. Sam walked up to the kids doing the teasing and said, very calmly, "Those are really cool glasses, Eli." And he meant it.

The teasing stopped. Not because Sam was big (he was the smallest kid in the class) but because he was brave. And bravery, it turned out, had a sound — a specific frequency that bullies could hear and didn't like.

Amina's brave thing was the hardest. She apologized.

She apologized to Ruby Martinez, whom she had accidentally excluded from a birthday party last month. Not a big exclusion — there were only ten spots and Ruby was number eleven — but Amina had seen Ruby's face when she heard, and the face had stayed with Amina like a stain on her conscience.

"I'm sorry I didn't invite you," Amina said. "It wasn't fair. And I should have tried harder to include you."

Ruby was quiet for a moment. Then she said, "Thanks. That took guts."

"That's what the Brave Ones do," Amina said.

"Can I be a Brave One?"

"You already are. You forgave me. That's the bravest thing on the list."

By the end of the month, the Brave Ones had twelve members. By the end of the semester, they had twenty-three. The list was photocopied and taped inside lockers all over the school.

All because a seven-year-old girl walked into a storm and decided to help.

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Crimson Ark Publishing creates stories about everyday heroes.