Dear readers, tonight with us is a young girl from a distant planet, where eye color determines everything. She is here to speak about friendship, courage, and her own history that she never expected.

Tell us a little about where you grew up. What was it like there?

I grew up in the small town of Covington. Covington is a wealthy community where everyone except me has Topaz colored eyes. On my home planet of Mirron, the only thing that determines a person’s social standing is the color of their eyes. There are four different colors. Topaz are on top. Emerald and Sapphire are in the middle. Pearl is at the bottom. I’m Pearl, and I’m the only one in my class and in the entire town, for that matter.

Did you have any favorite toys as a child? Any cherished memories?

My most cherished memories are the times when my dog Charley and I were hanging out on the deck in the backyard with my parents. When we got too hot, all of us, including Charley, would go swimming in our pool. We would fool around in the water, and after a while my dad would light the grill and make the best hamburgers and hot dogs in the whole world.

What do you do now?

Now I’m in seventh grade at the Covington Middle School, and even though I’m the only Pearl in the entire school, I was elected President of our class. After school, I take the bus home and do my homework. When I’m finished with my homework, Charley and I get to watch television together in the family room.

What can you tell us about your latest adventure?

My latest adventure jumps ahead to my high school graduation. Erica Matthews and I will both be freshmen at Green Hill College in September of this year. The two of us, along with my boyfriend, Michael Davis, founded a Reform organization called The Prism Project when we were in tenth grade. The goal of our organization is the elimination of the color system on Mirron in favor of a meritocracy. My latest adventure is in partnership with Erica to establish an on-campus division of The Prism Project at Green Hill. We need to recruit members and raise money to get the organization off the ground on our college campus. Doing so is a great adventure with lots of challenges to overcome along the way.

What did you think when you were first bullied on the playground by Billy Winthrop?

I couldn’t understand why anybody would treat me differently because I was Pearl and the rest of my class was Topaz. All of us had started kindergarten together at Covington Elementary. Nobody had ever bothered me in the past because of my color. I was good friends with all of my classmates from the very beginning. Our class was going to be going to a different school in September, and Billy Winthrop told me I didn’t belong with the rest of the class. He told me to go to a different school with my “kind of people.’ He didn’t come right out and say it, but I knew he meant I should go to a school with other Sapphire and Pearl children. Out of the four different colors, Sapphire and Pearl were the two with the lowest social rank.

What was the scariest thing in your adventures?

The scariest thing that I’ve had to face in my first twelve years of life was being put into an environment with children of all colors at River Valley Day Camp. The town I grew up in was all Topaz, and I was the only Pearl in the entire community. I’d never had any experiences with children of all four colors, and it was scary being on the bus the first day of summer camp with children who were Topaz, Emerald, Sapphire, and Pearl. It was the first experience I’d ever had with diversity.

What is the worst thing about being a Pearl?

The worst thing about being a Pearl didn’t happen to me until the very end of sixth grade. My entire class had been together since kindergarten, and all of my classmates liked me. Or so I thought. Our class would be going to a new school in September, Covington Middle School. One day, when we were out on the playground, Billy Winthrop began to bully me in front of our classmates. He said, “Wrong school, Pearl. In September you’d better find a school with your own ‘kind of people.’” It was clear this was happening only because of the color of my eyes. It made me think negatively about what awaited me as I got older.

What is the best thing about it?

This is a very difficult question for me to answer. At first blush, the answer would seem to be obvious. There was nothing good about being a Pearl. The Pearl were at the bottom of the social ladder on Mirron, and it had been that way through all of recorded history. As I got older, I learned that it wasn’t always best to have things easy. Life itself wasn’t easy, and if a person never faced any adversity, it would be hard to appreciate the good things that came to them through their own efforts.

Tell us a little about your friends.

My two best friends are Erica Matthews and Michael Davis. I met both of them on my first day at River Valley. Our very first activity was Arts and Crafts. I went to sit down next to a tall Emerald girl named Rhonda Williams, and as I was taking the seat, she said to me, “I’m saving this seat for Maryanne.” I was really surprised by this because of River Valley’s reputation for being a place where children of all colors got along well with each other. This interaction had a silver lining, however. The only seat left at the table was between Erica and Michael. Erica was Topaz, and Michael was Pearl. Little did I know that they would become my closest friends from that day forward, and Michael would become my boyfriend for most of my high school years.

Whom (or what) do you really hate?

I hate Billy Winthrop…or do I? Billy had been my classmate since kindergarten, and all of a sudden he began bullying me at the end of sixth grade. I know this is because I’m the only Pearl and everyone else in our class was Topaz. The bullying continues during a beach vacation in Oceanside over the Fourth of July weekend. My family has an annual summer vacation in Oceanside every year over the Fourth of July. Billy’s family also vacations there over the same holiday week.

The first day we were there, I was in line with Charley at the beach concession stand. They have a special frozen lemonade called Mel’s. It’s only sold there, and I’d been looking forward to having it since the end of our trip last year. I was just standing there waiting in line when all of a sudden someone cut in line behind me and elbowed me in the back. I turned around to see Billy Winthrop staring at me with a stupid grin on his face. He leaned forward and whispered in my ear, ‘Wrong school, Pearl. Next year’s Topaz only. Try somewhere you won’t drag the rest of us down.’

In that moment I hated Billy Winthrop more than anything in the world. Several weeks later, my parents and I went to Scoopers, the local ice cream shop. Once again Billy was there, and he started in again. My mother saw what he did and confronted him. Billy’s parents were there, and our two families had a meeting in a private room. It came out that Billy’s parents were constantly fighting and disrupting Billy and his sister’s life at home. Billy had been acting out, and his parents put him in anger management counseling. Billy apologized for the way he had been treating me. Between the apology and understanding why Billy had been treating me badly, I didn’t hate him nearly as much.

Any romantic involvement?

Not yet.

What’s your favorite drink, color, and relaxing pastime?

My favorite drink is Mel’s frozen lemonade, which is only available at the concession stand at the beach in Oceanside. My favorite pastime is divided into two parts. First is spending time with my friends, and second is hiking in the woods with my dog Charley. I also enjoy reading and learning new things.

Can you share a secret with us, which you’ve never told anyone else?

I don’t have many secrets, but the one thing I never told anyone, including my parents, is my wish to have a sibling, sister or brother. I was adopted as a baby and couldn’t have hand-picked better adoptive parents. I knew they couldn’t have a biological child, which they wanted very badly. I wonder if they would have adopted a second child if they knew how much I wanted to have a sibling.


Robert Pais spent nearly a decade as a CPA before spending the next thirty years building and running his own vending machine businesses. After a career defined by numbers and then self-employment, he turned to storytelling and found that the questions he’d always cared most about weren’t financial ones. They were about fairness, identity, and what kind of world we’re building for the next generation. Bob lives in Massachusetts with his wife of almost 39 years, Rhonda. He enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren in Rhode Island and his daughter in Philadelphia.

You can find Izzy on the pages of Izzy’s Dilemma, and the sequel Izzy’s Becoming.

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