World

Each week Jana’s teacher tries out new seating arrangements, and each week someone does not want to sit next to Jana. She is used to it, she doesn’t know any different. Until Aleena joins the class, a confident girl from Afghanistan, that turns the dynamic in class upside down. Both get invited to the birthday of the bossy class queen, and Jana is suspicious with good reason. Her father can’t help, he is trying in vain to bring home money by playing video games, and money is always tight. But Jana has already found many ways to help herself, even though exhausting. The birthday party eventually turns out as awful as expected, but Jana now sees that she and her father need help from the outside – and that she has found a good friend in Aleena.