Kara's Cross

Walking into fifth period English class, the first thing I notice is the black-haired kid. He looks up at me as I come into the room, stares for a moment and then looks back down at his notebook. As I pass his desk, I notice he is filling a page with doodles. I continue on to my desk.

“Hey, Arabella,” a blonde girl sitting to the right of my desk nudges the girl in front of her, “look who I get to sit by, the nerd who blows chunks.”

Not sure how to react, I ignore her and look down at my desktop. Maddie is sitting in front of me, still as a statue.

A tall, slender girl with beautiful strawberry red, curly hair turns around and glances at me. She raises an eyebrow and smirks as she turns back around.

“Oh, and you must be her nerd friend,” the girl turns her attention to Maddie, “are you going to throw up on one of the teachers, too?”

Maddie sinks down a little into her desk, but doesn’t speak or look at them.

“I’m sure Mrs. Olson will give you both some yummy tweats after class for being such good wittle pets for her.”

This is stupid. I don’t even know this girl, why is she doing this? Isn’t the bell supposed to ring soon? Why isn’t the teacher here?

“Leave them alone, Dani.”

The black-haired boy in the front of the room has turned around to face the girl.

The girl with red hair, Arabella, suddenly becomes interested. She turns around to look at Dani, who looks stunned someone would give either one of them an order. Arabella shifts her attention to glare at us and then up at the boy in front.

“They’re a couple of stupid geeks, Logan, they deserve what they get.”

“Shut up, Arabella.”

“You don’t tell me what to do, I’ll...”

“You’ll do nothing but sit down and behave, Miss Allendar. You, too, Mr. Bernard.”

Our English teacher, Mrs. Olson, is standing in the doorway glaring at them, daring them to argue. Arabella repositions herself in her desk and moves her attention to the front of the room. Logan turns briefly in my direction, an unusual look on his face, then turns around and places his head down on his arms.

“Now, class,” Mrs. Olson walks to the center of the room and focuses her attention on everyone, “if you’re ready to learn today, we can begin. Take out your copies of LifeWild. We are going to be discussing points of view today.”

I lean up as close as I can to Maddie while I get the book out of my backpack.

“Maddie” I whisper, “I think we should give up on Operation Bookworm for the rest of the day.”

She doesn’t turn around or speak, but nods her agreement.

For the rest of the period, Maddie and I only answer questions if called upon and Arabella takes any and every opportunity to glare at us and up in Logan’s direction, but Dani, on the other hand, acts as if we don’t even exist. I don’t know what is up with Logan. He keeps his head down most of the period, until Mrs. Olson tells him he will get detention if he doesn’t wake up. I can’t help but feel guilty. I should thank him.

When the bell rings, I gather my stuff so I can try to catch up with Logan, but he is out of the door before I am even packed. I look both ways when I get into the hallway, but I don’t see him anywhere.

Someone bumps into me from behind. Turning to apologize, I end up coming face to face with Arabella. Dani is behind her, appearing not to be paying any attention to us.

“Stay out of my way,” she commands, facing me down. “C’mon, Dani.”

Dani looks surprised to hear her name and hurries after Arabella as she walks down the hall.

“What is the deal with her?” Maddie comes up beside me and we begin walking. “We should probably avoid her.”

It would probably be easier for all of us if we did.

“Yeah, you’re right,” I mumble before changing the subject. “Wasn’t it weird how you were pointing out that Logan guy today and then he did that in class? Do you think he was being nice to us, or he would have done it for anyone being picked on?”

“I don’t know. He was staring at you earlier, so I think he likes you or something. You’ve got a bodyguard.”

She says the last part with a teasing musical melody.

“Whatever, Maddie. Maybe he likes you and wants to get in good with your best friend.”

“Hmm,” She smiles, “that would be alright. He’s kind of cute, and obviously a nice guy, I’d take him.”

She starts laughing, clearly not believing her hypothesis.

We’re approaching the section of the building where we have to split up to go to our classes.

“See ya in PE, Maddie.”

“Hey wait a second,” she stops near the side of the hall. “Did you want to come over to my house this afternoon? My mom already said it would be okay.”

“Sure,” I nod, “I’ll have to ask my dad, but I have a feeling he’ll agree. Sounds like fun. Have fun in Social Studies, Mr. Booth asks a ton of questions today, so be ready, but don’t volunteer.”

“You don’t have to worry about me. See you after,” she calls back to me as she walks toward her class. I notice as soon as she is a couple of feet away, she hunches a bit and lowers her head. Neither one of us is having any luck at this school. A wave of disappointed sadness courses through my body as I walk to Choir. There has to be a way for us to fit in here.