Carrying Onward

APRIL 7, ****

Dear Diary,

Okay, here we go. I am writing in you, Diary, because of an English assignment. Our teacher wants us to try to write in a journal, or diary, every day. She says we can write about what happened to us that day, or our feelings at the moment, or even about a favorite TV show, as long as we try to write something, every. Single. Day. According to her, it will help improve our communication and writing skills because she says, "the youth of today only know how to speak IM". That's not true...we speak emojii more fluently than IM now. She's old though, like, 41, so whatever. Anyway, the point of the exercise is to just write. So, that is what I will be doing. She says that we are to turn in these every week on Thursday, so she can just make sure we are doing the assignment, and that she won't actually read anything we write, unless something catches her eye, like someone saying they want to hurt themselves, or something like that.

I don't know what she expects us to write about, really. I mean, myself, most of my free time is actually kind of boring. I have a few friends, or at least, people I call my friends, and we don't really do anything crazy. I go to a few parties here and there with them, but mostly, my life is kind of boring. My family moved to this town about 3 years ago, and I'm still seen as "the new kid" by most of my classmates. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met Sally. My first day, she came up to me at lunch (I had been eating by my lunch, how stereotypical, I know). At first I pretended to not see her, I mean, I was just another dorky 9th grader, and she looked so much older and cooler than me (make up, it's magic). She wouldn't let it go.

"Hey, you're new right?" she asked. I looked at her, and I'm sure I was just bug eyed, like a startled deer, because she laughed a little, but not a mean laugh, you know? More like amused and caught off-guard. "I'm Sally, I think we have third period together."

"Oh, okay," I said. "Um, my name is Nicole. My family just moved here last week."

Sally, she was so cool, so confident, she grabbed my lunch, told me I was going to eat with her, and started walking away. I followed, and she introduce me to her other friends, Laci, George, and Becky. George and Becky, they were really nice and friendly, but it took Laci longer to like me. I guess she had been Sally's number one for a long time, and she thought I was going to ruin that for her. I guess I kind of did, because Sally and I had started hanging out a lot, studying together, taking turns sleeping over at each other's houses, and talking about crushes. Laci didn't want anything to do with me at first, but Sally must have said something to her, because eventually she started coming over for hangouts and study sessions, but only at Sally's. Laci still won't be around me solo, not for very long anyway, but at least she doesn't try to shut me out, which is progress, even after all this time. Okay, I need to stop for now. I still have other homework to do. Guess I'll talk to you tomorrow.