Emma

New Students Don't Bite, Emma

Emma and Jeremy are two best friends, who've now endured 7th grade together.  Friends who have no complexities in their relationship.  However, despite the road her mother took in middle school history is not so easily repeated.  You can't just marry your middle school sweetheart, especially when you're still in the eighth grade.  Along with that, there are totally many fish in the sea, and Emma is about to find that out.

Oh, September, how Emma loathed it.  She had previously loved school so much that she'd come early and try to find any way to discover that talent she was still looking for, and she'd always come in to help Jeremy read before breakfast.  He started taking a liking to new books, especially one's that Emma's mother had written and published.  He hoped to find a glimmer of their life in it somewhere, understand them a little better. 

Emma's favorite was a book titled "You, Me and and the Atlantic".  Which was set in a time without phones.  But there were boats, and by mistake, a girl in a settlement town received a letter from overseas by mistake and fell in love with the writer of the letter.  It was Jeremy's favorite too.  He quietly sat beside her, and looked over her shoulder to see how things were doing.  8th grade wasn't simple math, or standard English anymore, and Emma hated it with a passion.

She wanted to understand big words, so she'd look them up, but she'd take forever to pronounce them.  She liked learning new words - maybe she could be a writer like he mother after all.  But then again her strides in academia were all-star worthy and she could've easily won the history bee, the spelling bee, and the Math Competition kind of like her father who's only known talents were fixing cars and building bookcases.

Emma was sitting quietly while every other student filed in to complete their work, and start school for the day.  Finally, the teacher, Ms. Walden came in and stood at the room very cheerfully for some reason, and said, "Alright students, we have a new student who's come all the way from Egypt to learn."

Everyone lifted their heads for half a second to wave, and then went back to whatever they were doing.  Emma didn't mind him at all, she paid not a shred of attention to it.  Until the student walked to the front of the room as he was asked.

"Can you introduce yourself?"  Ms. Walden asked.

He seemed to have everyone's attention already.  They seemed to like him, especially his appearance.  Emma was impressed.  She sat beside Jeremy, who was fiddling with his glasses and making faces at the new guy. 

"My name is Cairo."  He announced.  He was really quiet when he spoke.  Nobody raised their hand to try and ask him to repeat himself, he just sat down wherever he felt comfortable.  He happened to sit right down next to Emma and Jeremy. 

Jeremy glared at him, "So, why sit here?  There's a space up front, close to the teacher."

He pulled a pencil out of his pocket.  It was a particular type of pencil, and it had the name Emma, Thomas engraved in it.  "I wanted to meet this girl, she dropped her pencil in the hallway."

Emma grabbed her pencil and smiled, "Thanks newbie."

Jeremy growled a little, but it was nice of the new student to return a random pencil he found in the hallway.  Most people would just keep it.  Emma started writing her notes down.  She hadn't fussed with a teacher in months.  Last time she did, she simply told the teacher, 'There is not a word in the English language that I have studied that yet shows how little I fucking care about your class'.  

Emma and profanities went together well lately, especially since it looked like she'd be the only person not going to the beach party at the end of the school-year.  Granted that was one whole school-year away anyway.  But she already made plans to go with Jeremy, and their pals Ebony, Aden, and Reed.  

Emma handed Cairo a copy of her notes and carried on smiling.  "You know, if you get ahead in this class, the teacher gives pizza to all of her A student's at the end of the month?"

Cairo smiled and said, "I'm not an A student though.  B average at best."

"Do they have this grading system where you're from?"

"Honestly they don't, but this one makes more sense to me."  Cairo replied, "Even though I like the other one much better."

"Take it you've heard some horror stories about the American School System?"

"More than enough."

Jeremy rolled his eyes and Emma scowled at him.  Manners were important among friends.  Emma was taught by her mother that family is what you make it.  It's the family you choose that matters, not just the family you were born with.

Emma didn't know much about the other side of the world, but she did know the capital of Egypt.  "So, your name is Cairo?  Why's that?"

"It was the city I was born in," Cairo laughed, "My mother liked the idea."

Emma laughed a little.  Her mother had been all over the US, and was now starting to get tours in other countries for her books and even some groundbreaking deals for her art . . . it was kinda cool knowing stuff about the world simply because her mother visited once or twice.  It was another thing hearing it from someone who lived in those places their whole lives. 

Emma thought about it a little, her mother had been in some funny named towns before.  She laughed and replied, "Well, be thankful you weren't born in Hooker."

He laughed a little, "Where's that at?"

"Kansas.  My mom took a road-trip back home from school and ran through it.  That town had no gas stations and one hotel."  Emma laughed.  She was still aiming to make a statement on her sense of humor.  But she figured she'd stop right there at a town named Hooker that has one hotel.

Jeremy burst out laughing.  "Well, that's awesome."

As they sat there, Emma started sharing pictures from her phone with Cairo, and Jeremy was writing poetry next to them.  It was pretty specific poetry, the kind that Robert Frost could've written.  Emma waited for the bell to ring.  When she got home today her mother would make the best food she knew how to make today.  It was a family hot-wing recipe that was given to them first by a friend who owned an arcade back in their home town.  Of course, her grandpa made it a little more interesting when he cooked.  They were arcade hot-wings, and onion rings - and Emma couldn't wait to bring her new friends home with her to hang out.

She called her mother when the bell rang and asked if Jeremy and Cairo could come over.  And her mother simply replied, "No, not today Em's."

Her mother sounded a little upset.  Emma had to go home now, by herself, to see what was wrong.  She had to figure out the problem as quick as possible.  While she walked, she did so next to Jeremy and Cairo.  They were all living in the same general space, and walking together seemed like the best option for all of them. 

Cairo took a right and walked a couple blocks down the road to his house.  Emma and Jeremy kept walking, trying to make a little sense of the situation at hand.  Emma was confused, but she didn't know what to do about it.

"So what' s going on at the house?"  Jeremy asked.

"I don't know," Emma continued, "It can't be good, whatever it is."

"So what should I do to help?"

"Nothing, okay?"

He ducked for his house and sprinted across the road, "Whatever it is, I'll be over here if you need my help, okay Em's?"  Jeremy went into his house.

Emma was left with the question of what lied behind her door.  She knew it was going to be bad, but she was ready to march in anyway.  She needed to figure out what this was about.  She picked up the cat from the yard, and braced herself for the oncoming storm.