As soon as the bell rang for recess, Nick, Daniel, and I practically ran out of the classroom. Well, we ran until Daniel smashed right into a first grader, who started yelling at him.
"Sorry! Sorry!" Daniel apologized, as Nick and I ran up to him and pulled him outside.
"Eighth grade isn't too bad so far," I said, looking around. There were kids everywhere - boys playing basketball, little kids playing with jump-ropes, and other kids just standing there talking.
"Sure," was Nick's response as he rolled his eyes.
"Our teacher hates us!" Daniel complained. "She gave us homework!"
I was about to agree with him when two kids came up to us. I looked at them warily - were they going to turn into Lyxans or try to kill us or something?
Apparently not. "Hi," the girl said, smiling. "You guys are new, right?" She held out her hand. "I'm Amelia, but everyone calls me Amy."
I looked at her hand, then back at her. The boy standing next to her laughed. "She doesn't bite," he said. "I'm Matt, by the way."
I frowned. Well, maybe they weren't Lyxans. "I'm Robyn," I replied, still not shaking Amy's hand. She pulled her hand in quickly and smiled again. Dang, she liked smiling.
"I know who you are, silly! Mrs. Jenkins was yelling at you practically the entire time."
"Right," I said, rolling my eyes. "Glad you noticed."
"I'm Daniel," Daniel told her. "And this is Clanick."
"My name is Nick," Nick said through gritted teeth.
That Amy girl just smiled again. "Hi, Daniel! Hi, Clanick!"
We all laughed. Except for Clanick.
~~::~~
"Okay, class," Mrs. Jenkins said, clapping her hands, "now we are going to dissect a frog." Half of the class groaned. Amy cheered. I got the idea that that girl was way too optimistic.
"We have been preparing for this, as you remember," she continued, "and I will assign you partners."
I looked at Nick, then at Daniel. Assigned partners? That wasn't fair.
Mrs. Jenkins started reading off names. "Ryan and Matt, Nick and Daniel...." I pretty much tuned her out until I heard, "Robynne and Amelia."
"It's just Robyn," I grumbled. Apparently, this lady didn't understand that my name was Robyn.
"Hi!" Amy said, skipping over to me as Mrs. Jenkins started setting up supplies. "We're partners! Isn't that great?"
"If you say so," I muttered, with a shrug. I glanced over at Nick and Daniel - at least they got to be partners.
"This is so exciting," Amy continued babbling as Mrs. Jenkins put a dead frog in front of us. I frowned. Why did we have to dissect things anyway? The last thing I wanted to do was feel like a whitecoat.
"And then I told her that she couldn't come to my birthday party and she got really mad at me, but we're still friends so it's okay!" Amy continued to blab. I guess she didn't realize I was tuning her out. Finally she said, "Right, Robyn?"
"What?" I snapped.
Amy shrunk back in her seat. "Never mind...."
I sighed. I was really bad at this 'fitting in and making new friends' thing, as dad had described it.
For the next half hour or so, I basically just focused on Amy's instructions -seems she was really good at science - until she said, "So, is Clanick your boyfriend?"
"What?" I asked, turning red. "No way! He's...he's my brother!"
"Right," Amy said, a hint of doubt in her voice. I guess my having copper-auburn hair and ice blue eyes didn't exactly make me look like Nick's sister - especially since he had dark hair, amber eyes and olive skin.
"He's kinda cute, you know," Amy said, smiling real big.
I made an 'ew' face at her. "He's my brother, stupid. I don't exactly care if he's cute."
Amy peered at my face. "You're turning red." She frowned like she was thinking, then smiled again. "He's not really your brother, is he?"
"Shut it!" I yelled, slamming my hand over her mouth. Amy, in turn, licked my hand.
"HEY!" I shouted, then lowered my voice because Mrs. Jenkins was giving me the evil eye again. "I mean, hey. You can't talk like that. Of course he's my brother."
"But not....your related brother," Amy finished, a triumphant smirk on her face.
I frowned, crossing my arms over my chest. "Fine, whatever. He's my....adopted brother. But what do you care?"
"You liiiike him," Amy teased.
"No, I don't!" I insisted, but my face was still really hot.
Amy just did that really big smile again. "Well, he's cute. Do you think he'd want to be my boyfriend?"
~~::~~
Well, the day pretty much went downhill from there.
Amy insisted on being Nick's 'tour guide' and showed him all around the school. She even got to sit next to him! Then at lunch, she stuck herself right in between me and Nick at our table. I gave up and went to sit on the other side of the table with Daniel, who was talking to Matt about explosions.
I kept telling myself, It's okay, she just wants to be our friend. But she really seemed like she only wanted to be Nick's friend.
At the end of the day, we got on the bus to go home - dad said that we weren't allowed to fly home. Katie sat next to me and started blabbing about her day in fifth grade and telling me about how they watched the Magic School Bus and worked on spelling and writing.
Max happily sat next to Daniel and talked about how excited he was to dissect a frog once he got to eigth grade.
And guess who sat next to Nick?
That's right - Amy.
"Did you know that my favorite show is American Idol?" she was telling him. "I watch it every time it's on, and I love all the singers! Even the bad ones! Do you watch that show?"
"Yeah," Nick said, sarcasictly.
"Oh my gosh! Really? That is so cool! You should come over to my house and we can watch it together!"
"Uggggh," I muttered, pressing my face against the window. "Kill me now."
"What's wrong?" Katie asked.
I looked back at her, managing a smile. "It's nothing, don't worry. I think the 'being a scientist' thing kind of got to me."
Katie made a face. "Frogs, yuck!"
I laughed. "Yeah."
Finally, the bus got to our stop and we got off - I was relieved to get away from Amy.
Then that Amy girl stuck her head out the window and started waving. "Bye guys!"
I managed a wave, mentally rolling my eyes.
Then she looked at Nick and blew a kiss. "I love you, Clanick!"
Katie and I looked at each other in surprise. Daniel's face showed confusion. Nick just looked oblivious.
She didn't really just say that...
Did she?
