New School, New Problem

Chapter 1

She walked through the empty halls and fingered the pass in between her hands. 211... 211... the room number flashed through her mind and then appeared on a silver-plated tag on the door. "211," She muttered, breathlessly, and let her hand rest on the handle of the doorknob. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it down and let the heavy wooden door swing open.

22 faces curiously peered at the newcomer as the wood door squeaked. Jenn blushed ever-so-slightly and took a hesitant step before a grey-haired lady walked up to her. "And you are...?" Jenn's silver-blue eyes searched the woman's face before responded quietly, "Jennifer Hills." Breaking out into a smile, the older lady beckoned the 13-year old into the classroom and shut the door behind her. "I am Ms. Hanover, but you may call me Ms. H. I will be your English teacher. There is an open seat right over there--" Ms. H pointed to a desk near the center of the naturally-lit room. Jenn responded brightly, "I believe in calling teachers by their full name, Ms. Hanover. Thank you." Jenn cast an eye over the rest of the class as she weaved her way to her seat. As she seated, Ms. Hanover resumed the class, taking out a ruler and with it, pointing to different words on the board. While the English teacher drilled into their minds the difference between Verbs and Nouns, Jenn let her mind wander.

Jenn looked around. Ten small windows dotted the top back of the classroom, casting a soft glow on the rest of the fairly clean and neat room. Shelves with books organized neatly on them lined the side walls and the desks were in perfect rows of 7, all facing the front of the room, where a dusty chalkboard which had seen better days hung and a potted plant stood proud to the left of it. A normal teacher desk faced the class with organized papers stacked in short piles on top. A coffee mug with pens and pencils sat upon the right corner facing the class and a pear sat on the left. Tiled floors and white ceilings free of any wear made the room seem more of an office. 

Jenn looked down at the paper Ms. Hanover was passing out and giggled. It was a pop quiz. But what she found so funny wasn't that-- no, it was that these questions were for, well, 6th graders. And while Jenn was a 6th Grader, what her new school did not know is that she had a High School degree in, well, almost everything. Except for math. Math sucks.

Jenn looked up at Ms. Hanover when she realized that her English teacher was looking at her funny. "Yes?" She asked politely. Ms. Hanover gave a chuckle and said, "I may have just been imagining it-- my ears are old, you know-- but did you just giggle?"

Jenn slumped down in her seat and gave out the tiniest sigh ever. Great. Could you say it louder please? She thought before straightening her spine and responding quietly, "Yes." 

Ms. Hanover broke out into a smile and said cheerily, "Good luck!" As she returned to her desk, Jenn let a thought scud across her mind and put her cold fingers to her temples. I'll need it. Already she was getting a headache.

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Jenn peered out from under her brown bangs at the rest of the class. Her long brown hair covered the paper so as to not show the rest of the class she was done. In five minutes. The freckles along her face seemed to brighten as blush crept up her neck before one of her mother's many quotes rang in her ears- "Don't be embarrassed for who you are. Be embarrassed because they are jealous."  Jenn closed her eyes as the throbbing migraine swept through her temples and with that, memories.

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"Is your brain overloading? Is that why you've got those stupid headaches?"

"No, she's going into shutdown mode."

"You're such a robotic freak!"

"Hey, robot, give me the definition of freak. Oh wait, it's you!"

"Hey wimp, first day of school I thought that the staff had bought a maintenance robot. Turns out it was you!"

Jenn clutched her schoolbooks close to her chest and brushed away the tears that were falling before rushing away. She didn't get far before a  brown-haired girl, with long locks and dark chestnut hair, tripped her. As the bruised Jenn looked up, she noticed that Jasmine's posse-- Sunny, a girl with pale yellow hair pulled up into a ponytail, and Alexis, a tall teen with brown wavy hair and makeup plastered over her face like some artificial freak crowd around Jenn. That was the last thing Jenn remembered before a designer pink shoe slammed into her face.

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Jenn pinched herself to bring her back to the present, then realized that tears were silently dripping down her nose. Quickly, before any of her classmates noticed, she brushed them away with her wool sweater's sleeve. But maybe one of her classmates did notice? A girl with pixie-short blonde hair was looking at her with a queer expression on her face. Jenn quickly looked away, thoughts racing through her head. Did that girl notice the tears? Was she like Jasmine, Sunny or Alexis? Was she going to push her over in the hallways, trip her during lunch, and stomp on her precious books? Was she going to make fun of Jenn for her freckles, for her hair, for her "totally un-cool" clothes and her lack of makeup? As all these thoughts ran through her head, the bell rang, high and shrill, like a five-year-old shrieking. Jenn stood up, pushing her chair away, and snatched her backpack up from under her desk. As she rose from the crouching position necessary to grab her backpack, she noticed shiny designer boots, feet included and with that, a body, waiting by her desk. Slowly, but with her heart pounding, Jenn rose, then noticed others, both boys and girls, in a circle around her desk. With blush madly creeping along her dotted face, Jenn faced her opponent, a girl with long dark brown hair and cunning green eyes, with the slightest smattering of freckles along her face, just enough to make adults say "Oh, how cute!" and give her a cookie. But Jenn has seen these types of faces before. Hr heart in her throat, she managed to croak out a "Hi." The girl with pixie hair hovered near the edge of the circle, her grey-blue eyes cast downwards. 

Sassy girl, who crowded Jenn, tapped one of her friends on the shoulder and whispered something in her ear. They both snickered like hyenas before examining Jenn. "So, new girl," she said, putting scorning emphasis on "new girl", "What's your name? Isn't it something so original like Jennifer?" Jenn rose her head from examining a scratch on her thumb and responded, "Yes, but I'm nowhere near original." As smart as Jenn might be, she knew that saying that just sunk herself. Oh crap. Well, it's all over for me. The scorning girl snickered again, a shrill, high pitched noise that hurt Jenn's ears, and smiled. Both the antagonist and the antagonee knew what was coming next. "You totally are not normal, new girl. Believe me." 

The next words Jenn was planning on saying-- "I never said I wasn't normal. I said I wasn't original,"-- got stuck in her throat as tears threaten to swim in her eyes. Without another word, she slung her backpack over her shoulder, but the group of kids crowded closer. Sassy girl smirked, her nose high in the air, and said, "I never said you could leave, idiot."

Where's Ms. Hanover? Please say Ms. Hanover is still here. Please.  Jenn spotted her English teacher hovering at her desk, her eyes uncertain. Sassy girl caught Jenn's gaze and snorted. "If you think this school has any power over me, you're wrong. The sole reason they have any money is because my dad pays for it. He insists I go to this dump to 'learn something'," she said, making air quotes with her long fingers, and turned back to Jenn. "I want to see how she did on her test." She told the crowd, jabbing for Jenn's paper. Jenn jerked it back and accidentally shoved the girl away. With wide eyes, the antagonist looked at her, incredulous. "Do you know who I am, new girl? I am Britany Welsh, richest girl here in Northern Connecticut County. You're just a mule compared to me." With a flick of her wrist, Brittany had Jenn's paper clutched tightly and firmly in her fist and looked it over. "Wow. These answers are almost... robotic." She let that word, tinged with poison, insert itself into Jenn's brain. Britany shoved the paper back at Jenn, but Jenn, frozen in shock, let it fall to the ground, crumpled. Snorting, Britany twirled around and tossed one last dagger behind her. "For somebody supposedly so smart, you sure are so dumb." 

As the rest of the crowd followed Britany, nobody saw the tears fall from Jenn's nose onto the ground.