Janette Lennox

Chapter 5

As Mother Jocelind was escorting Malinda Bradshaw and Silas McGowan back to Bethsaida Chapel, Janette Lennox was busy hiding in the library at Gamaris Academy. She was busy trying to figure out what was the best way to avoid getting lost on the way to Magic 101 when classes began in the morning. She had already missed two classes in a row and to be honest, it was getting to be very embarrassing.

"I need to find a way to leave the Grand Hall early and find the classroom where Magic 101 takes place," she said to herself. Just then, she stopped and glanced around; several people who had overheard her stared at her for a moment, then went back to their tasks. Janette shook her head and pulled out the list of things she had written yesterday:

Janette Lennox’s plan to succeed in Gamaris Academy
1. Focus on everything related to schoolwork.
2. Break all bad habits acquired at Bethsaida.
3. Stop pretending that I am still at Bethsaida.
4. Learn to fit in.
5. Stop crying over my lost childhood.

And then she wrote down the following:

6. Stop talking to myself.
7. Get to all classes on time.

She put the list aside and pulled out the letter that she had written to Brother Methuselah the day before. After a quick search around the library, she spotted a mailbox by the librarian's desk. Students in Gamaris used the mailbox to send letters home to their parents, and all students were required to send a letter home on Saturdays.

After putting the letter in the mailbox, Janette returned to her table and began to read the textbooks that she was given for her classes. If she was going to succeed as a Gamaris student, she was going to need to outdo all the other freshmen in all the required subjects.

Just then, she looked up and saw Dominick Ramsey, Nathan Murray, Tristan Finwick, and Harry Deverill standing over her table. They were red and sweaty, as if they had been outside playing instead of doing homework. Janette said to them, "Uh, shouldn't you boys be doing your homework?"

"But it's a nice day outside," said Harry, "and you've been hiding in here."

"Yeah," said Dominick. "You're telling me that you'd rather waste your time in some boring old library?"

"I do have a lot of homework to do," said Janette, "and I have double for Magic 101 since I somehow keep missing that class. If I don't make the next class, the headmaster will find out."

"You're weird," said Tristan, but Nathan stepped on his foot. Tristan glared at him, but Nathan said, "You better watch it, Tris. That's the headmaster's prized pupil. He won't like it if we start calling her "weirdo" or anything like that."

"Oh, that's OK," said Janette. The boys just stared at her. "I have spent several years at another boarding school and there's no insulting thing that you can call me that I haven't already heard."

"You mean," Dominick began to say, but Janette interrupted him. "I've had to put up with people who didn't like me, thought I was crazy, and even beat me if I chose to be by myself and not socialize with them," she continued. "Although you haven't noticed it, I can see that people around here have tiptoed around me and I don't like it. It makes me feel like I'm a..." she paused for effect.

"Like what?" the boys asked, not knowing what she was about to say.

"OK, I kind of feel like I'm a...freak," Janette cried out, then retracted upon seeing the horrified look on the boys' faces. She frowned, knowing that the other kids at Emmanuel had called her a "freak", "weirdo", "crazy", and the one word that she never wanted to hear again, "selfish". Janette knew that the kids in Bethsaida were wise to hold their tongues whenever she was among them, but the kids at Emmanuel were just flat-out jerks. She also realized, to her dismay, that Malinda and Silas were no better than the rest of them, not if they didn't stand up for her while she was being beaten up by Tyson and following her to Gamaris.