St. Keller, Maine
St. Keller Middle School
The morning is a blur. Kids are everywhere,rushing to sign up for classes before the lists fill up. By the end of Rush Hour, my schedule looks like this.
1st-History
2nd-Math
3rd-Science
4th-PE
5th-Lunch
6th-Language Arts
7th-Technology Advancement
8th-Choir
The common core classes were picked in advance, but the electives (Choir and Tech) were what I picked. Toby shows me his schedule,and it looks like this.
1st-Language Arts
2nd-Science
3rd-History
4th-PE
5th-Lunch
6th-Math
7th-Technology Advancement
8th-Drama
We have 4th,5th,and 7th period together. Toby says he'll try to find me at lunch, so we can sit together. But until then, I'm on my own.
Once I find my history class, I am directed to sit next to a tall girl with blond hair and green eyes. She looks nothing like me: I'm short, with the longest brown hair you've ever seen, and the bluest eyes in the world. In fact, I'm the only one in my family with blue eyes. Everyone else has brown.
Except for Dad. He has my eyes.
I shake those thoughts out of my head and introduce myself to the girl: "Hi, I'm Athena Nielsen. I like writing poetry. What's your name?"
The girl replies quickly, "Oh my gosh, it's so wonderful to meet you! I'm Danielle, but you can call me Dani." I can already tell Dani is not like the 5th graders at the elementary school. I had just moved here, and the 5th grade "Queen Bees" had labeled me the "weird new girl." But Dani seems nice and friendly. She has 5th period lunch, too, and she says she'll eat lunch with me and Toby. She also has Language Arts and Choir with me. Later at lunch, I look around for Toby, and find him sitting with another guy. "Athena, this is Will. Will, Athena." Will smiles and gets a big stack of baseball cards from his pocket. He and Toby are immersed in a trading session when Dani finds me. As she takes her seat, she yells, "Dani Manors in the house!"
Will asks me, "Do you know her?"
I nod and he says, "I'm going to ask Makayla Cameron out."
Then he and Toby get into a whole discussion over the pros and cons of asking out Makayla, and Dani and I talk about our families: Her parents died in a car crash when she was 1, she has an older sister named Alexandra (Alex, 13 and in 8th grade) and she lives at Shady Grove nursing home, sharing a room with her grandparents and sister. She was homeschooled until now, because the middle school and high school are next to the nursing home.
"The elementary school was to far to walk." she says.
"When my sister started 6th grade, I was so jealous, because she had friends and I stayed home all day. But now, I'm in school and I have you!" I can tell Dani is hyper because she's never been able to let off her energy before, and I'm happy she is able to now.
Dani gives me her phone number, and promises to call me after school. The rest of the day passes quickly, and I'm home before I know it. True to her word, Dani calls me at 3:32.
"Okay girl, we got some stuff to talk about. Now please, be honest with me: DO YOU LIKE TOBY?!" I think about it for a minute. I'm not really sure what "liking someone" means, and liking someone leads to love,which just breaks and burns and ends. Goodbye. That's all. Period.
But still.... Did I?
"Umm Dani,I really don't know. Probably not more than friends."
"Okaaay-I just wanted to know, because today, his brother asked out my sister."
"Mike asked out Alex?! Are you serious!? What did she say?!
"She said yes- and it's only the first day of school!
Me and Dani gossip about Alex until Nana Edith tells me to get off my phone. Now, I can hardly wait for school tomorrow!
