The Strange and Unusual Case of Lake Barton

4: The New Girl

Nestletown Middle School had a dress code. It also had a uniform. Students were given the option between one or the other. Alex Rodrigues had chosen neither.

First of all, Alex had never even thought of wearing the uniform. On the first day of sixth grade, he had been the only student to show up in casual wear. Since then, most people had abandoned the shades of blue that made up the Nestletown Middle uniform. Only a few faithfuls still clung onto their old school outfit.

But Alex had gone further than that. Every day since the beginning of sixth grade, Alex had broken a dress code rule. Hood on indoors? Check. Hat on indoors? Check. Wearing sandals? Check. Long hair on a boy? Check. Exposed midriff? Check. The first few times, Alex had been given detention or sent to the principal's office. But after a while, nobody seemed to care. More people followed in his footsteps. The school board even abolished some rules, like the regulation of boys' hair lengths. Thank goodness for that. Now, Alex's typical outfit consisted of jeans, Ugg boots, a red flannel shirt, and over that, a denim vest lined with faux fur. His hair, he kept in a top knot with the sides shaved. He kept up every element of this outfit during the school year, no matter how hot the weather. He did it to look cool, to stand out from the crowd, to give himself a reputation.

But all this, he kept to himself. Most Nestletown students remembered him most for his frequent visits to the principal's office in sixth grade. Most could not remember why they happened. Most people did not know of him as a pioneer, breaking down gender norms in the dress code. Instead they knew him as a bully. And Alex figured that if they saw a bully, they got a bully.

Today, during lunch period, he was making his normal rounds. He met up with his friends over by the bike rack, then walked around and gazed out at everybody avoiding him. It got a bit frustrating after a while, nobody trusting you. Everybody expecting nothing from you but something mean and ruthless. Alex tried to keep that part of him away, but it always came back eventually.

There she was. That new girl. The one with the blonde hair. She was sitting on a bench near the side entrance to the school. The sun shone bright on her as she munched on what looked like a sandwich bought from the grocery down the block. It was sure a bright day. In the light, the girl's hair looked blindingly white.

He strode over to the bench, his friends in tow. The girl looked up. Her eyes looked bored, lonely, but as she spied Alex, that seemed to leave her. She smiled.

Alex shivered as the bully in him left. He smiled back. It felt refreshing. His friend Tompkin, wearing all black, gave him a look. Alex tried his best to ignore it.

Alex tried to tone it down. He forced the bully back into his body. It felt nauseating and uncomfortable. Alex felt his face forced back into a neutral expression.

His eye twitched.

"Hey!" said the girl, waving shyly as they gathered around her bench. She placed her sandwich down on top of her green and pink backpack, which sat next to her on the bench. "Alex, right?"

Alex didn't know what to say. It wasn't often that new students recognized him by their second day. He answered with a stiff nod, trying to hold in a smile.

"Cool," she said, lowering her eyes awkwardly. Alex noticed that today she was wearing green corduroy pants and a long-sleeved shirt that was somewhere between the colors of pink and orange. Yesterday she had been wearing the uniform, skirt and all. To put it in the words of today's youth, she had ditched it. Alex thought that this outfit fit her much better. But the pinkish-orangish color didn't seem right on such a quiet girl. The color was too bright and fizzy, like sherbert, or off-brand gum.