Kate

Chapter 1

 "Kate! Come down now!" I heard my mom's voice calling me. "Yes, Mom!" I groaned and forced myself out of bed. Today was the first day of seventh grade. I should have been excited, instead I was anything but. I looked through my closet and selected a plaid skirt, a white tee, and a jean jacket, then ran a brush through my red hair.

My older sister Isabelle told me that blue eyes and red hair are the rarest combination and that it's very special... but I certainly did NOT ask for these frizzy, untamable red curls. 

Ugh. I needed coffee very badly. Let me tell you right now, all that stuff about coffee stunting your growth is NOT true. I'm very tall. Too tall, I think. So, coffee doesn't stunt your growth, but maybe it accelerates it!

Downstairs at the kitchen table, my mom set a bowl of oatmeal and firmly told me that she wanted to see the bowl completely cleaned before I could leave the table, so I sighed and began to spoon strawberries on the mushy mound, while brooding over the challenges that seventh grade presented.

"What do want in your lunch, sweetheart?"

"I dunno. You decide."

"A hard-boiled egg, a PB&J, carrots, and... a cupcake." Then she yelled, "Rowena! Come downstairs now!"

My little sister trudged downstairs, running her fingers through her curly, red-gold hair and sleepily blinking her dark green eyes. 

"Rowena, eat this entire bowl of oatmeal." said my mom over her shoulder while stacking dishes in the cupboard. "Katie, you can leave the table now. Go brush your teeth. I'll put your lunch box in your backpack, hun. Ask Ash if he'll drive you. Rowena, finish your bowl quickly and-"

I slipped into the bathroom to brush my teeth, then knocked on my older brother Athanasius' door. He opened it. "What's up?"

"Can you drive me to school?"

"Sure, you ready?"

"Yes."

"Then come one."

I sat silently in the car with with my black backpack slung over my shoulder and swinging my feet. Rowena sat in the back, quiet as well. Ash, though, talked non-stop till I thought the twenty minute would never end.

But it did, and as I walked to my classroom, I thought, "Seventh grade has officially begun." I walked inside.