I was doing it again. Making it all about myself, but that’s all I have left now, myself. Walking down the halls of school, alone, just like I had so many times before. But this time was different because I knew in my bones Katie wouldn’t be back, ever. No matter how much I hoped for her return.
Chapter 5
I walked into first period and took my usual seat next to Katie’s empty desk. Even when she had been too busy to hang out with me, we always sat next to each other in first period English and caught up on the gossip of the day. It was our perfect, little oasis from the rest of life. Now, it was nothing but an inanimate object that held hundreds of memories of Katie.
“Sit down, class!” Mrs. Hooper said from the front of the room. She was a tall woman, and slender, with wild hair like she was caught in a tornado and never bothered to fix herself up afterwards. She retained that aesthetic: from her windswept hair down to her cockeyed glasses, through her wrinkled lime-green dress, and down to her mismatched socks. She was a train wreck disaster, but she was our train wreck. English was the only class Katie and I enjoyed, mostly because we could enjoy it together.
“Class,” Mrs. Hooper yelled again. “Settle down.”
How could she expect teenagers to settle down first thing in the morning? There was so much to discuss, and so much energy to dispel. My fellow classmates shuffled loudly to their seats, scooting in their metal chairs with all the grace of a herd of water buffaloes.
“We have a new student with us today,” Mrs. Hooper said. The class responded with a chorus of groans. “I know it’s already crowded in here, but we’re just going to have to make do.”
Budget cuts whittled down our teachers and ballooned our class sizes until the classrooms were all bursting at the seams with students. Luckily, I didn’t mind being lost in the cacophony of other students. I was just as happy to be overlooked in a big group as I was in a small one. Of course, Katie never let that happen when she could help it. She always tried to get me involved, even when all I wanted to do was slouch down in my chair and be forgotten.
“Anna Aguilar!” Mrs. Hooper called out.
“Present,” I said, though I was hesitant. Nothing good came from the teacher calling on you.
“Can you raise your hand, please?” Mrs. Hooper called out. I was being blocked by Butch, the star linebacker of the football team and my personal barrier from ever being called on by the teacher except when Katie singled me out.
“It’s already raised,” I said, waving my hand back and forth.
Mrs. Hooper looked around the room. “Can you stand, then?”
I pushed my desk out and stood up. Standing next to the teacher was a short girl with dark skin and thick, circular glasses. She wore a blue jean jacket adorned with patches and pins, and a strip of purple hair ran down the center of her frizzy hair.
“Ah, there you are,” Mrs. Hooper said. “This is Samantha Sinclair. Would you do her a favor and help bring her up to speed on the comings and goings of the school?”
“Why me?” I asked.
“Well,” Mrs. Hooper said. She stumbled for more words. “I think that’s better discussed in private.”
“Then I’m going to have to decline,” I replied, clearing my throat.
“I’m afraid that’s not an option. I was just asking to be polite.”
I cocked my head and frowned. “Right, I forgot this isn’t a democracy. So then, at least tell me, why, oh why, do I have this honor?”
“Because she’s going to be seated next to you,” Mrs. Hooper said. “And she can use a friend. After…well, you could use a new friend, too.”
The whole class burst out in laughter. The teacher was trying to set me up on a playdate. How pathetic I must have seemed to them, and how little I cared about their pity.
Samantha clutched her notebook tight to her chest. It was covered with all sorts of scribblings and scratchings: pentagrams and cartoon characters and little monster doodles. As she came down the aisle toward me, she gave a slight smile, which I did not return. She needed a friend, somebody who could make her feel comfortable in her new school, but that wasn’t me.
She took Katie’s seat. A new person was coming in and usurping Katie’s seat. The poor girl needed a friend and I recognized that, but I hated her immediately because she was not Katie, and I hated her because the moment she sat down it solidified that Katie would never come back and sit there ever again.
Samantha had ruined the one thing I liked about school.
Chapter 6
Samantha followed me out of class and down the hall. I turned to her, trying not to reveal the venom I felt for her. “So, I guess I’m your tour guide to the worst place on Earth, huh?”
“I guess so,” Samantha said. “Is this place really that bad?”
I was thinking of a way to sugar coat my loathing of school when Principal Foster waved at me from down the hall. He was a bald, light-skinned black man in a perfectly tailored suit. His shoes glistened in the fluorescent lights as he stepped through the hallway.
“Ah good, Miss Aguilar,” Principal Foster said with a
