Chapter One
Perrine
There was a new girl in the Krelboyne class. Caroline introduced her to everyone; her name was Perrine, and she was French, but had come to the US from England. Malcolm and his friends eyed her curiously. She was tall with shoulderlength brown hair and bangs, with light brown eyes and glasses with black plastic frames. She was dressed in brightly coloured clothes and she was holding a blue shoulderbag with ''I Love My Bag'' written on it.
''Now, Perrine's gonna need someone to show her round for the next few days,'' Caroline told them all, ''What about you, Cynthia?''
Malcolm rolled his eyes as his eccentric friend jumped up, nodding eagerly, and yelled, ''I'd love to! Hi, Perrine!''
Perrine looked baffled and slightly scared, but she said ''Hi.'' She had a sort-of French, sort-of British accent.
''Perrine, why don't you go sit down next to Cynthia?'' Caroline suggested. Cynthia sat right next to Malcolm, so Perrine was two seats away from him.
''Hi,'' he said as she sat down.
''Hello.'' she replied.
''Now class, I've got some really exciting news,'' said Caroline, ''I'm sure a lot of you watch the Disco Dancing Academy on TV - but for those of you who don't, it's a show where disco dancing talent scouts travel round the world to different schools, holding auditions to recruit new dancers and train them. And this year, they've chosen to come to our school!''
Malcolm looked around at his classmates; some of them looked happy, some curious, some terrified, some shocked. Dabney, sitting on the other side of his best friend Stevie, was picking his nose.
''So, the auditions will be held from Monday to Wednesday, week after next,'' Caroline continued, ''I hope everyone will give it a try. But moving on, today we are studying...''
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At break, Cynthia insisted that Perrine came with them to sit down at the benches. ''By the way, my friends are Malcolm, Lloyd, Dabney and Stevie,'' she told the new girl, pointing them out one by one. ''You'll have to teach us all to speak French,'' she said brightly, ''I'm going to Europe next year.''
Perrine smiled. ''Maybe I will. Hey, we should do that disco thing Caroline was talking about! I love disco dancing!''
There was silence as all the Krelboynes looked at Perrine, wondering if she was for real.
''Um, ok,'' said Cynthia, just to fill the silence, ''Thats, uh...cool.''
''It is,'' agreed Perrine, ''Maybe tomorrow you can all come over to mine and we can practice. Imagine if we got on the show, we could be famous!
''Yeah! That would be so cool!'' Cynthia enthused, ''We could enter the school talent contest too.''
''No way,'' said Malcolm. ''The only people who do the talent contest are losers... Like Jessica.''
They all looked round to where he was pointing...a plump girl with crazy curly hair was sitting alone on another bench.
''Francesca Foskey's not a loser,'' Cynthia countered, ''and she's always in the talent contest.''
Malcolm rolled his eyes once more, though it was true - Francesca was the prettiest, most popular girl in the school and she had won the talent contest with her dance to ''Candyman'' for the last three years.
''Yeah,'' he said, ''But Francesca's popular. Everyone votes for her because everyone's friends with her.''
''Who cares,'' said Cynthia, ''We can still enter and have fun. Plus maybe be on TV!''
''Yeah,'' said Lloyd and Dabney together.
''Stevie, what about you?'' Perrine asked.
''I can't...dance,'' Stevie said sarcastically, gesturing to his wheelchair, ''I have two.... left wheels.''
''Anyone can dance disco,'' said Perrine, ''you don't need your legs! So, who's for coming over to mine tomorrow night?''
''Me!'' said Cynthia.
''Me too!'' said Lloyd and Dabney together. Malcolm figured they were glad to get an invitation to someone's house - especially a girl! - it wasn't something that happened to them very often.
Stevie sighed. ''Me...three.''
Malcolm shook his head. ''Count me out. I don't enjoy committing social suicide.''
''Not on purpose anyway,'' Cynthia muttered.
''You're so funny,'' he said dryly.
Just then, the school bell rang, and Cynthia led the group back to class. Malcolm admired her in a way - she was so open and friendly to the new girl - but sometimes he wished she'd turn it down a bit, she was so forward it was embarrassing. He could tell his friend was already starting to get on Perrine's nerves a little.
It turned out Perrine's house wasn't far away from his, and somehow he ended up walking home with her.
''So, uh, how do you like America?''
''I don't know really, I guess I haven't seen much of it yet,'' said Perrine. ''I liked England but it was so cold all the time. I preferred French weather!''
Malcolm nodded. ''I've never been to either,'' he said, ''we were supposed to go to Paris last year but my brothers and I got grounded and my parents went alone.''
She laughed. ''Bad boy.''
He shrugged. ''They overreacted. It was only one dog. And it was ugly.''
She laughed again. Except for the disco thing, Malcolm thought, she wasn't actually too weird. He wondered why she was even in the accelerated learning class. Probably something to do with being bilingual, he thought, plus she'd said something about taking her grade 8 violin exam, which had to be quite advanced for someone aged twelve.
''So, why are you in the nerd class?'' she asked, interrupting his train of thought.
He sighed. ''I have an IQ of 165. I've been a Krelboyne for two years now.''
''What's a Krelboyne?'' she asked.
''It's just what we call the kids in the ''special ed'' class,'' said Malcolm. ''It's from the film, ''Little Shop of Horrors'', did you ever see it?''
''No.''
''Good, it's really lame.''
They walked in silence for a minute or so, then Perrine said, ''This is my house. See you tomorrow.''
''Bye.''
He watched her go, up the driveway towards a biggish house. A teenage girl came out to meet her and started shouting in French, and Perrine shouted back before going inside.
Malcolm realised he looked like a dork standing in the middle of the sidewalk, so he made his was home.
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