Next chapter of Participant! OK I have nothing else to say. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, this is the cartoon version, Brittany is 13, Jeanette is 10, and Eleanor is 8.

Tuesday, May 13th

The girls met after school that day near Brittany's locker. She and Eleanor had become in charge of signing Jeanette up for stuff because she wasn't very good at picking them herself.

Flashback: Last night

Brittany went to the school website to find a list of clubs, classes, groups, and activities that Jeanette might like.

"Ok, Jen," Brittany said. "Choose from this list."

Jeanette hummed as she scrolled through the list. It was very long and arranged by popularity among students. It was about two minutes before Jeanette found something she was interested in. She called Brittany over to come look.

"Library Club?!" Brittany asked, dumbfounded. "You do realize that all you do in this 'club' is check out library books except with other people, right? And if you want to do that, just grab Simon and head down to the library near our house."

Even Eleanor, who normally would've stood up to Brittany to say something like "Jeanette can like what she likes." or "It's Jeanette's choice, Britt." agreed.

"You need to sign up for a real club, Jeanette," Eleanor said. "It will help you make friends and do a better job including yourself. You're very quiet most of the time."

Jeanette sighed. "Ok."

"I'll take the pressure off you," Brittany said. "Me and Ellie will pick for you and tell you everything after school."

"Deal," Jeanette said before going to bed.

Flashback end

"Me and Brittany agreed to sign you up for a cooking class," Eleanor said cheerily. Brittany mumbled something under her breath about wanting to sign Jeanette up for beauty class instead, but Eleanor continued. "You've got a big brain in there"-Eleanor knocked on Jeanette's forehead, Jeanette said "Ouch!"-"and if you learned how to cook, you'd be rich."

"If you say so. I trust you," Jeanette said nervously.

"Alright," Brittany said. "Room 204."

"Thanks guys," Jeanette called over her shoulder as she ran down the hall.

Class hadn't started yet. Most of the children already knew each other, and passed the time by talking to each other.

Just then a cheerful woman wearing an apron and a smile entered the room.

"My name is Mrs. Popper. I'm glad to see some of you returning and I also see a couple of new faces." Mrs. Popper stared right at Jeanette when she said that last part.

Mrs. Popper clapped her hands her hands together because she and Jeanette were competing for the children's attention.

The kids ripped their eyes away from Jeanette who was beginning to feel self-conscious.

"Thank You," Mrs. Popper said, annoyed. "Today we will be making sugar cookies. Now, the first thing you do is pre-heat the oven to… um… let me see."

As soon as Mrs. Popper announced the temperature, Jeanette went to pre-heat the oven, but her glasses fell to the floor.

Jeanette couldn't see that well without her glasses, but most of the time, she could see well enough. Jeanette preheated the oven, bent down, and put her glasses back on.

Jeanette found that making the cookies was easier than she had originally thought. She was also surprised to find that she was pretty good at it. She breezed through every instruction she received and finally it was time to put them in the oven.

Jeanette put chunks of cookie dough onto the baking sheet and pressed cookie cutters into them. She put the cookies in the oven and waited.

But then a prissy girl named Lizzy stuck her nose in the air and said, "I smell something burning."

At first, no one paid any attention because Lizzy always looked as though she smelled something burning, but had never actually said so.

But then a boy named Manny, who was learning to speak English, said, "I smell burning, too."

Jeanette sniffed. She smelled it, too. Jeanette suddenly noticed that everyone was staring at her. Eleanor looked disappointed. The burning smell was getting worse now. Lizzy looked at Jeanette mockingly, as if she knew Jeanette would be a failure.

Jeanette was afraid that her cookies were the ones that were burning, because she thought it was too good to be true. She hadn't even tripped once. So she opened the oven.

Smoke flew out into Jeanette face. She started coughing and hacking.

Jeanette wiped her glasses and left the room. She hoped Brittany and Eleanor had a new activity for her tomorrow.