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October 16th

"Hey, Paigey, Do you have a pencil I could use?"

I opened my blue binder, and after a while of searching through random papers (some of which I had lost, but now it was too late to turn it in), I found a blue mechanical pencil entwined in a piece of tape. I pulled it out with some difficulty and handed it to Akane.

Akane is my best friend. She came here from Japan five years ago, and I've always thought she was so cool. And she is! She can draw like nobody's business! But she also loves the environment like me, and she believes in freedom at school, like me. Akane's brave enough to pull the fire alarm and not care if she get's caught.

I've always loved the way Akane looks. Her long black hair and pale skin are so pretty… I wish I could look exotic like Akane. But no, I look really boring.

I have long, sort of curly dark dirty-blonde hair. Attractive huh? I have nice eyes, though. They're VIOLET. I AM NOT KIDDING. My mom said it must have been a goof in my DNA that caused it to happen. But I think it's not a goof—I like my eyes a lot.

Right now we're in study hall. Akane has to work on her term paper, and I'm drawing a picture because I have nothing else to do.

Oh, well.

"Thanks, Paigey."

Akane calls me Paigey a lot. She just thinks it sounds cooler. I'd do anything to have a name like AKANE. It means, "brilliant red" in Japanese.

I don't even KNOW what Paige means. Maybe I'll ask Akane when study hall is over—she knows a lot about that sort of thing. Being from Japan, she loves painting, drawing, and poetry.

Speaking of study hall being over, the bell wrang at that precise moment, I picked up my bag. What stinks about this prison chamber they call a school is: We wear uniforms.

Yeah. Uniforms, and UGLY ones too. They're blue, pants and a blazer shirt. I wish WE had uniforms like Akane's old school—they had those plaid skirts and white polo and those stockings that never fall down for some reason. There's another thing I never asked Akane about Japan.

Wow, do I really know that little about my best friend?

Huh. I needed to pay closer attention at Akane's sleepover this weekend. Even though… who really thinks at sleepovers anyway?

Eh, must go. Math class now.

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