Chapter 3
Seventh Grade - Semester One

Excerpt from Maggie's Diary
Dear Diary,
I think I'm really going to like junior high. Today, Jimmy walked me to all my classes, even though his are in the ninth grade section. I didn't see much of Teddy or Alice Adams today- at least, not their faces. Bird thinks she might like a few guys for once. In no particular order: Dennis Hancock, Chris Chambers, Harry Applegate, Joey Smith, Greg Puckerman, and Micah Parker. She says her favorite is Micah, though. Gordie LaChance likes Bird. I can tell. He always stares at her in our history class, the one class all three of us have together . Otherwise, though, most of the boys look at me. I know it makes some girls jealous, but I can't help being pretty. Anyway, my date at the peak went well. I didn't go past first base, of course. I'm a good girl...

Gordie
After my first month at Castle Rock Junior High School, I realized that things weren't going too be easy. For one thing, all my teachers expected me to be like Denny. All of them. And when I didn't memorize Spanish conjugations as well, or shoot out answers during math drills, they were either disappointed or angry.

The math teacher, Mr. Taylor, was the latter. "Good God, Gordon," he would shout in front of the whole class, "do you even try?" He slapped me with a leather strap every time I messed up. He didn't do it to any of the other kids, but then again, none of them were Denny LaChance's little brother. I wondered what would've happened if Denny were still alive. Would he assure me that I wasn't the only one; that he got strapped too? Would he maybe even tell Mr. Taylor to leave me alone? If Denny were still here, he would have made me feel better, that's for sure. He would also tell me what to do about girls. Jane kept staring at me and giggling with her sister and the friends they had met that day.

And I had made another discovery about junior high: the caste system. Ever since Vern had made junior varsity football, he was starting to hang out with a different crowd; the same crowd as Jugs. While I probably wouldn't call her that to her face, she would never be Maggie in my mind. Although I supposed there was a difference between Jugs and Maggie. Jugs was the loudmouth girl with a lot of things to say, just nothing of importance. She had crazy ideas and was full of ambition. Maggie was full of ambition as well, but was soft and pleasant about it. She had a more condescending manner, knew how to draw attention without trying too hard, and didn't blatantly overshadow her boyfriend, CRJH's big man on campus. Bird was popular too, since Jugs was her best friend. I stared at her sometimes in history class. Once, she noticed, and she smiled. I thought maybe that meant she liked me, but luckily, Micah Parker was there to sort things out.

Micah was one of the richest kids in Castle Rock. He wasn't as handsome or smart as the Goodwins. He was a real athlete, though, and that worked for him. One Friday, during the third week of school, Micah told me he wanted to have "a chat" with me during gym class. When we went to run laps, he jogged beside me.

"So, Gordie," he said. "What do you think of junior high?"

I shrugged in response. "Well, I think it's a real blast," Micah said. "Did you make any new friends?"

I shook my head. I didn't know quite how to react to this "little chat." After all, Micah rarely, if ever, spoke me when we were in the same class in grade school.

"Vern and I are getting to be real good friends," he said. "What do you think about the girls? Do you like any?"

I blushed slightly, thinking about Bird, before saying, "I think all the girls are nice."

Micah smirked. "But you like one girl in particular, right?"

I nervously shook my head. "Come on, Gordie," Micah urged. "Everyone already knows who you like."

I could feel my face getting hotter as I finally turned to look at Micah dead in the eye. "Huh?" was the smartest thing I could think to say.

Micah rolled his eyes. "Tons of people are saying that you like Bird Horne."

Instead of saying "Well, it's not true," which would have been the smart thing to say, I responded with, "Like who?"

Micah shrugged. "Maggie Lake says you're always looking at Bird in history class, and Jane Adams said you always smile when she raises her hand in math. And Charlene Portman said you're even quieter than ususal when Bird is around. And even Vern Tessio thinks you like her."

I felt myself blink before I finally replied, "Vern said that?"

Micah nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Vern said you always talk about her."

"I do not," I spat back angrily. "He's lying."

Micah smirked again. "Admit it, LaChance," he said. "You've got a thing for Bird."

I glared at Micah. "Why are you bothering me anyway," I asked.

"Well," Micah said, grinning like a hyena, "I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but since you seem to be out of the loop, I'll just say it. Bird and I are going together."

"I don't believe you," I snapped back. I really couldn't imagine Bird dating a guy like Micah Parker. Micah was arrogant, obnoxious, and to top it all off, ugly. Maybe it was I had just seen how horrible he was, but in my eyes, Micah possessed a horse face with thick, hideous eyebrows, and messy hair, and Dumbo ears. I absolutely could not stand him.

"Sorry, Gordie," he said with an evil grin, "I can't help it. She likes me, and I like her. I'd advise that you get over your little crush. Maybe pursue a new interest, something other than girls, like track or baseball. I mean, you can't keep wasting time on your silly short stories. Besides, you're a real good runner. I mean, you're keeping up with me."

I was already annoyed when Micah told me about him and Bird. But once he insulted my stories, I was furious.

"Maybe I will try out for track this spring," I said angrily. "Maybe I'll make it, and you won't."

Micah laughed. "What are you thinking, Gordie," he asked. "Of course, I'll make it. I'll probably make varsity a year early."

"You can't just assume that, Micah," I said. "Maybe I'll make varsity, and you won't even make second-string on JV."

"Please," Micah said. "You should channel that kind of imagination into one of your little stories."

"We'll see this spring," I finished off, before jogging ahead of him. At the end of the day, Chris ran up to me with a shocked look on his face. "Geez, Gordie," he said. "Do you think this bet is a good idea?"

"What bet," I asked, confused. "Vern told me you and Micah have a bet about who will make the track team next March. If Micah wins, he'll beat you up after school, and if you win, he'll let you have Bird."

"What?" Chris stared at me. "How haven't you heard? Everyone's talking about it. Not even the guys will shut up about the bet."

"I didn't know it was a bet," I said. Chris shrugged. "I'm not sure what you should do. On one hand, I don't think this is a good idea. But the other hand, Micah kind of has it coming. But maybe you should just tell Micah that there isn't a bet," he suggested.

"Yeah," I agreed. "I mean, I'm just interested in trying something new. I mean, I was angry when I decided to do it, but track could be fun. I don't want to worry about getting beat up and stuff."

I looked around the hall at all the kids milling about at their lockers, gathering their things, running up and down the hall and otherwise making as much noise as possible. Thanks to the lockers, junior high was certainly louder than elementary school. I saw Micah with a crowd of boys surrounding him. Bird was on his arm, staring into his eyes dreamily, and Jugs was linked to Jimmy, as usual. I took a deep breath and went over there, with Chris right behind me. I cleared my throat as I stood next to the crowd. I wasn't up to pushing past Jimmy and Jugs to get to Micah.

"Micah," I said.

Their incessant chattering finally screeched to a halt as Micah grinned at me. "Well, if it isn't Gordon LaChance," he said. "What can I do you for?"

I froze slightly, until Chris nudged me. "I don't want the tryout results to be a bet, Micah," I asserted.

"Too late," Micah said with a grin. "We wouldn't want disappointed the whole school. Everyone is looking forward to tryouts." Jugs looked at me and rolled her eyes.

"I don't care," I responded. "I don't want to do it."

"What," Micah asked innocently. "Are you not in love with my girlfriend?"

Bird looked at the ground nervously and nudged Micah. "He's not worth it, Micah," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Of course it's worth it, Birdie," Micah said loudly, proceeding to give her a kiss on the cheek.

"Look, Micah," Jugs said. "The bet is childish. Bird doesn't want to be auctioned off, and none of the girls care. Barely any guys care to begin with."

"So then what do you girls care about," Micah asked.

"The dance," Jugs said, as if it were obvious. "Besides, Gordie doesn't even want to do it."

"Hey," I spoke up. "Gordie can speak for himself." For some reason, I didn't like the idea of Jugs standing up for me.

She shrugged. "You said yourself you didn't want to."

"Yeah, but-"

"Just stay out of it, Maggie," Jimmy instructed.

"I'll stay out of it if I wanna stay out of it," Jugs said, getting angrier.

"Maggie, calm down," Jimmy said, as if using her name would placate her. "You're going to make a scene."

"There's already a scene," Jugs pointed out.

Jimmy leaned over and whispered in Jugs's ear. Her mouth fell open in a perfect O as she backed away from him. "I'm making you look like you can't control me," she asked, yelling at the top of her lungs. "Well, tough shit!"

The Adams twins gasped, Vern and Bird tried not to laugh, Micah and Jimmy both looked scandalized, and Teddy laughed uproariously.

"What are you lookin' at, whack job," Jimmy yelled at Teddy.

In that moment, Jugs's face turned as hard as stone and her eyes flashed with anger.

Her voice dipped frighteningly low as she said, "Jimmy, if you have any idea what's best for you, you'll take that back right now."

"What," Jimmy asked. "Are you still a loony lover, Jugs?"

All was silent for what felt like fifteen minutes, but was probably actually fifteen seconds. And then Jugs jumped him. Apparently, up on the View, Jimmy had never learned to fight, but even in that case, Jugs couldn't take him alone. So of course, a few other ninth grade girls jumped in. Pathetically, it only took three girls to take Jimmy down for the count. Soon, the principal arrived and whisked all four away.

I shook off the whole event uneasily. "I gotta go, Chris," I said, jogging out of the door. I didn't see much of my friends other than Chris for the rest of the winter, which was spent getting ready for track. And I only saw him for an hour after school, before I went home to practice more. I heard things, like that Alice dumped Teddy because she decided after the Jimmy incident that he couldn't defend him, and that Vern was probably going to be JV football captain next year. I was too busy to congratulate him, though. I was so focused because there were more benefits than I thought there would be to trying out. For once, my father was really paying attention to me. He actually hugged me when he heard I was going out for a sport. He timed my sprints, he encouraged me when I was starting to do better. He talked about me at the dinner table for once.

"He's running in under a minute now, Dorothy," he would say, excited about something I was doing for once. But by the spring, I was pretty nervous. If I didn't make it, would my newfound relationship with my father end? I wasn't sure I wanted to find out.