When I woke up, I noticed that I wasn't inside the McBrides' house. Instead, I was back in my room, in my own bed. My blouse and jeans had been swapped out for a nightgown (something I found really creepy, given that I didn't even do that myself), and Namęšéme and Mrs. Richardson were both standing over me (again, real creepy).

"What happened?" I asked in confusion.

"I guess you fell asleep after you watched The Exorcist last night," Namęšéme replied while trying to hold back a chuckle. "I bet you were really tired."

"I did something else, too..."

"What did you do?"

"Well, Frankie and I shared our first kiss."

Mrs. Richardson just squinted at me, confusion washing over her. "Frankie? Who's Frankie?"

Namęšéme chuckled and turned to look at her. "Frankie's one of the kids next door that Jessica befriended. She's supposed to be starting seventh grade like your daughter and Jessica."

"Ah, I see..." Mrs. Richardson then focused her attention back to me. "You shared a kiss with Frankie, huh?"

I nodded. "She told me I wasn't alone right before we did it, too."

Mrs. Richardson rolled her eyes at me, seemingly to dismiss what I'd said as some silly dream I had. "You kids and your little crushes... I remember when I was your age and feeling like I'd met the love of my life with this boy named Eric Pickles. Little did I know that such feelings were way more complicated than that."

"O-Okay..." I noticed what looked like sticky white goo covering part of her hand. "What's up with your hand?"

Mrs. Richardson immediately blushed at my question. "Oh, I guess you were in the middle of an intense dream so I..."

"You what?"

"I changed out your underwater before you could ruin them."

I experienced an awful feeling in the pit in my stomach. Oh God, how could she just do that? Wait, did that mean...? No, no, I couldn't even try to think about that right now. I had to get over the shock that she might have done unspeakable things to me first. Holy shit, I'd probably have to see her every day when I started seventh grade. How was I supposed to survive the year being in the same building as her? I'd have to figure this out.

Mrs. Richardson cleared her throat. "Well, I guess I should be going. I had a wonderful time last night, Warren."

"Me too, Arizona," Namęšéme said. "Me too. You are absolutely stunning."

Mrs. Richardson blushed again. "Why, thank you, Warren. You're rather handsome yourself. Alright, bye bye."

Namęšéme smiled at her while waving. "Bye, Arizona. I hope to see ya later."

Mrs. Richardson waved back at him. "You too, Warren."

And just like that, she headed out for what I could only guess was her home. After Namęšéme watched her leave, he diverted his attention back to me.

"So?" he asked me.

"So what?" I asked back.

He leaned in closer. "How did you like spending the night with the McBrides?"

"Pretty good, actually. The kids and I watched The Exorcist by ourselves."

Namęšéme raised his eyebrows at me. "Did they now?"

I timidly looked down and bit my lip. "Well, I had to convince them a little bit, but we all managed to watch it together... sorta. Glen and Homer went off to bed around the time Regan's bed started shaking and levitating like crazy, and Shelly and Melba were just so tired when we got to the part where Father Karras was trying to perform an exorcism on that girl."

"So then it was just you and Frankie?"

"Yeah. She told me I wasn't alone and kissed me. I didn't try to fight it. I just gave in..."

Namęšéme's eyes widened at me.

"I... I love her, Namęšéme," I said. "At least I think I do. She makes me feel good about myself."

Namęšéme couldn't help but smile at me. "Oh my! You really have caught feelings for her. Maybe sometime, I'll give you some advice on how to treat her."

I was taken aback by his reaction. "You'd really do that for me?"

"Of course, anything for my granddaughter."

Just like that, it was the first day of seventh grade for me. The first thing I did when I woke up was look at myself in the mirror. Staring back at me were "tiger stripes" that were lighter than the rest of my skin. A "tiger stripe" stretched diagonally across my face, covering my left eye and just barely missing my right eye. Two intertwined bands of discolored skin met about halfway on my right arm. My left arm was mostly enveloped in the discoloration, with my left hand completely different in color from my right hand. There also was a band of pigment-free skin near my shoulder. According to an old friend of my namshim, the reason for those "tiger stripes" was because of something called vitiligo, a skin condition with no known cure. I heard that Michael Jackson had it, but I didn't see much evidence of that. It made me wish that there were more people like me around here, especially on television. Just one more reason for me to dread classes, as if I wasn't already enough of a freak.

I heard a knock at the door.

"Jessica?" I heard Namęšéme call out to me. "Are you in there?"

"Yeah, Namęšéme," I called back out to him.

"Hurry up, would ya? I don't want you to be late for school."

I just rolled my eyes and started getting ready. "Okay, fine. Ugh."

After I managed to get dressed and put up the stuff I needed into my Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck backpack, I joined Namęšéme at the kitchen table and made myself a bowl of Cookie Crisp. I managed to eat it all up within the span of two minutes and then rush my way into Namęšéme's truck.

"I hope you're excited to start seventh grade, Jessica," Namęšéme said. "You'll be meeting lots of new people and you'll be more well-rounded than you were back in Malta."

"Uh-huh," I just sounded while only barely nodding my head.

"Jessica, I know you're not exactly eager to go back to school, but this is for your own good. Trust me, this will be good for you."

"If you say so..."

"At least have a little faith in me."

"Okay, Namęšéme." I mumbled it loudly enough that he could hear me. "Only for you."

In practically no time at all, he drove up to the entrance of Ewing-Halsell Middle School. On cue, I got out of the truck and turned to face him.

"Well, this is it," Namęšéme announced. "It's time for you to go in and start learning. You still got your schedule, right?"

I quietly nodded at him.

"Good," he continued. "Just follow your schedule and you should be fine. Make sure to study up, too."

"Okay," I said. "I'll do it for you."

Namęšéme smiled at me before driving off. Once he was out of my line of sight, I gulped and looked back at the school. Did I really want to do this? Hmm, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I had to go inside and find out.