The BSC Legacy - Book 3: When Numbers Really Count
By: CNJ
PG-13
6: New Routines
Kristy:
I have to hand it Abby; I think she started something on career day around school and maybe other schools. Even after career day ended, kids were still jabbering about what to do about the negative image the media has of our generation. I could see her down the hall passing the word on to other kids who'd missed that career seminar.
"Flyers," Claudia announced at a BSC meeting. "We need to put out flyers. I can make them. Remember when we first started this club?" We nodded.
"But where do we post them?" Anna asked. "We need to target the right audience...other kids our age."
"This sounds kind of risky..." Mary Anne put in shyly. "I could ask Mona to hand around flyers to kids from Burkeview." Mona went to Burkeview until this year.
"Not bad," Dawn nodded. "And if the kids at Burkeview know Mona well, they'll trust her rather than a stranger from Stoneybrook."
"Can we trust Burkeview?" Stacey interjected. "They've been our biggest rivals for a long time."
"I'm sure there're kids there that are sick of seeing our generation bad-mouthed," Abby insisted.
"It can't be on their school grounds," I added. "One good place is Aster and Dusker's on weekends. There're a LOT of kids our age there from different schools. We hand them the flyers and they can pass it on to their schools."
Aster and Dusker's is a combination arcade, virtual reality, eatery, and hang-out place in Washington Mall.
"Don't forget to get permission from the mall people," Anna put in.
Mona:
I felt strange at first being one of the new kids at Stoneybrook High, Burkeview's rival and hanging around the BSC, but now it's becoming routine for me.
I remember how back in middle school, I used to hang around with a group of girls who called themselves the Fabulous Five and at first it felt strange, then it felt familiar...until around ninth grade when they started to drift apart.
Jana Morgan and Beth Barry were best friends until they had a huge falling-out in April of tenth grade. By that time Christie Winchell and Katie Shannon had left the group. Jana, her boyfriend Randy Kirwan, and Melanie Edwards then drifted toward the BIG clique at my old school.
Now I'm settling here in Stoneybrook and Mom and I have unpacked almost everything. My older sister Amber is settling in college in Rhode Island. I've joined the yearbook and Claudia Kishi and I are the junior designers. We both share a knack for art.
In some ways, Claudia reminds me of Beth with her bright clothes and sense of humor. Mary Anne's on the newspaper staff and since the Beacon and the Visions meet Thursdays, often Claudia, Mary Anne and I walk home together.
Mary Anne lives across the street from Claudia and me on Bradford Court. Did I tell you that Mary Anne used to live in the same house that I live in now? She invited me over one afternoon and told me a little about how she'd lived there before her dad married her stepmom.
"...I'm only in this house temporarily," Mary Anne told me as we sat on her bed with sodas.
I'd noticed that there were a lot of boxes in the living room and the furniture was sparse and wondered if she'd moved again recently, but hadn't asked.
"Where...?" I asked. "Did you live someplace else besides across the street?"
"Yeah..." Mary Anne's head came down and she became quiet.
"Until last summer..." Her voice shook as she spoke again. "Dad, Sharon, and I lived on Burnt Hill Road...before Dawn moved back here..." Mary Anne's hands started to shake as she told me about the awful house fire that had burned down her house there.
"Oh, Mary Anne!" I gasped. "I'm so sorry!"
Mary Anne's eyes filled with tears and she grabbed a tissue. I hugged her. How awful and scary it must have been for her! I could feel her trembling and I held her for a long time.
Once we parted, Mary Anne blew her nose and told me, "It's hard seeing my dad and Sharon lose their things."
I nodded sympathetically. I can't imagine what it would be like if Mom and I suddenly lost almost everything like that.
It would have really been awful if it had been a few years ago, when Mom had been struggling to make ends meet and support my sister and me. We had barely been able to afford even the necessities. Things are much better now because part of the reason my family moved here to Stoneybrook was so that Mom could get a better job as an accountant.
Funny, I thought as I crossed the street to my own home later on. I don't miss Burkeview as much as I thought I would. Lately now, I've been sitting with the BSC at lunch.
I love how interesting their conversation is...everything from junk food to the environment to psychology for starters. Always they've included me in their conversation and made me feel like part of their group.
"...I have this idea," Anna told us a few days later in the cafeteria. "I'd like to form a rock band."
"Not a bad idea," I told her, looking down at the sheet music she had by her tray. I know she plays the violin. "Do you write music?"
"Not really. I was thinking...Mary Anne, are you interested in song writing?"
Mary Anne seemed to think a minute. "I could give it a try," she finally told Anna. "I write poems, so songwriting can't be too different."
"Want to join us?" Anna asked me. I'd told the BSC that I can play the guitar.
"Yeah, I'd like that." It'd be fun to have a band right here at SHS. I smiled softly at the thought.