Chapter 3 - The New Kid

Marylin and Kevin were walking past the office to get to class one morning when they first saw the new kid. She was sitting in one of the little chairs outside the principal's office.

"Hey, I wonder who the new kid is," Marylin said.

"Maybe she's in our grade," Kevin suggested.

"I hope not," Marylin said. "You know who she looks like - the Preps."

Every elementary school probably has them, those ditzy, preppy girls who can't wait to go out in middle school and high school. Girls who worship pop stars and wear makeup and glitter nail polish.

"Come on," Kevin grabbed Marylin's hand. "We're gonna be late." The two of them ran to class and barely slid into class before the bell rang.

"Hey Harry," Kevin whispered as Mr. Lipshultz wrote that week's spelling words on the blackboard.

"What?"

"Marylin and I saw a new kid sitting in the principal's office this morning. She looked about our age."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I wonder - "

"If you two boys are done whispering," Mr. Lipshultz said, "I'd like to introduce you to someone." He motioned at a girl standing next to him. "This is Louisa, and she'll be joining our class." He pointed at the seat between Lauren and Jenna Miller, leader of the Preps. "You can sit right there."

All eyes were on Louisa as she walked to her desk and sat down. She was a little short, with blondish hair and tan skin. She was wearing a pink dress and sandals, with a pink headband holding her hair back. Pink glitter nail polish adorned her fingernails.

"Oh great," Harry whispered to Kevin, "another prep."

After she got settled, the class continued with their spelling lesson. Jenna Miller took this opportunity to lean over a pass Louisa a note.

Louisa was pretty nervous about being new in school. If only her mom hadn't made her wear that dumb dress! Then Jenna's note fell onto her desk. Louisa opened it.

'Meet me by the door during first recess. Love your ensemble.'

*****

At ten o'clock, the first recess bell rang. Louisa met Jenna and her friend Tina right outside the classroom door.

"Hi," Louisa said a bit uncertainly. She wasn't exactly sure why these girls were hanging out with her.

"Hi! I'm Tina, and that's Jenna. Do you want to hang out with us?"

"Okay, sure," Louisa said.

"Great! Come on." They led her outside, babbling about some magazine or something. Louisa was only partially paying attention.

"Hey, I'm gonna get a drink. I'll catch up, okay?" Louisa said.

The girls nodded, barely slowing their movement to the far end of the playground.

Louisa walked over to the drinking fountain and ran into one of the boys in her class.

"Hey, watch where you're going," she snapped.

"Sorry," the boy said, but he didn't look very sorry. "Nice dress," he smirked.

Louisa nearly hit him for his rude comment and insufferable smirk, but she remembered what her mother had told her that morning and reigned in her temper. She breathed slowly and counted in her head to ten.

"So, um - "

"Milton," he supplied.

"Yeah Milton. I saw you playing kickball over there. Can I play?"

"You?" he asked incredulously. "Aren't you afraid you'll break a nail or something?"

That did it. Louisa snapped, and before anyone knew what was happening, she'd grabbed Milton and was sitting on him, hitting him with no regard for her dress or her nails.

Milton's friends ran over from their kickball game to try and break up the fight, but by the time they got there a large ring of kids had already formed around them. Kevin finally waded in and pulled them apart before Mrs. Walsh could get them. By the time she'd arrived, the crowd had dispersed, and Kevin had dragged Milton over to one of the gigantic tires where their friends were waiting.

Louisa picked herself up and tried to get the worst of the mud out of her dress. Jenna and Tina sauntered up.

"What do you think you were doing, beating that Milton kid up? I guess you aren't as cool as we thought you were. See ya 'round - loser," they said.

She'd lost even their friendship. Lunch was terrible; no one sat near her or talked to her or anything. She quickly ate her lunch and decided to spend the rest of second recess in a tree on the playground where no one could bother her.

Marylin and Lauren were walking around the playground. The boys were still in there, doing disguisting things with their lunches, but Lauren and Marylin hadn't wanted to have to watch that any more.

"Hey Marylin, isn't that the new girl?"

"Where?"

"Up there, in the tree," Lauren said, pointing.

"We should probably say hi," Marylin said.

"Yeah."

"You know, Milton'll be furious when he hears that we were nice to the girl that beat him up," Marylin remarked as she and Lauren made their way to the new girl.

"I guess. Still, we should be nice to her. It's probably hard to be the new kid."

"Yeah. And now we know she's not a prep."

"Hey new girl," Marylin called.

"My name's not new girl; it's Louisa," she yelled back.

"Hey Louisa then," Marylin yelled.

"What?"

"Come on down, we want to talk to you," Lauren said.

Louisa deftly dropped down. "Hi," she said nervously. "You guys aren't gonna beat me up or something for beating up your wimpy friend, are you?"

"Nah," Marylin said.

"Look," Lauren said, "we were wondering if you wanted to hang out with us."

Louisa looked them over. She thought about their friends, even that wimp she'd beaten up. "Okay," she said.

"Great. Come on," Lauren said, "we'll introduce you to the group."

"Okay." And so Louisa walked back to the cafeteria to meet the rest of her new friends.