I spent the next day at 'Aunt Harriet's' house with the rest of the kids. I refused to play though. They just didn't understand me at all. So I decided to make things easy for them by staying out of their way. And when the parents finally came to pick us up, nobody was even really talking to me. I had watched the rest of them playing games outside cause it was so nice, but I stayed inside and took a nap for lack of anything better to do.
Only David seemed to really notice I was there. He and I were kind of alike, since Syd had actually told me he was adopted when he was a baby. It wasn't a secret or anything. But he was like me, freckles and skinnier than other kids his age. His hair wasn't exactly blondish red, but more blond. But if you forgot that difference, we really matched.
He came over to me and asked me to read to him while I was lounging on the couch and the other kids were outside. I agreed and we spent a few hours just reading small books. I was surprised at how good a reader David was for a kid his age. Once, during the two hours we were reading, I caught Harriet looking at us together with a strangle look on her face. It was almost like she was worried about my influence on him. But then her expression changed to a nice expression, like she was happy that I was paying attention to David. She was making me nervous.
I liked Janna and A.J. too, but they weren't like me. They had their parents. And even though David knew Harriet and Bud weren't his parents, he called them mom and dad. That was one difference between us. But a strange thought crossed my mind. I wondered what it would be like to call Mac mom or Harm dad. "No, no, no, no," I said aloud. "Stop thinking about that Jessi," I said firmly. Not my parents and I couldn't call them that.
****
Before I knew it, school was starting and I was going with Austin into the upper level classrooms. "Here's your class. Meet Syd and me after school at the fountain in the front. You gonna be okay?" he asked.
I smiled weakly. "Yup. I'll be fine." Right. What a lie. I was terrified of going into that classroom alone. New schools never did go over well with me. But the bell was about to ring, so I made sure to go straight in.
"Hello. You must be…Jessica Rabb."
I froze. "Uh, um," I stuttered. "Just, uh, call me Jessi."
"Okay, Jessi. Why don't you take a seat in the first row, third seat." Not right in front, but close enough. I nodded.
I glanced around the room to see what the students looked like. Apparently I was in the smart group as Janna had called it, because right across the room, there was the blond haired girl I had met a few days before. She looked over at me and immediately smiled. "Hi Jessi," she called across the room. A few other girls glanced my direction and looked at me strangely. When they saw Janna's reaction to me however, they too smiled at me. When class began, the teacher introduced the new students. Luckily, I didn't have to stand up in front of them.
The teacher handed out a new assignment right off the bat. Her name was Miss Whit and before long, she assigned groups too. I was in a group with Janna, another girl named Rachel, a boy named Jonathan, and a boy named Harrison. Harrison seemed the most likeable. He was a fifth grader, and he was really nice to me. By lunch, I had plenty of new friends, including Harrison and the kids from my group. I found myself enjoying school as much as I always had, and maybe even a little more. But soon, I managed to convince myself that I wouldn't be at the school too much longer.
TBC…
