Mona
"Excuse me? Hi, sorry to bother you, but could you please tell me where the girls restroom is?"
I turned from my locker and pointed down the hall. "Yeah, it's right down there. See the sign for the teacher's lounge? Well, it's the first room on the right past it."
"Thank you!" The girl- obviously a 6th grader- sighed with relief and took off down the hall.
I smiled and shook my head. It had been tempting to give her the wrong directions, just for fun, because I mean, really- isn't that kind of a right of the upperclassman? But I remembered myself last year when I was in 7th grade, and Wakeman had been a junior high instead of a middle school- meaning that I'd been in the underclass. I had heard all the warnings about never asking an 8th or 9th grader for help with anything, but I hadn't had any other choice one day during the first week of school. I kept forgetting how to get to my English Lit class, and had been running late, so I asked an older girl for help. I had thought she looked nice, but apparently, she wasn't THAT nice. To make a long story short, I ended up way on the wrong side of the building and had gotten in trouble with my Ms. Dickenson, the English Lit teacher. It sure didn't help my first week of school any, and I didn't wish that experience on anyone.
I slammed my locker door shut and started for my homeroom. It was a nice feeling to know exactly where the room was and be able to walk down the hall with confidence that I'd make it there on time, while tons of younger kids around me were frantically checking their schedule cards and looking around at the same time for the right room.
I made it to my homeroom with time to spare and got great seat in the middle. Kids started arriving immediatly after I got myself settled and I was able to watch everyone else enter the rom. I recognized nearly all the teens filtering in. There were obviously a few new ones, though, and I tried to figure out which ones had merely moved to town and which ones were from Grover. There were all kinds of rumors floating around about the Grover kids and I was anxious to see one. On the schoolgrounds earlier that morning, Bill Soliday had been telling a bunch of kids that one boy coming from Grover had spent most of the summer in jail, after attempting to murder one of his teachers at Grover. A lot of the kids who heard Bill believed him, but a couple of us were skeptical. I suppose it was possible, but would they REALLY send some kid with a criminal record to Wacko? Don't those kind of kids go to special schools or something? And knowing Bill, he might have been making the whole thing up anyway. It was hard to know whether or not to believe ANY of the rumors you heard on the schoolgrounds. Especially ones that had anything to do with the kids coming from Grover.
Some things talked about on the schoolgrounds I did believe, though. Like, Kevin Walker-Noles going to private school this year, and Stacy Holgrem and Casey Langford both moving away over the summer. It was really too bad about that. I hadn't known Kevin that well, but Stacy I'd been friends with since gradeschool and I'd liked Casey a lot, too. It was awful that they had to move away right when we got to be the top dogs at Wacko.
"Mona! Hi!"
I looked up to see my boyfriend, Matt Zeboski, sliding into the desk next to me, a smile on his face. I blushed slightly and smiled back. Matt and I have been going out since the end of 6th grade, and I love him to pieces. He can be kind of immature, but he's also really sweet and super funny. I was thrilled that we got to be in the same homeroom this year. I returned his greeting, and the two of us talked together until the final bell rang and class started.