1
"I'm late! I'm late! I'm late" Joan said as she rushed down the stairs and past her parents, nearly knocking the carton out of Luke's hand, "Sorry!" she said not looking back. And they heard the door slam.
"Well, wasn't she in a hurry." Luke muttered to himself.
~
Joan dashed into school and was making her way through the crowd, when she collided into someone, all her books fell onto the floor along with the other someone's.
"Oh great!" she heard the someone say, as she knelt down to pick them up, "I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going." The girl said. Joan knelt down also picking up the scattered books, she had never seen this girl before. She was Asian, probably Chinese, with fairly long black hair, and thin rimmed glasses. She was as tall as her, and the girl had an accent, not Asian, not American, defiantly not British. Joan picked up one of the girls' books, it was for AP Chemistry.
The girl stood up, "um, I'm really sorry, I really should go." Joan stood also and said,
"Wait! Hey, are you new 'cause I haven't seen you're here before."
"Um, yeah, I just moved to Arcadia from New Zealand last week." She said, the girl had no trouble with English, and she seemed nice,
"So, New Zealand?" Joan replied, "Wow isn't that like, a state of Australia?"
The girl frowned, "Um, defiantly not."
Joan taken back grinned, "Oops sorry, it was my mistake. My name's Joan, by the way."
"Xiao Su." The girl said,
"That's a nice name, Xiao Su." Joan said, and Xiao Su grinned,
"Thanks! But please, just call me Xiao. Too many syllables get tedious."
Joan laughed, "Yeah, can defiantly get you there. So, I guess you're taking AP Chemistry." Joan passed Xiao her book,
"And I'm guessing you take AP Chem too." She said, passing Joan her book. Joan laughed,
"Ok, so do you actually know where it is? I'm guessing, since you're new, you wouldn't have a clue where the room is." Xiao nodded,
"Could always help to have someone that knows what they're doing." Xiao told her, Joan laughed,
"Oh, well, that rules me out then." They laughed, "Right better get going." Joan told her.
~
"Yeah, I'm not kidding, all girl's schools suck." Xiao informed Joan. Joan just tried to picture school uniforms, total Catholic education and a single sex school!
"Nope, can't imagine it, sorry Xiao," Joan laughed. Xiao shook her head,
"This is great, I mean, in Arcadia, no uniforms!" they laughed, "We had a canteen, but it was just a shop with a little window, and students worked there, for free! I know, 'cause I did." Joan tried not to laugh,
"Wow. New Zealand is like a parallel to the US, if you loved it so much there, why'd you come here?" Xiao stopped laughing, she looked sad,
"Just to study. My parents sent me here to get into a good… um college, like Yale, Harvard and places like that." Joan nodded,
"That's good of them, who are you staying with?" Xiao brightened up a little,
"Oh I'm staying with my mother's brother and his family, they're really nice, first time I met my cousin, Richard." Xiao told her, Joan smiled,
"Cool, wanna hang out with me after school? That is, if you haven't got plans." Xiao laughed and pointed at herself,
"New Girl".
~