Miss Liv, Ivy's Irish dance teacher approaches her after class, "Good job in class today, Ivy. If that turnout keeps improving, I'll teach you your new reel next week."

Her face lights up and she smiles brightly at this... She'd be the only one in the class to know the new dance. She nods her head in reply.

Liv speaks up, "Are you okay? You seemed a bit distant when you came into class earlier."

Ivy quickly replies, "Yes, I'm fine. It's just that today was my first day of school and..."

Liv nods her head, "Oh, yes I know how that is. Remember, Brian will be teaching your class Wednesday but I'll be back next Monday."

The dance company that Ivy attends, O'Hare School of Irish Dance, has several different branches. There was one in Cleveland that she attended and there happened to be another just outside of Lima. The dance teachers go back and forth to all of the branches to teach throughout the week so Ivy is familiar with almost all of them.

Ivy turns to leave the studio and Liv calls after her, "Don't forget your hard shoe private with Brian!"

She turns back to face her and smiles, "Thursday at 5:30!"

She gets to her truck and throws herself onto her seat.

'Ohh I'm so tired.'

She throws her dance shoes and socks off and massages her aching feet. She grabs a small bandaid from her bag to cover a bleeding blister. She finishes and checks the time.

'Just enough time to swing by Starbucks before I need to be home.'

She quickly ties on her tennis shoes and drives a few miles to the Starbucks that she noticed on the way to class. She pulls into a parking lot and frowns at the heaps of people.

'Oh, God. Please don't make me see anyone from school. Please, please, please.'

She tightens her messy ponytail, grabs her wallet and heads inside.

She orders a raspberry passion tea lemonade and throws in a few chocolate chip cookies for her brothers. At the cash register she opens her wallet to find that she has no money, except for a couple of dollar bills.

'Saved by the card!'

She finally finds a giftcard that she had leftover from Christmas and there was just enough money on it to pay. She grabs her drink and cookies and heads for the door, thankful she didn't see anyone from school. She opens the door and a blonde girl in a cheerleading uniform walks in.

"Hey, dough boy isn't it?"

'She's one of the cheerleaders from this morning in the hallway. Lovely.'

Just as the girl says this, a boy with short, dark hair walks in behind her. "Kitty. Leave the girl alone."

Ivy looks at the boy with thankful eyes until she recognizes him as one of the boys from the parking lot. She can tell that he recognizes her too but he doesn't say anything.

"You're new right?" he asks her.

"Yeah." She nods her head in reply.

The blonde girl, Kitty, speaks up, "Yawn. This convo equals boring. Jake go buy me a tall low fat mocha. No syrup."

The boy, whose name was apparently Jake, looks at Ivy apolageticaly before going to get in line.

"Alright. I'm guessing you're wondering now, how to get through school without being laughed at. One: Ditch the hat. It sucked. Two: Do something with the hair. You look like you've been living in the rainforest for years and the whole time it's been matted down with mud and hyenna shit."

Kitty kept on blabbing, Ivy didn't even get a chance to put a word in... Not that she would've anyways.

"And you need to quit acting like a nobody. I watched the way you acted in the hallways, not cool. As far as we know you're a random nerd who walked in off the streets to run down the hallway like an idiot."

Ivy doesn't know what to say so she just mutters, "But I am a nobody."

Kitty nods in agreement then looks like she has an idea, "Come to the gym tomorrow after school."

Before she can say anything else Jake comes back and hands Kitty her coffee. They both offer Ivy a quick goodbye and just as they walk out the door Ivy notices a small cross hanging from a gold chain around Kitty's neck.

'Yeah, right.'

She shakes her head at the irony as she collects her composure and heads home.