Pine Hollow Chronicles: Ch. 3

Chapter 3

“You can have my cheese stick.”  Em looked up from the seat in her new math class to see a boy standing beside her holding out one of those white cheese logs that came in a package.  The cheese looked…wilted.

                “Oh,” replied Em.  She was quickly realizing that this class was too small to get lost in.  It had only taken her 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork given to her by Principal Tuttle, and then the school secretary had walked her down to class.  Pine Hollow was apparently shaped like a huge square, with the middle schoolers assigned one hallway, and the rest of the elementary assigned another one.

 “The school only goes to eighth grade,” Mrs. Montrose had explained as they walked.  “Next year we are thinking about expanding to ninth grade!   The kids seem to like us that much!”  She paused and then said, “And we like them too.”  Em thought that last part seemed forced, like something school secretaries had to say or be fired.  Em  pictured Mr. Tuttle actually trying to fire someone.  His eyebrows would form huge upside-down V’s over his angry eyes.  Disturbing.

                After the short walk, she had been deposited into a small classroom with large windows on one side, making up the furthest wall.  The room didn’t have desks, but rather long white tables with folding chairs. A teacher’s desk sat in the corner, and a whiteboard graced the front wall.  Em did her best to not make eye contact as she was introduced to the group and shown where to put her supplies.  She found herself sitting at the end of one of the tables, near the window.  The sun was finally starting to shine, but the world outside was frosted and dead looking.  The highway could be seen running along the edge of the school grounds, with an occasional car zipping by. 

     Next was nearly a whole hour of math class, and she was honestly not paying too much attention until the boy had thrust his floppy looking cheese at her.

         “Don’t do it!” shrieked the curly headed girl Em had met before school started.  Even though she sat across the room, her voice was loud enough for the room next door to hear.  She came scampering over.  “You just pulled that thing out of your pocket,” she accused the boy, pointing at the big front pocket of the boy’s hoodie.  “Have you had that in their all morning?”

                The boy just started at her.  Then slowly, he opened the cheese stick and took a huge bite, smiling at her.  “Yep,” he said.  He then turned and held it out to Em.  “You can still have the rest,” he said seriously.   “GROSS,” shrieked Curly.  By then, the tall girl from the morning and another boy had walked up.  The tall girl started laughing, and the other boy shook his head. 

                “Conner, that is kind of disgusting,” he said.  His voice was low, and he clearly enjoying the scene.  He smiled shyly at Em.  The tall girl stopped laughing, and glancing at Em said, “Yeah, Conner.  You’re scaring the new girl.”

                It took Emily a second to realize that the entire class was up, walking around, and most of them had food of some kind.   Whoops.  It must have been some sort of designated break time that she’d missed the teacher announcing.  Emily really didn’t know what to say in response, so she stared dumbly up at the kids surrounding her.

                The girl with the curly hair spoke up ignoring her silence, “Do you have a snack?  It is snack time and Mrs. Phillips is actually letting us take a break to eat.”

                “Um.  No,” replied Em.

                “See!  That’s why I offered her mine,” said Connor matter-of-factly.

                Curly shuddered.  “I have an extra granola bar in my backpack.  Let me get it.”  Without waiting for a response, she flew out the room.

                The teacher, who’d been staring at her computer, immediately looked up and watched the fleeting teen run out of the room .  She sighed, and got up to follow her out the door calling, “Savannah!!” in a stern voice.

                “Oops,” said Conner. 

                “Is she going to get in trouble?” asked Em, feeling sort of embarrassed.  After all, Curly did run into the hall to help her, the “poor new kid.”

                “Nope,” said Tall girl.  “Savannah runs out of the class almost everyday.  She is kinda high octane.”  Emily must have looked puzzled because she went on to explain, “We’re supposed to sign out.”

“Oh.”

The girl smiled, “I’m Anna by the way.  We kind of met this morning.”

                “Em,” replied Em.

                “HUH?” interjected Conner. 

Anna pushed him on the shoulder.  “That’s her NAME.”

                “OH,” replied Conner laughing at himself.  ‘Sorry, EM,” he said, placing too much emphasis on the M.  “Conner.”  He wiped his cheesy hands on his shirt and held it out to like he was going to shake her hand.

                Em just stared at him, and Anna and the other boy burst out laughing.

                “Good call,” said the boy after he calmed down.  “I’m Sam.”

                Curly, or Savannah, was walking back into the room by that time, granola bar in hand, followed by a tired looking Mrs. Phillips.  Savannah must not have gotten into any trouble because she immediately came over to the group and said breathlessly, “Here.”  She handed the bar to Em, who took it like it was some sort of poison.

                The kids didn’t seem to notice.  “So, did you just move here?” asked Sam.   Em nodded. 

“That’s nice,” said the Tall girl, or Anna.  “I’ve lived here my whole life.”  She made it sound like it was the worst thing ever.

                “I think we all have!” said Savannah enthusiastically. She gave Anna a mock glare “Maple Heights isn’t that bad, Anna.”

                “Nope.  Moved here from Nam,” added Connor in a strange accent.  Everyone kind of paused and stared at him.    Sam and Savannah started laughing, but Anna shook her head.  “Why is that funny?” she asked.  Em even had to smile.   The kid was so strange it was almost funny, but Anna was right-she didn’t know why he was funny.

                Connor kept up the strange accent, “Where deed you come froom?” he inquired of Em.  His country impression (if that’s what it was) was terrible.

                “We moved here from Arizona,” Em said quietly.  She was surprised that it was so easy to speak after the months she’d spend in silence. 

                “Not fair!” said Savannah.

                “Hey, you just said Maple Heights wasn’t so bad,” Sam reminded her.

                Savannah thought for a moment, “Well, we do have that Potato Parade,”  she finally said.

                “Yay,” said Anna with zero emotion.

                “Arizona!” breathed Savannah with her usual enthusiasm.  “Are there really cactuses there?”

                “Cacti!” broke in Connor’s weird accent.  Everyone laughed this time, except Em, who did smile a little.

                “Um, yeah,” she said.

 The teacher chose that moment to interrupt the conversation and end break time.  “30 minutes left of math, and then you’re out of here,” she told them.  “Let’s focus and finish strong!”  The class groaned, and Anna whispered, “She always says that,” before heading back to her seat.    “You’ll like next hour,” said Savannah before she walked away. “ It’s English.  Ms. Andrews is fun.”

                Em was grateful that the group of kids surrounding her were going to their seats, sparing her from answering any more questions.  She was annoyed that her mom had been right about the small class thing.  It was way too hard to disappear here.  She sighed and stared out the window again, wishing she was in one of those cars flying down the frozen highway.