“Hey New Girl, come sit with us!”
Hallie motions to the spot next to her. Me? ME! Oh my gosh, she actually wants me to sit with her! I froze. Oh no, I look SO stupid staring like that. I took my tray of your-average-smelly-school-pizza-but-actually-taste-pretty-good over to THE table. The table where all the smiley cheerleader-type girls sit. I smiled as I sat down. She gaped at me. As I looked around, realizing that everyone was staring at me. And it hurt. Bad. I knew what they were staring at.

“Um, so, Newbie, why don’t you tell us your name?” Hallie asked. Her voice seemed to get higher as she spoke.

“Nina.” I said hesitantly, letting my curly hair cover my eyes.

“So, Nina....” Hallie bent down to look at me. I looked up.

“Hmm?” That was all I said. Pathetic.

“What’s that thing in your ear?” There it was. The question I dreaded most. It was bound to happen, and once it did, I would no longer be given a chance to be her friend.

“A MP3 player!” I blurted out. Why did I say that?! Hallie’s “crew” stared at me. Then the laughter jumped out of their hiding spaces, and snuck in my ear. It climbed against the ladder in my ear, volume increasing each second. The whole cafeteria was staring at me. I did the worst thing possible, I ran.

I woke up, realizing that it was just a dream. Was that really going to happen? No, it can’t! I won’t let it. Not on my first day of a new school. Not when I have a chance to make a good first impression! My alarm was set to 6:45 and it was 6:44. My bed started shaking like an earthquake as soon as the clock struck 6:45. Getting up was easy, in the last few days of summer. I was getting nervous as the days neared closer and closer to the first day of a new school. I’d left the public middle school, and I was going to start fresh and new. No more Ms. Sensitive. I was going to be DARING and OUTGOING. I was going to have so many friends. Or so I thought.

Here’s the deal. My name is Nina Anders. You pronounce the “i” in Nina like you would an “e”. I guess you’d call me a “geeky girl”. I’m one of those girls that love school, but never “click” with the other kids. I’m also one of those girls that overuse quotation marks. I left Ben Franklin Middle School last year, because of all the drama. “Drama” being she liked him but he didn’t like her and then she got mad at her friend because he liked her, etc. There’s only so much drama that a 12 year old girl can handle. I’m thirteen now, yes, the big 1-3. 7th grade. Private school-
Georgia Country Day. I bet that the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the words “private school”, you think of the rich, snobby kids. That’s not what I saw at GCDS. Sure, they had those brand named clothes, like Abrecombie, and Hollister. But they were all very huggy, friendly, and just “were”. You know those girls who try not to look like they are trying hard to gain fashion and social status, but really do? A lot of the girls at GCDS were the opposite of that. They just “were”. And I am determined to become one of them. No more sensitive, geeky (although my parents still expect A’s), or shy Nina. It’s New Nina time.