Back to School...Almost

Hello everybody, Lindsey here.

Haley's host says she's on her way to Massachusetts to her next host. I'm still waiting for pics from her last host, lol.
Meanwhile, back here school is about to start. I went to school today cause they wanted to introduce us to the teachers and the classes.

All the usual suspects are back in action. These three girls are the ruling class of the school. The girl on the left is Sasha Moore. The one in the middle is Meredith Hopkins. On the right is Natalie Spencer. I don't know these girls nearly as well as Haley does, but I already know I don't like Meredith. Oh, and by the way, the one in the middle, she's running for student body president. And so far, she doesn't have anyone running against her. The big reason is because someone who shall remain unnamed, whose initials are H. H., is currently out traveling and won't be back till October.

Meanwhile, I've got my own issues. The two girls who rule my grade, Kylee Phillips and Victoria Vaccaro, are at it again. This time they approached Kristy Van Dyke (who's back from, what I understand, West Virginia) and called her a dummy.

Kristy didn't take too kindly to that. The next thing I knew, she had Kylee pinned against the wall.

School hasn't even started yet.

Friends Come...and Go?

Wow, judging by the comments here, I notice Antoinette has gotten everyone talking! I had so many questions for her, I couldn't ask them all!

But, I have to tell you, sometimes I don't get her.

Today she officially joined the newspaper staff when Megan created a 'special correspondent' post for her. She doesn't usually do that kind of thing, except it was Ms. Baldwin's idea and it's not every year a bona fide French exchange student attends your junior high school.

We were talking on our way to class when out of the blue she said in her French accent, "Pardon, I did not know you and Meredith did not get along."
I let out a deep groan, wondering what Meredith had told her. "You obviously have not been here," I told her. "You do not know her at all."

"Pourquoi?" she asked.

I was tempted to go through the laundry list of the things Meredith had done. But I didn't. I'm hoping Antoinette sees soon enough what kind of person she is. When I told Nicki about this, she said Meredith may actually be on her best behavior re: Antoinette because she doesn't want her to see her 'bad side.' And she also said something else too -- that Antoinette may actually be torn between me and Meredith. An odd place to be, for sure.

I decided to try to change the subject by doing what Abby suggested and asking her about her hometown of Nice. "It's a very beautiful place in the south of France," she said, making me even more jealous. "There are a lot of historical landmarks there, and since the weather is great, a lot of tourists come to visit."

"Have you been to Paris?" I asked.

"Un certain nombre de fois," she said. "A few times." She also joked that she tries to avoid a lot of the famous French cuisine but can't resist partaking of a few crepes every now and again.

At the same time, I do think Harriet is somewhat jealous of my activities & other friends -- I've been trying to talk her into joining the newspaper, that if nothing else she'll meet some new and interesting people -- and she insists that she'll have nothing to do on the staff. When I mentioned Antoinette to her, she was like, "why are you trying to befriend her?" I explained that I'm curious about her since she's new and different and seems cool. She didn't behave this way when I introduced her to Kit & Lindsey. Matter of fact, she's friends with them, too.

Oh, neither Hilary nor Kristy have returned. I'm wondering about Hilary's parents. I know they were getting a divorce this summer and she was back and forth. I also know Kristy was going through a time of it too -- she ended up in West Virginia (where she's from). Seems some relative claimed her out of nowhere, that's what Harriet said. I don't know if Kristy'll stay in WV or if she'll return.

All in all, I think I may be on my way to making a new friend, at the same time I may be losing at least one of my old ones. I'm hoping she and I will keep in touch even when she returns to France after Christmas.

Some staffers posed for this pic while we're working on the back-to-school issue, which'll probably be in the yearbook. Megan (seated) is still editor-in-chief. I'm the first four-eyed fool (lol) on the left, Kit's next to me, Marie-Antoinette (I actually just wanted to type that, lol) is next to her, and Alison is wearing the hockey shirt. Missing is Lindsey (who also joined today) and Katarina Engel. Having the new staffers around certainly helps; I remember at some points last year we were so stressed out because there were so few people. I hope these newbies stick around for the whole year. It's much more fun with them around now.

Bye for now!

To all my readers (except Wendy of course),

By the time you read this I will more than likely already be on a plane headed for sunny southern California. This came about suddenly and surprisingly. Thinking about becoming a traveling doll is one thing, actually doing it is quite another.

The other day after classes ended I walked into Vee's living room and found all my friends gathered together -- even Kit and Lindsey, who are fifth graders and I only really know from Girl Scouts. I was wondering what was going on. What happened was that they'd decided to surprise me with a goodbye party. Chips, drinks, dip, the Jonas Brothers playing in the background (that had to have been Hilary's idea) even pizza. The last time I ate pizza I broke out in hives.

It finally hit me that this would be the last time all of us would be together for the entire summer. We would all be scattered in all sorts of different directions. Hilary was going to be with her father and to try to keep her divorcing family together. Kristy was going to basketball camp and summer camp with her girls' home. Katarina was going to Germany. Kit was going to do her newspaper stuff and visit relatives in her hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. Lindsey was going to finish her documentary, read the new Rebecca Rubin stories, and try to keep herself out of trouble. Nicki was going to volunteer at the local animal shelter and visit her grandmother. Harriet, I think she's just gonna try and hold it together until I come back.

I realized that each one of my friends is unique, different, and special in their own ways. Nicki's situation is a little different because we're actually family. But the standard still applies. Kristy (btw, she did make good on her promise to cut her hair, though not as much as I was afraid of) gave me a high-five, Hilary squeezed me so tight I could barely breathe, and Nicki let out these huge sobs.

I tried to spend a little extra time with each of my friends individually before going to the airport. I'm gonna try not to cry, I thought to myself. I'm not gonna cry...

That didn't work. I doled out hugs to everyone and then found myself in a big group hug. By the time I got to Harriet the waterworks was on. Before I knew it I was bawling like a baby. "I'll miss you so much," Harriet whispered in my ear. I whispered the same right back to her.

I've never had a best friend, so to feel this way is strange to me.

Some of them wanted to ride with me to the airport but I told them never mind, that I was good. In reality, I was going to cry again and I didn't want to take the risk.

Well, that's it everybody. Goodbye for now! And hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,

Haley E. Hotchkiss

P. S. I may check in on here every once in awhile while I'm gone, but Harriet and some others will do the lions' share of the posting. See you soon!

Yep, she's here...

She meaning my cousin Nicki. I got a surprise for my Memorial Day -- a phone call saying I needed to get to the airport because someone was there waiting for me. At first I thought it was my mother but then I realized who it was.

Nicki held her outstretched arms out to greet me. "Look at you, just as I left."

I shook my head. "Nicki, it's only been a month and a half."

"Still too long," she said.

The real surprise, though, was Adam. He's already a full head taller than either Nicki or me. And he's only ten. He has Nicki's hair color but brown lost-puppy-dog eyes. Something tells me he's gonna be a cute one when he gets older.

I have finals this week so I probably won't get to spend much time with her. And I just found out both Harriet and Kristy have to go to summer school. What a bummer.

And I feel worse because I won't be around to help them with their work because I'll be out traveling.

We can't do too much until after finals, I've got to go hit the books. Later.

XOXO

Haley

Graduation, interview, etc...

I spent Thursday night at the eighth grade graduation. It wasn't my choice, the whole newspaper staff had to be there to cover it. Alison showed up in a deep blue velvet dress, it was cute on her. Alison in a dress was strange, but I had to get used to it. Megan's dress was black and gold, also very cute.

Before the graduation, though, I ran into Marisol Luna. Remember I told you she was an eighth grader? Well I found out that next term she's going to Parkington. So you know I piped her with all kinds of questions about the school.
She says Parkington is a magnet school for gifted and talented young ladies. Since she's a dancer, she's enrolling in its acclaimed dance academy. She told me something else too -- about something called a deferred enrollment, which is what she did. She attended Adams for a year before going to Parkington and said that if I was thinking about going that it would be an option to think about.
Another thing: Her younger sister, Maitte, will be at Adams next year.
The next day was our awards ceremony for this year. I hate these because the teachers take too long to give them out. They gave out awards for clubs and activities and perfect attendance. I haven't missed a day of school in three years, so when they announced "Haley Hotchkiss, three years perfect attendance," I heard Meredith and some of the others sitting on the top bleachers yelling boos.
Kristy got basketball team MVP, Alison got soccer team MVP, Megan received the special principal's award for "going beyond the call of duty." A boy named Caelan Staub got highest average awards for math and science, I got mine for social studies, Megan got it for English, Katarina got for reading, and Hilary got her awards for highest average in spelling, winning the school spelling bee, district spelling bee, 2nd in state spelling bee -- oh, and she's going to nationals in July.
I was a little nervous when Mrs. Baldwin went to announce the 6th grader with the highest grade point average. "Haley, you know you're gonna get that," Harriet said with a nudge.
"Caelan's smart too," I reminded her. I don't know Caelan that well, he's pretty quiet and keeps mostly to himself.
"The sixth grader with the highest grade point average for the year -- Haley Hotchkiss with a 3.975."
"Haley, don't act like you didn't know," Kristy said. Meredith and her friends rained down more boos as I walked to receive my awards.
Speaking of Parkington, my interview was okay... not great, not bad. Just okay. They asked me about what I was involved in and what I wanted to do with my life. When I got ready to leave, they shook my hand, and I left.

New Layout and End-of-the-Year stuff

First of all, how do you like (or don't like) my new picture and layout? I figured I needed to refresh it, and I also changed the title of my blog. The new title is courtesy of Hilary, she thought I needed something more catchy. The new pic and graphix are courtesy of Lindsey, she is just a whiz with those graphix programs. Tell me whether you love or hate it, and what can be done to improve it.
Today was our last full day of school, hard to believe it's almost over. *sniff* HAHAHAHAHA Tonight the eighth-graders graduate, tomorrow we have our awards ceremony and a half-day of school, Monday we have off because it's Memorial Day, Tuesday through Friday are all half-days as we take our final exams. Next Friday is our last day of school, and some of the girls in the class are talking about skipping out.
The eighth-graders picked Miley Cyrus' "The Climb" as their class song. The first time I heard it, I believe it might have been on either Sabine's or Katie's blogs. It's not the prettiest song in the world -- to me it sounds like someone cried throughout -- but I'm just weird, lol. Sorry if you're offended.
I've already begun packing for my trip. Vee ordered me the retired Sightseeing outfit, I'm waiting for it to arrive, everything else is packed up and ready to go. I saw pics of the outfit, it's okay, not great. I'm not a fan of the poncho, and I can take or leave the boots. I leave on the 9th, which doesn't give me much time, frankly. She's also letting me use her niece's old Barbie suitcase, and while I'm not a big fan of Barbie, the case keeps my stuff in place and is the right size for me.
My friends' summer plans are pretty varied. Kristy's going on a two-week camping trip, then basketball camp. Hilary's replacing me again -- at least temporarily. She'll take my spot at the local university's gifted and talented summer enrichment program. Thing is, she'll also be spending some time in California (just not when I'm there -- figures) with her father. Her parents are getting a divorce, and there's still a possibility she might be moving. Katarina's returning to Germany. Kit's gonna do her newspaper stuff and play some baseball. Linds says she wants to finish the movie she's making and read all the new Rebecca Rubin stories coming from AG soon (Like Rebecca, Lindsey is Jewish, so she feels a special kinship). And Harriet? "Nothing special," she shrugs. Sometimes I wonder why we're friends as she's so laid-back and I'm just the opposite.
What are your summer plans?
We decided that since I have a half-day tomorrow that I'm not going to stay at Parkington. Instead we're going to drive up as soon as I get out of the assembly and then come back here tomorrow night. It's a six hour round trip.

The 5th graders are coming! The 5th graders are coming! They're he-ere!

Today the 5th grade class from the local elementary school took their grand tour of Adams Junior High. This is different from the Open House, where parents (and some 5th graders) came here in dress clothes to find out what the school was about. Lindsey wasn't at Open House, but Kathryn (Kit) and Carissa were, so I saw all three of them today.

All the sixth grade class officers had groups of five or six they had to take around the school. I had a group, Meredith had a group, Megan had a group, Mia had a group, and another girl named Heather something-or-other had a group. And the groups were divided randomly. In my group was this girl that looked Asian, another girl with long brown hair, Carissa, Kit, and Lindsey.

Carissa mentioned her dad was also thinking about private school for her, so she didn't say much. Kit and Lindsey were there too. But I was most interested in the pretty Asian girl in the long pink and orange skirt.

She'd said her name was Jessica, Jess for short, and she'd come from spending a year in Belize with her parents who are archeologists. They'd both gotten jobs at the local university as professors, so it was goodbye Belize and hello school -- but what school? They were still trying to decide.

I introduced Kit and Lindsey to my friends. Harriet and Kristy knew them from Girl Scouts, but Hilary and Katarina had never met them. Lindsey said she was trying to talk Jess, who'd just moved here, into joining Girl Scouts. Kit said she was looking forward to joining the newspaper staff and becoming sixth grade class president. I'll say this -- if anyone's gonna be my successor as sixth grade class president, I'd rather it be someone who shares my ambition and desire to learn. Seems like Kit does.

I'm starting a buddy program, where a 5th grader will be paired off with one of us 6th graders to help with the change between elementary and junior high school. It's not my original idea, though. It's something I read on Wendy's blog that her school is doing, and so I'm gonna try it here. I kinda wish something like this was around when I started 6th grade and didn't know a soul. Unfortunately, even though I started the program I won't actually be doing the pairing. The student council sponsor will. And that means I could end up with anybody, even someone I don't like.

The 5th graders will be here till Friday, so I have to come up with 2 more days of activities for them. I'm considering showing them the Chrissa movie and giving a talk on bullying, since I finally finished that project I was doing. Not sure what else I'll do though. I do know some of the girls are staying after school for cheerleading tryouts (blech!).

Kristy is completely insane!

Let me explain my title for a second. Okay, most of you who've followed this blog know that Kristy Van Dyke is a girl in my class. She was Harriet's pal before she became mine, and now she's one of my best friends.

Above is a picture of her with her long, thick brown hair that she really hardly does anything with, except maybe put in a ponytail. I'm jealous sometimes that her hair is so thick.

So, the other day Kristy is like, "I wanna cut all of it off." My reaction was, ARE YOU SERIOUS????? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND????

"Yeah, I wanna cut it all off. I want it very short."

Please tell me I'm right. I think this is a terrible idea.

Forgot to mention...

In all my stress over mom's visit, I forgot to mention this little incident.
Ok, remember we were supposed to have a party for Easter? We ended up doing something, but a gathering over at Vee's place, on the day after Easter. With Nicki leaving that evening, it was the least I could do.

Kristy brought someone with her. I was expecting she'd bring Alison but it wasn't her. It was someone else. She wore glasses and a red jumper. I have to admit she was cool-looking. "Her name is Veronica Vasconcelos," Kristy said, "she's my roommate at the center."

I like the sound of the name, Veronica Vasconcelos. She's as exotic as her name is. She's is half-Brazilian and half-Mexican, and she speaks fluent Portuguese and Spanish. But I wasn't prepared for what Kristy said next.

"She's legally blind."

"She can't see?" asked Harriet.

"Not too well," Kristy said.

I'd read about blindness in a book once, and I explained to them that there are different definitions of sight, and once a person's vision falls below a certain threshold, they're declared legally blind. For example, my vision is officially 20/50, which means I'm mildly nearsighted. Veronica's vision has to be worse than 20/200.

Veronica told us she's learning Braille, the written language for visually impaired people. I saw a documentary on it once, it's raised dots on a page, and it allows for them to 'read' even though they can't see well.

Just then Nicki showed up, with Sprocket in tow. I had to turn away to keep from sneezing as Sprocket barked and barked and barked at Veronica.

I was shocked at what happened next. Nicki, who'd as far as I knew had only seen Veronica this one time, reached over to her and handed Sprocket to her. "He's a trained service dog," she explained, "he'll be your eyes and ears." Veronica was quite touched by the gift, she gave Nicki a huge hug and started crying.

Later on, on our way to the airport, where Nicki only had 1 dog with her, I asked her why she did it, and she said that Veronica needed Sprocket more than she did.

Palling Around with Nicki

One thing that you have to prepare for when an out-of-town relative comes to visit is surprises. Like, this morning Nicki wakes up and says, "Haley, come on, let's go to the animal shelter."

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, Nicki? You brought your two dogs here, and you want to see more animals?"

Sprocket scratched his paw on Nicki's face. "That means he's hungry." She rolled out of bed and got him some dog food. I can't say she isn't committed, that's for sure.

"You can bring your friends, too," she added. "The more, the merrier."

You know something's up if Nicki is suggesting things we do. But I was surprised. Harriet and Kristy were both up for it. Hilary was in Minnesota visiting her grandparents and Katarina, of course, is in Germany for the week.

So in the freezing cold, the four of us took the transit bus (yes we have transit service) to the animal shelter on the other side of town. Nicki, who volunteers in one back in Colorado, was showing us around, even while she had Sprocket on his leash. Sprocket's a curious little dog, looking at everything and everyone.

There was this one dog that caught everyone's eye. Everyone's that is, except mine. I couldn't stop sneezing to save my life. It was a beige and brown dog with ears that stick up. Kristy reached to touch it but the dog nearly bit her finger off. Harriet feels the same way about animals as I do -- they're cute as long as they belong to someone else.

"Sprocket's almost done with his training," Nicki revealed. "Pretty soon, he'll be ready to go to someone who needs him more than I do. I'll miss him like crazy though."

Spring Parties

All I've been hearing about for the last few days has been Meredith Hopkins' blowout birthday party this weekend. It's so big she's not even having it in her already huge house. She's having it at the local community center. Her parents rented the entire building.

She prances about like a queen and her court maids follow her around. And she's spent the whole time passing around invitations for her party. So far, as near as I can tell, she's invited all of her crowd, plus a smattering of 7th and 8th graders. I've heard Bridget O'Shaughnessy (the redhead from the gymnastics team tryouts) got an invitation but not Hilary. Apparently since Hilary pretty much hangs out with Harriet and me she's not considered 'cool' enough. I'm told that a couple neighborhood 5th graders got invites, too. I've also heard Adam Cartwright got an invitation too.

How does she figure out who gets invited to these parties? Has she devised some mysterious lottery system? Is she just picking names out of a hat?

Harriet, our resident spy, has known Meredith since kindergarten, and has despised her for at least as long. She's one of only a few African-American students in our classes (one of the others is Sasha Moore, who's biracial), and throughout the time, she's heard Meredith make a few cutting remarks about blacks to other people but never to her face. The worst she's ever called Harriet, as far as I know, is 'loser' and 'weirdo'. Oh, and there was that one time she referred to Harriet as 'Buckwheat' -- which I found out was from a very old TV show. One thing people might be surprised to know about Meredith -- something Harriet told me -- is that she has a thing for classic movies and TV.

Still, even though I can't stand Meredith, there's a part of me that wants to be at this party. I don't know if it's curiosity or if it's the fact that Adam will more than likely be there, but being left out kinda sucks.

So when she came up to me at recess today, I knew she wasn't going to give me an invitation, but I wanted to know how she chose people that she wanted to attend her party. "Well if it isn't the Dork Squad," she sneered, looking at Kristy, Hilary, Harriet and me.

"If you ask me," Kristy shot back, "the only dork I see here is you."

"Did you get that out of your dad's closet?" Meredith asked, looking at Kristy's overalls.

"Actually," I said, "overalls are a classic style. They never seem outdated."

"You know, I would have invited you to my birthday party at the rec center," she said, "but I don't allow four-eyed dorks in the building. Sorry." With that she left.

"Who would want to go to her stupid party?" asked Kristy, who was probably within earshot of Meredith. But one thing I respect about her is that she just doesn't care. She has more important things to worry about than whether or not she's invited to a party.

Then I came up with an idea. "Let's have our own party," I said. "We don't need her to have a good time." Hilary and Harriet agreed it was a great idea, but I'm not too sure how I could pull it off. And who would I invite? I knew the three of them would get invitations, and probably Katarina, but anybody else? And what could I do? I came to a shocking decision. I decided to put our plan to isolate Meredith into action. I dropped invites on Marisa's, Natasha's, and Sasha's desks. They don't have to accept but at least they're out there. And I gave Mia her invitation during sixth period. The only thing saving me, I think, is the fact that we've got a week off now for Easter break. I've never hosted a party. Harriet had a slumber party a couple weeks ago, but that was planned for months and months and finally got done. How am I going to come up with something at the spur of the moment? There's also the question of what I'm going to wear. There is the Silver Belle dress I wore to the open house, but that seems much too formal for a regular house party. If any of you bloggers have any excellent party ideas I'm all ears (or should I say, all eyes, as I've got four of them)!

March Madness

Well, it's here. I'm talking about March Madness. No, I'm not talking about the college basketball tournament that's going on, I'm talking about the jr. high girls' state basketball championship game! And it was held tonight... right in Adams' gym!

The Adams Junior High Lady Jaguars, the #1 ranked jr. high girls basketball team in the state, played against St. Theresa of Avila Catholic School, a team from the northern part of the state. St. Theresa, I'm told, is the #3 ranked team in the state, and I'm told there's a player named Melanie Blanchard, who's supposed to be really good.

I told you before that Kristy was on the team. What I didn't tell you was she was the starting point guard. Alison told me that just yesterday, I didn't know that. She also told me how unusual it was for a sixth grader to start on the team, so she had to be really good. Since Alison herself was playing IN the game (she's the team's starting shooting guard), I found myself having to write about it for the paper, even though I know next to nothing about basketball or any sports. Truth be told, since Kristy was going to be playing in the game, I would probably find myself going anyway. Harriet would have dragged me if nothing else.

Anyway, this has been a pretty big deal at school. Even Meredith has found she's had to shut her trap and scream real loud to cheer. Today we had to wear the school colors and there was another pep rally in the gym.

So we got to the gym at about 6:30, and it was packed. Harriet, Hilary, and I decided to form our own cheering section, along with Harriet's mother and grandmother and some girls from Kristy's group home. I struck up a conversation with a Lindsey Bergman, who sat in front of us and who says she'll be attending Adams next year. She thinks she'll be trying out for the team.

Hilary, Harriet, and I had spent most of last night making signs and getting spirit flags to wave. By the time we'd gotten our snacks and taken our seats, the game had already started. We watched Kristy bounce the ball up and down the court and throw it to her teammates. Alison kept throwing the ball at the net and missing, and I could tell she was mad at herself for missing. Then, when the coach called a timeout, I heard him tell Kristy, "They're daring you to shoot, so, shoot!"

The next time, when Kristy got the ball, she threw it up. And it went in! It also went in the next time, and the time after that, and the time after that. By halftime, I'm told, she'd scored eighteen points and the Jags were leading by nine.

Well, you can guess what happened next. St. Theresa, I'm told, asked Melanie Blanchard to guard Kristy. All Kristy did was score ten more points and pass the ball seven more times for other people to score, including Alison. And...

We won! The final score was Adams 57, St. Theresa 48.

And Kristy was named the tournament's most valuable player.

Twelve Candles

Well, today was Hilary's birthday. And it rained. All day.

I didn't really want to go to the party, and didn't really have anything to wear, but Harriet called and convinced me to go. I even borrowed her Sparkly Tunic top -- and I NEVER borrow any clothes from Harriet, lol.

So we got over to Hilary's house and the place is in a tizzy, but not because of Hilary's birthday. It's because today was also her little sister's ballet recital. "Hallee," Hilary's mother called, "do you have your costume?"

Hallee Lang is blond like Hilary and has blue eyes like Hilary, but that's all they have in common. She walks on her tippie toes and wears a fake plastered grin. Hallee's been in beauty pageants, local shopping mall fashion shows, and has taken dance lessons since she was in diapers. She's an eight-year-old spoiled brat and her parents clearly favor her.

Hilary looked sad, even though she was wearing a cute blue and white floral babydoll dress. "They forgot my birthday," she said as Harriet handed her our present.

"No, they didn't forget --" I tried to cheer her up.

"You don't know. They really forgot my birthday."

"Hilary, are you coming to the recital?" I heard her mother ask. She was putting on earrings as she walked up the hall.

"Mom, you know today's my birthday, I'm not going to sit down at another one of Hallee's recitals."

"Hill, what did I tell you about disrespecting your sister's dancing?"

Hilary's parents tried to get her involved in the things Hallee's into, but she was never interested.

When her parents and Hallee left, Hilary walked to the cupboard and got out some snack chips that were left over from her parents' last get-together. Katarina and Kristy showed up awhile later.

Hilary's a big Disney fan, so she pretty much had a Disney themed gathering. We watched Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame -- and then she told us she'd read the books these movies were based on, too. "Nothing I do pleases them," I heard Hilary mutter. "It's always Hallee this, Hallee that. It's like I don't exist and Hallee is their only child."

Afterwards the five of us got in a circle and held hands, as Hilary suggested. We sang "Happy Birthday" and blew out the candles from twelve cupcakes that Katarina baked. I'm not much for mushiness, but Hilary is a sap and she started crying. "You guys are the best!" she exclaimed, wiping sloppy tears from her eyes.

Clearing the Air

I know the last post seems to have caused a bit of a stir... especially with Ali and Kristy. I don't know what's going on with them, and it's not really my business to know, except where the paper is concerned, and Ali is on the staff and was not pulling her weight. So, I told her about it. She understood where I was coming from and that was that. The fact that she had Kristy with her had me a little unsettled, but my beef with her is over.
Anyway, tomorrow (it's after midnight here) is Hilary's birthday. If you wanna know what happened at the spelling bee, she did win district, so now she's going to regionals to compete against spellers from about a seven or eight county area.
As for tomorrow, Hilary's said she doesn't really want a party, but we're gonna have a little get-together at her place anyway, if the weather is nice we'll have it outside. She's a big Disney movie fan -- and I'm not talking about High School Musical and the like. I'm talking about Aladdin, Beauty & the Beast, etc.
Speaking of Beauty & the Beast, one of Harriet's cousins works at a music store, and he happened to find the full original soundtrack, so today Harriet went to pick it up and that's what we're giving Hilary for her birthday.

Dullards and Deadlines

It's just dawned on me that I can't wait till summer.

As it is now, I'm swimming in deadlines. There's my social studies fair project, which I still haven't finished. There's my year-end book report for English class. There's the yearbook, which we still haven't started working on. And there's my article on gymnastics tryouts for the newspaper. That's as big a problem as any. And making matters worse, Bridget, the captain of the team, is not making things any easier.

Bridget O'Shaughnessy used to be BFF with Hilary Lang, but they began growing apart this year. So that's what Hilary told me. Bridget's into gymnastics, dance, theater -- anything that involves performing in front of a crowd, that's where she'll be.

So, anyway, on the second day of tryouts, I asked Bridget if I could sit in and watch again, and she tried to cop a Meredith-like attitude.

"You can't close down tryouts!" I said. "Who do you think you are?"

She didn't want to, but she let me sit down anyway. A few moments later, who walked in but the paper's regular sports reporter, Alison McCann. And she had Kristy in tow. I had to admit the closeness of their relationship over the last few weeks made me just a little bit uncomfortable. They were always touching each other, holding hands and stuff.

"Alison," I shouted as Bridget did her stretches, "this is your baby. You haven't been pulling your weight. If Megan finds out --"

"Megan's not going to find out, is she?"

I shook my head. Alison could be such a basket case sometimes. "So who's going to write the article, Alison -- me or you?"
She looked at me and shrugged. "Haley, why are you so bossy? You're not the editor."

"Maybe not, but I've been covering gymnastics tryouts, and as sports editor that's your job."

I could see Kristy peering at us off to the side. She and Alison had gotten quite close over the last few weeks.

"Okay, Haley, I tell you what," Alison said. "Give me your notes from the tryouts and I'll take it from here."

Believe it or not, I had mixed feelings about this. I wanted to prove that I belonged on the newspaper staff. And on the other hand, covering the tryouts was Alison's job, not mine. I had other things to do.

On top of all this, I have to find something to wear to the open house coming up. As sixth grade class president, I have to be there and make a presentation to the incoming students. And all this at a time when I don't even know if I'll be at Adams this fall.

Time to Talk

I came home and laid on my pillow, face down. I realized that what Kristy had done was a potential breakthrough. So I waited until I was sure they had phone privileges at the group home where she lives to try to call her. They told me she'd gone out for her evening walk, so I decided I'd wait until later.

Meanwhile, I told Harriet what Meredith did, and then wrote about it in my blog. Harriet in my bedroom and Wendy and Sophie on my blog all agreed that Meredith had now gone too far and I needed to tell an adult. Indeed, the entire situation was now officially beyond my control.
So before classes started this morning, Harriet and I decided to go and talk to my homeroom teacher, Mrs. Baldwin. I'm not sure why I hadn't thought to talk to her before since I can never find the guidance counselor and the principal is always busy. To my surprise, though, Mrs. Baldwin seemed as though she wanted to talk to me. Before I could say anything, she asked me if something was wrong.
I broke down in tears as it all started flowing out. Mrs. Baldwin reached for me and Harriet put her hand on my back.

"How long has this been going on?" she asked.

"Since the beginning of the school year."

"And you haven't told anybody?" Mrs. Baldwin asked.

I shook my head no.

"We need to schedule something with the principal, right away."

When I got to the principal's office, though, Kristy was already there. She looked me in the eye. "Haley -- we need to talk."

I was all ears. "When?"

"After school. Can't say much in here."

Just then Mrs. Baldwin, Principal Ballard, and Meredith arrived. "I understand from Mrs. Baldwin that you girls have been having an issue."

Neither of us said anything. But after a few moments Meredith yelled, "Kristy pushed me."

"But not before you started it," shot back Kristy.

"Okay," shouted Principal Ballard, "enough! Now, one by one I want you to tell me what's been going on."

I started first, remembering events that had been going on since the beginning of the school year, when I first arrived at Adams. Then Meredith and Kristy said their pieces.

Principal Ballard scratched his chin. "So this is what last week's fight was about. I see."

"These tensions between these two groups have been building since school started," said Mrs. Baldwin. "And the election didn't help."

"I agree," he replied, "this situation must be dealt with. As for today's incident, Hopkins, since I don't think this is the first time you've bullied, I'm suspending you for two days."

Meredith hopped from her chair. "What?" she asked in disbelief, stamping her feet. "You can't do this!"

"And you're to spend the rest of the week in after-school detention. As for you, Van Dyke, you're suspended for one day. You've got a history of discipline problems. Madisyn Baker's parents have taken her out of Adams because of last week's events. A couple more skirmishes like this and you're expelled."

Kristy slumped in her seat and sulked. Then Principal Ballard looked at me and he said he was glad I finally got the courage to tell someone about my being bullied.

All this reminds me, I need to finish my project. Any suggestions?

Anyway, after the meeting, Kristy called me aside and said we needed to talk. She dragged me out to the hallway -- finding a quiet place in Adams' hallway is quite a feat -- and then started. "You know --"

"I'm sorry, Kristy," I said, "I'm sorry you got in trouble."

Kristy shrugged. "It's no big deal. You'd be surprised how often it happens. People like Madisyn and Meredith just make me mad, y'know?"

"I know what you mean."

"They think they run the school. Sometimes you gotta take 'em down a peg or two. And I don't like the way they treat you."

"Kristy, I appreciate you taking up for me," I said, "but you can't go around beating people up."

She put her hand on my shoulder. "You gotta admit, though, Madisyn Baker deserved what she got, and I was about to give it to Meredith too --"

Right then and there, I realized, I need to confront Meredith, once and for all. Not Kristy, not Harriet -- but me. But where am I going to get the guts?

On top of all this, Hilary's twelfth birthday is next week -- and I have no clue what to get her. She told me her parents might be moving at the end of the school year. It's funny that she was basically just a replacement class rep after I was named class president, but she's actually sweet and has become a friend. If she moves I'll miss her.

What About Your Friends? Part Deux

"How'd it go?" Harriet and Hilary asked in singsong voices.
I shrugged. "It didn't go at all. Kristy still won't talk to me."
"Haley," Hilary said, "you did the right thing. I would have done the same."
"It's been a week and she's still upset," I said.
Harriet offered to talk to Kristy for me, but I wasn't sure what would come of it. As it is, she's spending a lot of time lately with her new BFF, Alison McCann. I know her from the paper. Ali's forgotten more sports trivia than I ever knew.


Anyway, I tried to listen in as Harriet tried to talk to Kristy. Kristy was, in Harriet's words, "just being stubborn." The situation was hopeless, and I thought I'd never get through to her. I had to admit, it was a huge setback in my attempt to be friends with her.
Just then, though, Meredith and her gang came up to me again, and again they asked me to do their homework for them. When I kept telling them 'no,' they kept on asking. And then I heard someone's voice: "Leave her alone."


I looked up. It was Kristy!
"She ain't gotta do YOUR homework for you!"
"Hey, you don't want me to slam you in your locker, do you?" Meredith asked.
Kristy stared her down. "As if YOU can slam anyone in a locker. You'd be too afraid to even break a nail!"
"You wanna play tough?" Meredith asked. Before I could blink, Kristy had pushed her beside a wall.
If there's anybody that hates Meredith Hopkins more than I do, it's probably Kristy. After all, Kristy says, ever since she came back after having moved away, Meredith has made her life miserable. Kristy says Meredith, passing by with her family in their fancy car, spotted her at her favorite fishing hole, took pictures, and circulated it all around the school, yet to this day Meredith denies ever doing it.

What About Your Friends?

Kristy's still mad at me.

Harriet and I came up with what we thought was a foolproof plan to try to smooth over hurt feelings. We knew that today Kristy was going to come back to school after her suspension. See, I tutor some days after school, and ever since she was in the hospital last year, I've been tutoring her. So the plan was, I was going to tutor like normal, and not even mention, you know what, until after we were done with the session.

So I went to tutor her as usual. She's dyslexic (did I spell that right? I had to look in the dictionary) so she has trouble with reading and spelling and English. We went over last week's lessons and some of the spelling words (I had to ask Hilary for the word list) and we also skimmed through the math assignment. The whole time she wouldn't even look at me. Of course I was bummed about it, but I have to remember that part of this is in fact my own fault.

Worse, when I was leaving the gym, who would come up to me but you-know-who and her latest little accessory, Marisa Perez.

"You have the math assignment, right, Brainiac?" Meredith asked.

"What assignment?"

"The one I asked you to do for me last night."

"You never asked me to do any assignment," I said, "and besides, even if you had, I wasn't going to do it anyway." As soon as I'd said it I wished I hadn't.

"You said WHAT?" Meredith shouted in my face. "I told you, you four-eyed loser, you'd better have my homework assignment for me --"

"Or what?"

"Or I tell the whole school what really happened to your parents."

"You don't know anything about my parents!"

"You think not?" Meredith folded her arms. "Just for that, I want last night's assignment and tonight's. Got that?"

"I'm not doing your homework, Meredith!"

"I'll lock you up in your own locker if you don't do it." I heard Marisa give some amused snickers. The fact is, I know Meredith tries to copy off of me in class, so I've been trying to sit as far away from her as I can.

I feel like crap now, and I'm not sure what to do about it. For the first time in my life, I really don't have the answers.

When The Going Gets Tough...

...the tough go shopping?

Today really felt like spring, but I wasn't quite ready for shorts yet, so I slipped on my favorite pair of jeans, from the Ready for Fun set. After school today Harriet and I were chilling out at her place when she got one of those new AG catalogs for us to look at. I wanted to see if I could find a new formal dress for the open house coming up. She had her eye on the new yoga outfit and the permission slips for summer camp -- which will be held at Pine Lake this year.
"What about the new Spring Party outfit?" Harriet said, eyeing the model playing the violin in the dress. "I think it would look real good on you, you know, bring out your eyes."
"I dunno," I whispered. "It's cute but a little too -- I dunno, too dressy. I'm talking about open house, not the prom."
"Right." Harriet nodded. Then she saw the new softball outfit and we both said "Kristy" in unison.
Kristy's still suspended from school because of that fight with Madisyn Baker a couple days ago, so I haven't seen her and neither has Harriet. And she's gotten to the point -- Kristy, that is -- that she still isn't talking to me. I tried calling her on the phone, and when the director goes to get her she screams and yells "I don't want to talk to her!"
So we looked through the new catalog to see what we liked, and to get our minds off of this crap. I decided I liked the new PJ set and Harriet wants to try yoga. Sometimes I think Harriet is from a different place and time.

Torn

Right after the spelling bee, during recess, all hell broke loose. Really.

Hilary and I met Kristy when she came out of her class, and Madisyn came up to us. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by Meredith and her whole gang.

Other than Madisyn calling Kristy 'half-boy, half-girl' and saying her clothes 'look like they came from her brother's closet' I don't remember exactly what she said. All I know was she made Kristy mad enough to attack her. Before I knew it, Madisyn was on the ground and Kristy had jumped on top of her.

Meredith, Sasha, and Marisa stood right there, cheering Madisyn on. Either one of them could have broken up the fight. As a hall monitor, though, it was my duty to break up the fight. But there was a part of me that didn't want to. There was a part of me that wanted the satisfaction of seeing Madisyn's chickens come home to roost.

I broke up the fight anyway, because I didn't want to see anyone get hurt. Then, on top of that, I had to take both of them to the principal's office.

Principal Ballard made Kristy take off her cap, and sent a nurse to patch up Madisyn's eye. Then he sat down. "Okay, Baker, Van Dyke, tell me what happened."

I stood there as Madisyn and Kristy repeated their sides of the story. They did even more shouting at each other. My ears were ringing.

"Enough!" the principal yelled, looking at Kristy. "How long has this been happening?"

"Since the first day of school."

"I'm suspending the both of you for two days." Then the principal looked at me. "Hotchkiss -- I'm glad you brought this incident to my attention. Someone could really have gotten hurt."

While the nurse was patching up Madisyn's eye, I tried to chase Kristy as she was running out. "Wait!" I pleaded.

"I don't want to talk to you."

"Well, will you just hear me out?"

"No," Kristy shouted. "I had her, I finally had her."

"I know, but I had to stop the fight."

"But did you have to tell the principal?" Kristy gave me a look I hadn't seen before. It wasn't anger and it wasn't frustration, it was something else entirely. She looked like she wanted to hit me. "Just leave me alone, okay? Just leave me the heck alone."

"Kris --" I called, but she was gone.

I knew all this was going to come to blows sooner or later. It just had to. There was just so much tension in the air, and to be honest it's been building up since the beginning of the school year. I went over to Harriet's place and told her what happened. She didn't say anything. I took it as, she didn't want to take sides since she and Kristy are friends, too.

Then Harriet whispered something in my ear. "Come here. Let me tell you something about Kristy."

I sat and listened as she began to spill the details of Kristy's rough life. Her parents died in a car accident when she was seven, and ever since she'd been bounced between foster homes, finally settling in a group home for troubled kids right around where Harriet lives.

After hearing that, I kinda felt sorry for her.

As for Kristy, she still isn't speaking to me. But I'm entirely sure that I did the right thing by turning her and Madisyn in to the principal for fighting, even though in light of what Harriet said I still feel like crap about it. Harriet volunteered to bring Kristy's homework to her for the next two nights.