Catching up -- part deux

The other part that has happened is that a bunch of girls have left. There are only a few of us actually remaining. Hilary's gone (again), and quite a few others have left, but I didn't know those girls well. Hilary's departure left the presidency open for me.

Meredith Hopkins no longer attends Adams Middle School, but that doesn't mean she's no longer a problem. Apparently she's now taken to calling me nasty names through my IM. How she got my instant messaging name and account I don't know. And I don't have a Facebook. Given what I've heard about Facebook, I'm kind of scared to get one.

Safe to say the "Pretty Girls" are no longer what they once were. Meredith was so upset at Natalie for becoming cheer captain that she transferred to Hillside, the private school on the other side of town, and, I heard, became cheer captain THERE. And, I'm told, Meredith and Natalie are no longer on speaking terms, even though they live in the same neighborhood. I think Natalie's gymnastics training helped her become cheer captain. As for the third girl, Sasha, she spends most of her time now with glee club -- and the new girl, Cassidy Fitzgerald. And in my book, that's a GOOD thing.

Speaking of Natalie, she and Harriet (yes my best friend) take a yoga class together and have the same PE period. I thought about signing up for the yoga class but with all my duties I've been much too busy. It's actually kind of weird seeing them laughing and talking together.

And I have more news. Remember Antoinette, the French exchange student who spent time here a couple of years back? Well, she applied to attend Innerstar Magnet Academy -- and got in! So, she'll be at IMA when I get there!

Oh, and just this morning I learned that my twin Robyn Pickering's dad passed away suddenly of a heart attack.

Apology and report card time

Hey y'all, I'm sorry for the lack of posts this end. Vee broke her digital camera, again. This time she says she sat on it!
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. It's report card time at AMS. Yours truly didn't get one because she didn't get back until the day before the holiday pageant. I'm hoping to get one next time.
Harriet has a D in math, and this was only because she's been going to tutoring after school. Otherwise she'd be failing. I may have to step in and give her some extra tutoring. Natalie is failing both science and math, Mia is failing social studies, Lindsey is flunking reading, and Kate managed to pull down straight A's.
Anyway, I know why Natalie is failing. She is pretending not to know the material in order to impress this boy in her class. Really, I think THAT is dumber than anything. Pretending to be dumb to impress a boy? On what planet does 'being dumb' impress anyone?

Oh, before I forget...
Antoinette came into my editor's office before she returned to France. We actually had a fairly long little chat.

She told me that she was applying to attend boarding school in the United States.

"That's great, Antoinette."

"My parents don't want me to come to the Etats-Unis," she said. "They want me to stay in France."

"Have you talked to them?"

"Naturellement. Absolutment. But there is no convincing them."

"Maybe they'll come around when they see how many friends you've made here. Everyone at the paper misses you."

"And I them."
I told her to keep trying to talk to them. And show them all the pictures you took of everyone here.

We exchanged hugs and email addresses and promised to keep in touch.

The Big Holiday Pageant

So yesterday I was in the audience as the big holiday pageant was taking place. And yes, it was big. Too big for a lot of kids' tastes, as some of them walked out of the auditorium.

Notice the charm necklace I'm wearing. It came from the new Plaid outfit (I forget what it's called) and I have the 'smart' charm. Suits, huh?

Anyway, I'm seated next to Natalie Spencer and the current student body president, Hilary Lang, who I'm told beat out Meredith by one vote. I can't imagine what it would be like if Meredith had won. I doubt we'd even have had a holiday pageant.

So we have one. First off the Adams Glee Club (known as some circles as the choir) came out with a medley of Christmas songs. I'm still having a hard time believing Harriet actually joined this outfit.

There was a redhead in the front, with Harriet, Sasha Moore, and Vicky Vaccaro, and a few other girls in the back. Harriet told me the redhead is Cassidy Fitzgerald and she arrived in September from Kentucky. She's the one, Harriet tells me, who started the glee club after she saw Adams didn't have one. Thing is, Harriet never gave me any impression that she would do something like this. I mean, I'm happy for her but it's still a little surprising.

Then Sasha Moore came out with what I had to admit was a beautiful "Silent Night" solo.

Some of the other backup singers came out with angel costumes, with Mia St. Clair skating on the makeshift ice rink.
After the solo came the Nutcracker. Have to admit Meredith made a decent Sugar Plum Fairy. Maitte Luna as Clara was a nice touch. I don't know Maitte that well but she is a good dancer.

And there was another big surprise waiting for me. Antoinette!

Antoinette, remember, is the French exchange student who spent part of last year attending our school.

She showed up today, just in time for the holiday pageant. "Antoinette? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"My father is on a business trip, so I decided to pay you guys a visit." She laughed. "Cet endroit n'a pas change'. This place hasn't changed."

I decided to get her a seat somewhere in the auditorium to watch the rest of the pageant.

Running with the Wolves

Would you believe Natalie is running with Meredith and Sasha now?

Not only does Natalie have her sleek new haircut, but it seems she has a new wardrobe as well. And the skirts have gotten much shorter since she's begun spending her time with Meredith.

I'm sure Natalie thinks Meredith is being her friend, but she has no idea that Meredith is just using her as her latest and greatest accessory.

You see, before Natalie came here, she was homeschooled.

It's crazy. They eat lunch together, they hang out in the hallway at recess, and since Natalie's parents are both psycologists, I think they live in Meredith's neighborhood too.

I was on IM with my cousin Nicki last night and she pointed something out to me. She said that Meredith may actually see Natalie as a legitimate threat to her and is 'keeping her close by' to keep an eye on her. When I think about it, she behaved this way with Antoinette too.

Which meant this latest meeting of the dance committee was quite the eye-opening experience. They looked, spoke, and behaved like a full clique. How I ended up the de facto chairperson of this committee, I'll never quite know. "Now that we have a name, let's go on a theme," I began.

"Well, Natalie suggested last time that the king and queen be called the Lord and Lady of the Fling," Sasha began. "Why don't we run with it and do a medieval type thing?"

"That's good, Sasha," I said, "but wouldn't the Spring Fling need another name if it's got a medieval theme?" Thing is, we need a name for the dance in order to start discussing decorations for it.

"Not really," Sasha shot back.

"But 'Spring Fling' doesn't sound terribly medieval. I mean, if we're calling the king and queen the Lord and Lady of the Fling, the name of the dance itself would have to sound more medieval."

"What about Ye Olde Merrye Spring Fling?" piped in Natalie. "We don't have to change the name, but we can make it sound more medieval."

I'd have to think about that one. Anyone up for suggestions?

"I've already bought my dress!" protested Meredith, stamping her foot. "And it's certainly NOT medieval! I spent a lot of my parents' money on it! Don't tell me I have to bring it back!" She shot glares at both Natalie and me.

Just stopping in

Well, I know I've been absent, but I wanna just catch y'all up on what's been going on.

Vee's come down with a upper respiratory infection, so she's basically been chillin'. Her laptop is still in the shop, too, so I've been using the computers at school. There are no pix cause her digital camera is also still broken.

Natalie won the 7th grade spelling bee, I came in 2nd. 2nd is great, especially when you misspell the word electricity. (See, I spelled it right here but not in front of the class, lol)

Antoinette returned to France after the holidays and is talking about visiting for spring break. She showed me pix of her French boarding school and it's pretty ritzy. I'm wondering if, when I'm traveling, if I could visit France. I know Vee would never go for it, but...

Oh, I added a few more blogs to the blog list and changed the layout. I'm not happy with this one, so I wanna change it again, lol. If I missed your blog link, please let me know here. And any layout suggestions are welcomed! Thanks bunches!

More about Natalie

I went into the newspaper office today to check a few things and there was an email from Antoinette, saying she missed us here. And there was something else. She said she liked America so much that she was thinking about applying for Parkington next year. I'm not sure what to think of that one. As it is, she attends a ritzy private school in the French Riviera. Her family is fairly well-off.

While I was doing that, Natalie came into the office and spoke with Megan about the photographer position. Apparently Caelan, the boy who was the newspaper photographer, switched schools and now the position is empty. Megan asked to see Natalie's portfolio, and she said she'll bring it as soon as she can.

Speaking of Natalie, she has 4 classes (not homeroom) with me so I see her a lot. Today in science class I discovered something about her. She has a very noticeable bald spot in the back, and I know why she has it. I saw her pulling her hair. Not the usual habit that a lot of girls have where they run their hands through their hair, either. I mean actually pulling it. She yanked huge clunks of it out, and I saw them fall gently on her lap and on the desk. I'm in a delicate spot because I'm afraid if I say something, I'll lose what I think I'm starting to build with her.

Meanwhile, Meredith has already begun making her life a living hell, too. Just today in the lunch line she yanked on a piece of her hair and said, "How's that feel, eh?"

I told her to stop but Meredith just called me 'queen of the geeks' and told me to shut up.

Au Revoir, Antoinette... Hello, Natalie???

Hi everybody, this is my first post of 2010! Happy New Year!
I returned to town the day after New Year's after being in Colorado with my cousin Nicki for 2 weeks. Thing is, I thought I was leaving cold weather when I left there... and it's cold here too. Unusually cold, Vee says.

Over Christmas break, Antoinette returned to her hometown of Nice, France, as her stay at Adams for the semester is history. Gosh it went so fast. We did exchange email and IM addresses before she left so we'll keep in touch that way. And she turned in a final article for the newspaper, which was essentially a goodbye letter for the 7th grade and the school. It'll come out in this week's edition.

Meanwhile, while we're saying goodbye to Antoinette, we're saying hello to...

Natalie!

Her name's Natalie Noelle Spencer. She moved to town just before Christmas but decided to start school after the holiday.

When I walked in this morning (our 1st day back), Natalie was in the gym looking for the principal's office.

I hadn't recognized her, so I asked her if she was lost, and she said she was looking for the principal's office.

"Are you new here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I am."

While we were walking, Meredith and a couple of her little followers pointed at us and started laughing. I found out that Natalie had moved here from Ohio, that she was going to try out for the gymnastics team, and that she loved photography. "Good," I suggested, "the newspaper could use another photographer."

Decemberrrr!

Sorry I haven't been around lately, it's been sooo crazy around here!

For starters, Vee wiped her computer last week. Completely wiped it. Which means a lot of my pix and a lot of my links that I'd saved (not blog links, but regular site links) are gone. She'd been having some issues and then just decided to do it.

And school has been such a drag. Between my homework and the extracurriculars I'm in, I hardly have time to just hang out with my friends.

Sooo... anyway, today I was in the gym helping to decorate when you-know-who came in, waving her pom-poms with her hands on her hips. "Excuuuuse me," she shouted to the top of her lungs, "did you forget? The cheerleaders have practice today."

"Well, we're supposed to be hanging up the Christmas decorations in the gym, don't you think you guys can practice somewhere else in the gym while we do this?"

Now, I know she saw Antoinette with me, that's why she came over.

"Aren't you coming, Antoinette?"

"No, I'm helping Haley."

"Fine, suit yourself." Meredith left in a huff, that girl (aka mimic) Kylee by her side.

Three's A Crowd Part 2

I decided to confront Antoinette in the newspaper office. I knew that a) she'd be without Meredith and b) in case I totally flubbed, I'd be in a neutral zone with other friends. Unfortunately, when I got there, Lindsey and Megan were working on an article for Friday's edition. "Can we talk?"

"Certainement."

I figured that meant yes, so I excused Lindsey and Megan and took Antoinette aside. I know Linds was eavesdropping, because that's what she does. She doesn't mean any harm by it, she can't help herself.

Anyway, I heaved a deep breath and I let her have it. "Antoinette, ever since you got here, your behavior has been -- your behavior has been -- strange."

"Vraiment?"

"Oui," I said in my best French. I remember that from my French classes, lol. "You are nice to me and Harriet only when you are not around Meredith. When you're around her, you turn into a different person. Someone I don't like very much."

"Elle est mon amie."

"No she is not! She is nobody's friend but her own. She collects people like others collect jewelry or shoes or purses. And you were just the prize piece for her collection. Can't you see? She is using you!"
"What do you mean by 'using'? I do not understand."

Just when I was about to explain what 'using' meant, Lindsey burst into the room, coming in-between us, playing referee. I know she meant well, but I had to tell her, "We're okay in here, really. Stop worrying about us."
Lindsey folded her arms. "Okay," she said, "but promise not to fight."

So I tried to explain to Antoinette that Meredith wanted to make herself seem 'cooler' by making friends with the French exchange student.

And then I let loose. I told Antoinette everything Meredith had done to me over the last year. "I almost switched schools because of her, twice," I said.

"Pardon, je n'ai pas su," she said. "Vraiment, je n'ai pas su."
"And look, look what happened to you. She and her friends trashed your party, then they talked about you behind your back."

I don't know if Antoinette got my message -- only time will tell. But what I said needed to be said. I couldn't hold it in any longer.

I sat down at the computer and composed my article for the paper. I'm hoping that by the time I go to visit Nicki in Colorado over Christmas break, I will have gotten everything done. As it is, I'll probably be completely wasted. Between quizzes, tests, assignments, and extracurriculars, I barely have time to breathe these days.

Three's A Crowd Part 1

Well, I knew it was going to come to this, and sadly, it has.
Meredith and Marisa had this massive cat fight and they're actually not speaking to each other. I think it has something to do with something that happened at Antoinette's party. I'm not sure what it is, and I don't think I actually care.

Speaking of Antoinette, I mean, what do you say to someone whose party stunk like a skunk? I tried to come up with something but the words just wouldn't come out.

So I was on my way to give my talk to the seventh graders at a school assembly as class president (my first) when Meredith and Antoinette were walking by. "Dont'cha think you're going the wrong way for the assembly?" I asked.

"Like I care about your stinkin' assembly?" Meredith shot back.

"Ce n'est pas gentil," Antoinette said in her sweet voice. "That's not nice, Meredith."

"Why should I be nice to her?"

"Allons, laissez-nous vont." Antoinette managed to get in between me and Meredith -- for now.

Chillin

I didn't go to Antoinette's party last night. I used the excuse that it was too cold. Actually, it was fairly chilly last night, but that wasn't the reason I didn't go. I'm from Pennsylvania. The weather here in Louisiana is balmy compared to that.

Harriet went but she came back early, she said Meredith and a bunch of social-climbing 8th graders were there, not our crowd. She also said Antoinette herself looked like she wanted to leave. Instead we hung out at her place and looked thru the new AG holiday catalog.

She still says she wants the yoga outfit as purple is her favorite color. She also says she wants all of Julie Albright's collection -- for herself. She likes that 70s stuff.

Me, even though the Petal Hoodie outfit is, well, pink, I like it as it's loose and casual. I also LUV the Sparkly Plum outfit, definitely something I'd wear, but at $36 I'll only be able to afford it in my dreams. I did have a dream once that I was dancing in the snow with Adam Cartwright wearing the dress....

Happy Halloween everybody!

What are your plans for today?

Me, Harriet's trying to talk me into going to Antoinette's costume party. Antoinette invited us about a week ago. I'm not sure if I'm going, especially if Meredith's there like I think she will be.

Last night, somehow, we managed to pull off the 'Thriller' themed Halloween dance. Lindsey's dad let us use his lighting equipment and the smoke machines again. And I won second place in the costume contest, for something I threw together using Elizabeth's meet dress I found in a trunk last spring, and a wig Vee had around here for something else. Wouldn't you know, a boy dressed as Michael Jackson won first prize.

Oh, guess what? I'm going to visit Nicki in Colorado over Christmas break!

I don't think anything can prepare me for that weather. I suppose more than a year in Louisiana has spoiled me, even from PA winters. Nicki says they had over 3 feet of snow, already, and they were afraid they'd lost some of their ranch animals. I'm looking forward to seeing Aunt Joan and Uncle Dan and Adam and the twins, who are now about a year old.

Picture Day -- Say Cheese!

Did I tell you I HATE School Picture Day?

I hate it for several reasons, but most of all, that contraption that's up top. That's gonna be in the yearbook this year as me, Haley Hotchkiss.

Meredith and Marisa, those banes of my existence, cut in front of me in the picture line, and they tried to take Antoinette with them. She looked back at me and then at them and decided to stay with me and Harriet.

Oh, and I made another major decision. I decided to run for class president. I figured I was gonna get chosen as a class rep anyway, so why not go for the whole shebang?

So, that's why I've been busy -- newspaper and with devising my class presidency campaign. Since the position remains unfilled, there's nobody to help the student body president plan the back-to-school dance. But this time, I'm not running so that I can win. I'm running so that Meredith Hopkins will lose. Because there's no guarantee that Maitte or Caelan could beat her in an election against her.

Catching up again

I'm sorry I've been so busy here in Haley-land. The paper has pretty much taken all of my time.

The above shot was taken at my birthday party a week and a half ago. I decided to wear the Sapphire Party Dress that Vee had bought sometime last year but I never had an occasion to wear. I was surprised that Antoinette showed up. I did not mention Meredith or ask her why she came to my party.

Hilary left this week (sniff), which has made me sad. Not sure when or if she'll be back. And I still don't know where Kristy is, she's still kinda in limbo at this point.

As for the class presidency, as of right now I'm not in the race. There are, however, two more entrants. One is Maitte Luna, younger sister of Marisol Luna. The other is this boy named Caelan Staub, who hardly says 2 words in class, usually, so I'm definitely surprised that he's decided to run for class president.

I've been neutral in the race and have decided not to support one candidate or the other, but, honestly I don't care who wins as long as it's not Meredith.

Back to School Assembly, news on Hil, and a talk with Kit

Principal Ballard only decided TODAY to have his huge back-to-school assembly, going over the rules we've heard about 60 billion times, going over schedules, class assignments, activities, and making introductions. He trotted out Antoinette as the school's first-ever foreign exchange student. What I found out was, one of the eighth graders is at Antoinette's school in France for a semester, the same time as she's here. So I'm wondering if such a program would be available by the time I got to eighth grade, and would I be interested.

Hilary returned today, but she says she's only here for a couple weeks until her paperwork is finalized. She'll be living in California with her dad for the time being, as her parents have joint custody. She really is having a tough time dealing with the divorce. I remember when my parents split up, it was hard at first, but like I told Hilary, it does eventually get easier.

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the office helping Kit with her article for the back-to-school issue. I also directed her to Maura's blog post about becoming Ruthie Smithens, her great-grandmother's best friend in 1934. "Can you time-travel like her?" I asked.

"Lindsey pretended to be Ruthie once when we were in my dad's attic playing," Kit told me. "Time-travel isn't that hard. You just put on a costume and bam, you're in a different place and time. I love it." Then she asked, "You know who my great-grandma was, right?"

"How could I forget?" I replied. "There was a movie and 6 books about her, I want to read them but I haven't had the time. She sounds like she was amazing." Then I asked her what she was writing about.

"The ways school is alike and different in my great-grandma's time and now."

"Sounds like it's gonna be real interesting," I said.

"You'd be surprised," she said, "not much has changed in 75 years. We have computers and stuff now, but a lot of things are exactly the same."

"There weren't French exchange students in her day, were there?"

Kit laughed. "Heck no," she replied, "but there were wanderers called hoboes..." She began telling me this story she knew (that was in the book & movie) about her great-grandma's hobo friend named Will.

"So, that's kind of like what's going on with Antoinette now," I wondered.

"You might wanna cut her some slack. She is in a different country, away from her family and her friends."

I had to admit I never thought of it that way. Count on your friends to show you things you never realized.

Antoinette Boucher, Fashion Queen

If I needed more evidence that Antoinette Boucher is THE sharpest dresser in my grade, maybe the entire school, I got it today. She's definitely showing a lot of guts wearing this outfit, even though it's very pink and very girly. I've said more than once in this space that I'm not that big a fan of pink, even though there's a lot of it in my closet.

She says it's from Madame Alexander's new Friends 4 Life line, and she paired it with the hat from AG's 2-in-1 set they made for Mia last year, a beret she borrowed from (gasp) Meredith!

Speaking of which, I do think this whole thing with me, Antoinette, and Meredith is gonna eventually come to blows, and I don't know how it's gonna shake out, but somebody will feel some serious pain. I feel like I'm gonna eventually have to tell her what Meredith has done, because I don't want Meredith to do the same thing to her, and I know she will, because that's what she does to people.

So, Harriet, Antoinette, and I were on our way to gym class when I teased her that she should've worn that outfit tomorrow because there's supposed to be this big back-to-school assembly. She laughed and said "I didn't know" in an innocent French. All these new outfits are making me feel bad. I haven't had time to go shopping for new clothes, and both Harriet and Antoinette have new outfits, lol.

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.

All About Antoinette

The majority of comments from my last post were about Antoinette, the French exchange student who's at Adams for the semester, and with good reason. Naturally everybody's curious about her. So imagine my surprise when Megan approached me with an idea to do a profile article on her for the back-to-school issue due out this week. I asked her, "How am I going to interview her? Especially with Meredith in the way?"

So, today when I approached Antoinette, Meredith looked at me like I was crazy. "What are you gonna do with her?"

"It's for the paper, you doofus," I shot back. "You don't own her!" I've decided I'm not going to take another year of abuse from her. We're never gonna be friends, and I can live with that.

I'm still not sure about the format to use for the article, but back in February I did do a 15 things about me post on my blog, so I suppose I may use that.

This afternoon I managed to get Antoinette in the newspaper office, and here's what I know about her now that I didn't know this morning. One thing I know about her is that even with her glasses, she's very pretty, and another thing I know is that she's very thin. She's even thinner than I am.

• Her full name is Marie-Antoinette (one name) Anais Boucher, and she gets teased a lot back home because Marie Antoinette was a French queen who was beheaded.
• Instead of using her full name, she chooses to go by Antoinette.
• Her mother is Italian, her father is French.
• She speaks three languages (French, Italian, English) and is learning Spanish and German.
• She's in seventh grade, like me.
• I have two classes with her.
• She was born in a town called Versailles (she pronounces it vur-SY) and was raised in another town called Nice (pronounced like niece instead of nice). I'm sure Avery or Sophie may be much better at writing out the pronouncing of these names, though.
• Her birthday is May 2.
• She admires France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former model who has also launched a music career.
• Her family in France is fairly well-off.
• She is an only child.
• Her favorite artist is someone called Lady GaGa, and like me she doesn't get the obsession with Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana. "It's not that I don't like Mi-lee or Anna," she says in her cutely accented English, "it's just that they are not my favorite."
• She wants to write for the paper. Knowing Megan, I'm sure that could be arranged.
• She loves Harry Potter, admits to having a crush on Daniel Radcliffe (the guy that played him in the movies), and fantasized about being a Hogwarts student.
• She loves fashion and is interested in the AG couture scene.

The cool thing about having her around now is we actually get to practice the French we're learning in class. I actually think she's okay. If I could rescue her from the clutches of the evil Meredith...

And the other cool thing about having access to the computers in the newspaper office is, they're connected to the internet... ;-)

Queen Bees and Wanna-Bees

So, Sophie asked in her comments to my last post if Meredith (aka our class' queen bee) was still around, and my answer now, as then, is she is... and in my opinion, she's worse than ever. I heard she entered a couple modeling contests over the summer, and she sure has gotten her head swollen like a balloon.

And on top of that, she's got a new accessory -- er, companion, in the form of a French exchange student named Antoinette Boucher (right), who's staying with the family next door to the Hopkins' for the semester. She's very exotic looking, with long dark hair (almost as dark as Victoria's) and bright blue eyes. She wears glasses most of the time but she wasn't wearing them there. And to think, she could have been staying at MY place for the semester, bummer.

Nicki doesn't return to Colorado to start seventh grade there till next month, so she wanted to see what had changed at Adams since she last attended last year (which isn't much, btw). Harriet & I gave her a grand tour, and we showed her the newly-remodeled newspaper office. BTW, I'm totally digging Harriet's new outfit, it suits her. It's from Carpatina.

Speaking of the new newspaper office, I'm happy they got new computers in there, and we welcomed Kathryn "Kit" Kittredge as our newest staff member. (Megan plans to ask Lindsey to join on Monday, and I've told Kit not to tell her.) And just in time, too. We have to get the back-to-school issue printed by next week. I'm trying to convince Harriet to join us at the paper, but she refuses to budge, saying she'll have nothing to do.

As for those sixth-grade 'wanna-bees' Kylee, Zoe, and Victoria -- I'm not bothered with them -- except when they bother my friends, and Kit and Lindsey are my friends now, though they're not in the same grade as I am. Besides, I do suspect someone will put them in their place soon enough, and I actually would be very happy when that happens. Funny how that works, huh?