The Mean Girls

I know you guys are tired of me talking about the mean girls in my class, but I think since you've seen them so much you need to know who they are.

On the left is Sasha Moore. She's biracial. Her mom is black and her dad is white, and they're both lawyers. They live next door to Meredith, in the swanky River Forest neighborhood. I hear Sasha is a very good singer, but I've never heard her.

Next, and the worst, is the famous Meredith Hopkins. She's pretty much an eleven-year-old Barbie doll, with the blondest hair I've ever seen. Sometimes I wonder if she dyes her hair, since she has brown eyebrows. Hmmm. Anyway, she's from Florida, and where she was, she did some modeling, beauty pageants, and local TV commercials. I hear she's got designs on a showbiz career.

The third girl is Marisa Perez. Marisa's family came over from Cuba when she was little. Her dad is now a doctor in our town. I hear Jennifer Lopez is her idol.

Not in this pic is Natasha Ivanova. She's from Russia and I hear her parents are some kind of diplomats or something. She's short with wavy auburn hair. The only thing saving her height sometimes, I think, is the way she teases her bangs up in the air. Otherwise, she's a midget.

Also not pictured, there was a fifth girl, Madisyn Baker, also a blue-eyed blond, but her parents took her out of Adams after that big fight with Kristy. I don't like her very much either, and I suspect she egged Kristy on to hit her, and Kristy being Kristy took the bait.

These girls talk alike, dress alike, wear each others' clothes (mostly I've seen Marisa, Madisyn, and Natasha wear Meredith's clothes) and when they walk down the hall they look like they're joined at the hip. Harriet calls them the 'copycat girls.'

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.

Sweetheart Dance

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!
I had Harriet over at my place yesterday evening to help me get ready for the Valentine's Day dance. I decided earlier in the day to pass out a bunch of valentines to friends and classmates. An hour before I left, Vee walked in with the dress I'd seen in the Chrissa movie and said I should wear it to the dance. At first I was, like, no, I shouldn't be wearing the dress, but then Harriet said maybe I should try and that I might look nice in it.

So when we got to the dance, the first thing Harriet and I did was look around for Adam, but I didn't see him. Thankfully, though, neither did I see Meredith.

Hilary walked in and spotted Harriet and me from across the room. "Hey, you guys," she said. I have to say, she and Mia were the only ones who helped me decorate for the dance. The flowers were Hilary's idea. "Wow, Haley, you look great!"
I looked at Hilary. I did?? I told her thanks for the compliment.

Madisyn Baker, though, made up the slack for Meredith. I swear, I think the only reason she bothered to show up was to make me miserable. "What'd you make that dress from, a bed sheet?" she asked.

"Looks like something my grandma might have worn," Natasha Ivanova added.

I kept waiting for Adam to show up. He never did. I was bummed. But I knew where he must have been -- where a lot of the kids went -- to Meredith's party. She lives in this huge house on the other side of town. Only about twelve sixth graders, eight seventh graders, and four eighth graders showed up to the dance. Madisyn and her gang checked out early as well. It wasn't too bad though, except for the constant stream of Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers tunes blaring through the stereo. Harriet and Hilary and I ended up hanging out together. The three "H"'s I guess.

At the end of the dance, Mrs. Baldwin gave out special certificates for those of us who helped out and planned it.

Sometimes, when I think about Valentine's Day, I think about my parents. My mom and dad divorced last year, and I've spoken to my mom only once since last April. I'm not sure how to feel about that. Most of the time I've felt like she was too busy (she's a successful lawyer) to try to get to know me, but I think I'm more like her than I am my dad, which scares me. Looks wise, I have dad's freckles but everything else belongs to mom, even down to the way my hair curls slightly on the end.

Another fact that's interesting is that my mom is an identical twin. Her twin sister? Nicki's mom! I saw pictures, and when they were kids they looked exactly alike, nobody could tell them apart. And they couldn't have ended up more differently if they tried. Nicki's mom married a rancher and settled in Colorado, where they now have 4 kids (Nicki included). What's funny is that Nicki's mom has also had identical twin girls. My mom, of course, became a lawyer, and from what I'm told, only got married because she was pregnant with me.

I've always been more of a daddy's girl, anyway, although my relationship with him is changing, too. Perhaps it could just be chalked to me getting older??

This morning I decided to give my dad a call. He's a freelance writer who mostly works out of the house. When I caught him he was working on his latest article for a magazine (that's how he met my mom, shhhh).

"Hey, Scooter, how are ya?" he asked. I could still hear his Pennsylvania accent. "How's your Valentine's Day?"

"Crummy," I answered.

"Cat got your tongue?" he joked. "Come on, I want to hear it."

I ended up telling him about the dance.

"I'm sorry it didn't go like you wanted, Scooter." I ended up emailing him a picture of what I wore. "You looked nice at the dance, but I feel like there's something you're not telling me."

"What do you mean?"

"Something's going on with you, Haley."

I shook my head, as if he could see me. "No, nothing's wrong."

"Are you sure?" I replied no, but then he added, "Well, you know my number when you're ready to talk. And the house is always open to you whenever you're ready." With that we hung up.

Any of you guys doing anything special for this special day?

Back to Business

The Adams Junior High student council had its first meeting of the new year today. There wasn't much new discussed, except the budget (there's nothing in it) and the upcoming Valentine's Day dance, which has to be planned by .... drum roll please ... yours truly. Any suggestions?

Speaking of Valentine's Day, the only Valentine I'd like to have is Adam Cartwright. I'm telling you, the boy is soooo handsome!

Trouble is, Adam doesn't know I exist. Every girl at Adams, it seems, has a crush on him (he's in the 7th grade) -- including Meredith, who throws herself at him at every opportunity. And I'm not sure a boy like Adam would want a freckled face girl who wears thick glasses.

Now about the dance. Like Halloween, I've got no clue what to do to the gym. The gym at Adams doubles as the school auditorium, as Adams used to be a high school. There's cutting out a bunch of hearts and stringing them all over the gym. And then there's the question of what kind of dance it's going to be. There are different kinds of dances. For example, Harriet was telling me about a type of dance called a Sadie Hawkins, a dance where the girl asks the guy to dance, instead of the usual guy-gets-girl type.

So, the meeting of the reps of the several homerooms of the sixth grade took place in the gym. The new girl, Hilary Lang came, as well as Mia St. Clair, one of the other reps. I don't know Mia well, but she's a driven athlete -- she swears she'll be figure skating in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Mia does figure skating, ice hockey, roller blading, roller hockey -- anything on skates, she'll do. Her style is girly but athletic and comfortable. Harriet told me she has 3 older brothers -- so she can't be a pushover.

The three of us talked, waiting for Meredith to come in. For those of you new to my blog, she ran against me for class president, and when the vote came in, the two of us got the same number of votes. The election was eventually decided in a school assembly, with someone drawing a name out of a hat. The winner became class president, the loser vice president.

You can imagine that I wasn't looking forward to working with Meredith at all.

While Hilary, Mia, and I were talking, who walked into the door but Meredith, followed by her little lackeys. I was angry.

"This meeting started ten minutes ago," I told her.

Flicking her hair, Meredith replied, "So? What's it to you?"

"As president of the sixth grade, I can tell you that the meetings start at three o'clock and I expect everyone to be here. You think there are special rules just for you?"

"Tell me why I should care about your stupid meeting."

"Well, because we're planning the Valentines' Day dance."

Meredith shook her head. "When's the dance? Oh, that's right, Friday the thirteenth. How exciting for you. You see, I'm not going to be at your stupid little dance. It's the night of my parents' big dinner party. The next day I'll be leaving to compete in the Miss Louisiana American Girl pageant. The winner goes to nationals, and, well, I'm going to nationals. So, your dorky little dance means nothing to me." She bobbed her blond head as she whizzed past me. I wanted to cry but I straightened my skirt.

I know I shouldn't care whether or not she shows up at the dance, but since she's on the student council, I'd like to have her pull her weight in planning it.

Back to School Shockers

Well, I went back to school yesterday. I didn't want to go but I didn't have a choice.

The first shock I got was that Katarina got new glasses!

She got them over Christmas break and I have to say, she looks a lot like those pictures of Molly McIntire on the books. I also have to say that I feel somewhat better now that I'm not the only girl sporting specs. She's very quiet and keeps mostly to herself, especially that Meredith calls her names like "Fat Kat."

The second thing is there's going to be a school assembly later on this week to talk about bullying and to show the new Chrissa AG movie. I have to say, from what I've read on the subject, it's going to hit pretty darn close to home. There's even a website, set up by AG, to deal with this. http://www.americangirl.com/girloftheyear/

The third shocker was that yesterday, I thought about wearing the new outfit my mom bought me for Christmas back to school, but decided against it. Imagine my surprise when I saw Meredith walking down the hall wearing the exact same one! I was shocked.

Meredith and her minions continue to make life miserable for everyone at Adams. The girl on the left is Madisyn Baker and in many ways she's as bad as Meredith. The girl on the right is Natasha Ivanova, she's Russian. Meredith's hair always smells like strawberry conditioner and the scent makes me sneeze.

When we passed by, I heard them whisper something. "Hey, Van Dyke," Meredith shouted, looking at Kristy's green outfit, "I guess they forgot to tell you Christmas was over." I can't wait to see THEIR reactions to Chrissa's movie. I'm actually looking forward to this assembly.

Brrr!

Wow, it's starting to feel like the weather back home in PA. Quite chilly. I thought Louisiana was warmer than this.
Equally chilly has been Meredith's attitude. And it's not just Meredith. It's her disciples. If Natasha Ivanova is Meredith's first lackey, then Madisyn Baker is her second. It isn't just that Madisyn is blond like Meredith, or that she copies everything Meredith wears, or that she follows her all around school. Meredith has a younger sister named Madison, as well. It's that Madisyn has also copied Meredith's attitude.

So, Madisyn is on the decorations committee for the Halloween dance (which BTW I still don't have any decorations for, or a costume!) and I went up to her and Meredith and asked her to try to pull her weight.
"I don't have to do anything for your stupid dance!" Madisyn shouted, within earshot of Meredith, who chuckled loudly in front of Natasha and Alyssa and everyone else. "It's a nerds' dance anyway," agreed Meredith. "Besides, I've got my own plans for that night. I'm having a big party at my place, with a live band, and half the school will be there. So I don't know how you're even going to get anyone to come to your stupid dance. I could see it now. You and your two or three little buddies, standing in front of the fake decorations in your homemade halloween costumes, all sad because nobody bothered to show up. Too bad, so sad, poor wittle Haley Hotchkiss!" Then Madisyn added, "Meredith's party will be tons more fun than your stupid little dance."
I can't cancel the dance. I promised my voters that. But after this, I don't know how I'm going to pull it off.
On top of that, Megan Ryder interviewed me for the student newspaper. She told me it was the usual practice, interviewing class presidents and publishing their stories in the paper. She asked me questions like what I intended to do as class president.
My first report card came in, too. I didn't get straight A's, though. I'm a perfectionist, I'm kind of ticked about that. I got B's in math and science. I expected A's in social studies and English and got them. I got extra credit from my social studies teacher for running my successful campaign for sixth grade class president.
"I wish I got your grades!" Harriet chuckled. "I've got mostly B's and C's and YOU're complaining?"
"Tell me about it," added Kristy. "I've got mostly I's on my report card 'cause I missed so much school."
And then Meredith is, like, "Did you get straight A's, smartie?"
"What's it to you?" I asked.
Madisyn Baker said, "Well, we just wanna know, geek."
"I didn't get straight A's."
"Big shock!" Meredith shouted. "Maybe we should copy off of you then."