Chapter Two


"Zac! If you don't hurry up, I'm leaving without you!" I hollered from the driver's seat of the car. "Gimme a minute, Ike! I can't find my other shoe!" my eleven-year-old brother shouted from a second story window. A few seconds passed before he bounced out the front door, struggling with his Airwalk. He collapsed in the backseat just as I put the car in reverse. "Thanks for being patient with me," Zac said. Through the rear view mirror I could see him rolling his eyes. My other broth, Taylor, sat beside me in the passenger seat. He would being going into 9th grade and I into 11th. I was nervous. A new school in a new town with new people. I just hoped I wouldn't make a total idiot out of myself.

First stop for Zac. I pulled into the Scottsdale Middle School parking lot. He would have to face the 6th grade alone. "Try not to get beat up and remember what bus to come home on," were Taylor's words of wisdom to Zac as he caustiously approached the building. We watched him disappear in the sea of kids flowing into the double doors. "High school- here we come!" Taylor yelled out the window as we cruised down the road. "The teachers, the work...," I paused so both he and I could say in unison,"THE GIRLS!" We were laughing as I parked the car. But both of took one look at the school and were quiet. The school was huge. There were guys twice the size of us, cheerleaders already in uniform, teachers policing the unruly mob of students, and everyone was shouting to eachother over all the noise. I never used to think of myself as being a social outcast but this school year just might change my way of thinking. "We're dead," Taylor mumbled.



copyright Mackenzee 1998


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