Meaghan

Mom was taking our family out to dinner to welcome the new girl into our house. I doubted I would like her type: rich, big city girls. I mean, she was probably here on a cheerleading scholarship or something. There have been a few of those at our school, guess that’s what happens when we are close to a university or something. I was super surprised when she showed up to go out in track pants, a sweater and flats. It was the complete opposite of what I was expecting… she didn’t seem that preppy at all.

After taking stock of her choice in clothing I realized that maybe she wasn’t as bad as I had originally thought.

She smiled timidly as my mom introduced us and then herded us out the door and to the car.

My mom spent the entire time asking her questions, so I was able to learn that she was here on an ice hockey scholarship to play with the Carmine City University team once a week. While I don’t really know anything about ice hockey, I will say that I was impressed.

When my mom asked her where she was from (since no one had actually bothered to tell us) to find out why she was such an avid hockey player, she responded by slowly saying, “I’m from up North.”

“Oh, from around Somber City!” My dad exclaimed before she could finish, then launched into some stupid story from our trip there last year. Completely embarrassed, I glanced over at Kathy to see her reaction in time to watch her slowly close her mouth and sigh. Almost as if she were relieved that she didn’t have to finish answering the question.

I have to say that I was impressed with Kathy. No matter how stupid my parents were, she was always polite, and she always seemed to answer them sincerely.

I paid closer attention when my mom asked her what class she was in.

“I’m in grade ten,” she said, then after hesitating, added, “a sophomore.”

My mom clapped her hands and said with a big smile, “Same class as Meaghan.”

I smiled at her and asked, “What classes do you have?”

She frowned, “I’m not sure, my schedule got changed because I switched out of the normal history class, at least I was supposed to. I also requested that I be in a French class.”

“Why would you switch out of history? It’s mandatory.” I told her. Everyone knew history was mandatory.

Kathy blushed, “I got permission to switch to the class on the country of Prism's history.”

I laughed, “Why on earth would you want to take that?”

Kathy hesitated before saying, “It’s something different.”

I shrugged. Sure, Kathy was a little strange, but all in all, she was a lot cooler than I thought.