Second Draft Chapter 7

I walked into class one day and saw a new face sitting in the seat next to mine. This was not a common thing at our school. We had all known each other since the first grade, and very rarely did new students come in. In fact, come to think of it, I don’t ever remember a new student ever entering our class before this.

I walked through the doorway with Simon and David, but they were busy talking about something else, and didn’t seem to notice her. No one seemed to notice her. Or at least no one bothered to talk to her. Everyone was talking with their usual friends, and although many people made curious glances at the new girl, no one said anything. Most of the girls were sitting around Rosa, but they did not invite the new girl over, and Rosa herself did not even so much as glance at her.

So she was sitting by herself, talking to no one, and looking miserable. I felt immediately sorry for her. It must be rough coming into a new school, especially when the rest of us had known each other for ten years.

I walked over to her desk and extended my hand. “Are you new here?” I asked, not because I needed the answer, but just as a way of opening up conversation.

Never underestimate the joy that a small act of kindness can give to people. Her whole face immediately lit up. “Yes, my name’s Helen,” she said as she shook my hand.

I sat down in my seat and repeated it once. “Helen?” She nodded. “Nice to meet you. I’m Jon. Where are you from?”

“All the way from the West Coast.” There was a note of pride in her voice, and she gave me a look meant to impress upon me the significance of this. I knew nothing about the West Coast, but I did my best to look impressed anyway.

“What about you? Where are you from?” she asked, and then she caught herself, and shook her head to dismiss what she had just said. “I mean, are you from somewhere? Besides here of course?”

“No, I’ve spent my whole life here?” I said, feeling slightly embarrassed at how boring my life sounded.

Thankfully she put a positive spin on it. “So you can answer any questions I have?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Great. I’m so confused about so many things. It’s different in the West you know.”

“Is it?”

“Oh yes, night and day difference. Nothing is the same over here.”

I began to notice that her eyes sparkled when she talked. She also leaned in towards me with what seemed to be instinctive friendliness when she talked. It was almost too much. I felt like I had to look away.

The rest of the class was still ignoring her. Simon and David were besides me, but busy talking with each other. Icarus was entertaining a small group of people with some wild story. Ajax and his friends were in a corner laughing about something.

I turned back to Helen. “Why did your family leave the West coast?”

“My dad got a new job here. A really good job.”

There was only one kind of good job in this city. “For the Duke, then?”

“Yes, for the Duke. My dad’s going to be supervising all of the police in the city.”

“The head of the police? Wow!”

“He was a governor in the West,” Helen explained. “The Duke was pleased with his work, so he gave my dad a job here in the capital.”

“Your dad will be working under my dad,” I said.

“Really? What does your dad do?”

“My Dad’s one of the Duke’s top men.” I noticed with surprise that now there was pride creeping into my own voice.

Our conversation got disrupted during the confusion as the last of the class, Joshua, Matthew, Leda and Emma, all ran in to take their seats before the bell rang. There was the usual shuffling of desks and chairs. And then the teacher walked in right as the bell sounded.

The teacher frowned slightly at the commotion in the room. He usually expected all of us to be sitting in our seats and waiting before the bell rang. “Stand up!” the teacher yelled.

Helen looked slightly confused as the rest of us bolted up. “This isn’t the way we do it in the West,” she whispered to me.

“Attention! Jonathon, no talking!” Actually it had been Helen who was talking, but I think the teacher was reluctant to yell at a new student. Besides, he was used to yelling at me.

“Sorry sir,” I answered crisply.

“Bow,” the teacher said. We all bowed. Helen remained looking confused, and bowed awkwardly a second later than the rest of us.

“Sit down. Now, some of you may have noticed, we have a new student here today. She’s going to come up here now and introduce herself.”

Helen flashed me a quick look of disgust, and whispered, “I hate this.” And then, as she stood up, her manner seemed to instantly change. She gave a shy smile to the other desks around her, and then proceeded to the front of the class.

“Hello,” she began. “My name is Helen. I’m from the West Coast.” Again, she couldn’t resist pausing her and looking over the class to emphasize this point. “My family just arrived in Urbae last week. Everything is so different here. I’m a little nervous about how I’ll fit in, but I hope to make friends with all of you real soon.”

She gave another nervous smile, and looked at the teacher to see if she should continue or not. The teacher had stood back by the door to give Helen the floor, but when he noticed she was looking at him, he quickly stepped forward. “Thank you Helen. Allow me to welcome to you to our school. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask either me or any of the class leaders.” He indicated with a gesture for Helen to go back to her seat.

“But speaking of your class leaders,” he continued, “it is already time to decide the leaders for next year.” Off to my side I could see Christopher straighten in his seat. “Anyone who has an application form filled out, now is the time to turn it in.”

We had elections every year for class leaders, but it was always a bit of a sham. Everyone knew the same people would be chosen every year. Christopher was always elected as our class leader. The upper classes were equally consistent. Orion, (I was beginning to realize who he was by now), was poised to become President of the senior class next year and by extension the whole school. [Possibly go back and make this clearer earlier on in the story. Also mention Christopher as class president at least once before now].

Christopher stood up and solemnly handed in his application packet to the teacher. Nobody else even bothered. “Anyone else want to try this year,” the teacher added in a mechanical voice. He was simply asking out of formality before we moved on to the next order of business.

But this year the words turned out to be no mere formality. Someone else did actually want to run against Christopher. Rosa stood up and walked forward with her application packet.

The teacher stood there dumbfounded. “Yes, what do you want Rosa?”

“This is my application packet. I’d like to run for class leader next year.”

“But you’re a girl.”

The teacher spoke as if the absurdity of the situation was evident to all, but Rosa simply stared back at him with cool unblinking eyes, and handed him the packet. “Yes and I’d like to run for class leader next year.”

There was something about the aura of Rosa that even teachers hated to cross her. He was fidgeting slightly, and seemed to be uncomfortable with the new situation. The whole class was watching this scene with interest. I looked over at Helen to see what the reaction of the new girl would be to all this, and she just looked back at me with a confused look. “What are class leaders?” she whispered.

“I’ll explain later,” I said. I didn’t want to have to explain our whole school system to her now. Besides, I wanted to see how this would resolve itself.

“We can’t have girls as class leaders,” the teacher was again speaking in his “isn’t this obvious to everyone” voice, but he was at the same time looking around the room as if to appeal for help. The entire class remained silent and simply stared back.

“There’s nothing in the rulebook against it,” Rosa said. “I checked.”

He seemed almost on the point of giving into her, but then he suddenly became firm again, as if he had remembered who was the student and who was the teacher. He steeled himself, and Rosa’s moment of influence was past. “We are not going to have a girl for a class leader,” he said. “I don’t care what the rulebook says or doesn’t say. Everyone knows it’s ridiculous.”

Rosa was so used to getting what she wanted, that she didn’t handle rejection well. “I’d be just as good a class leader as Christopher, and you know that,” she shouted.

But her spell was now completely broken, and this had no effect on the teacher. “Rosa, sit down now. This discussion is over.” With burning eyes Rosa whirled around and went back to her desk.

“Are there any other application packets?” The teachers voice still retained its hard edge, as if he were almost daring someone else to try and submit an application. He searched the room with his eyes for challengers. And then he softened his tone somewhat. “The official election will be in two weeks of course, but seeing no other applications, I think we can probably already congratulate Christopher. Christopher, you’ve done an excellent job this year, and I’m confident next year will be just as good.”

Christopher was beaming at this praise, and the unpleasant incident with Rosa seemed to be already forgotten. Although, I noticed the teacher avoided eye contact with Rosa for the rest of the class period.

The rest of the day proceeded with the usual events. Helen remained seated next to me throughout the day, and I tried to help her understand the school events as best I could. By lunch, the rest of the class had warmed up to Helen at last. During noon break Helen became the subject of attention. The rest of the girls, who had ignored her in the morning, now crowded around her eagerly and jostled each other to meet the new student. First in line was Emma, who bounced up and gave Helen her usual warm greeting. Emma was one of the few girls not guilty of ignoring Helen in the morning, or at least not intentionally ignoring her, because Emma had run into the classroom just under the bell.

Emma would have liked to talk with Helen longer, but she was eventually edged out by Sophia and Vera, who had both decided they were eager to meet the new girl. The four of them all chatted like old friends. I could only hear the high tones of their excited voices from where I was standing, but they were all talking very animatedly about something. And then finally Rosa made her way over, and as soon as Rosa began talking to Helen, Helen had been officially welcomed to the class.

I kept my distance from the swarm of girls, and talked with David and Simon instead, glancing over at Helen only occasionally.

“Is Icarus climbing that damn tree again?” I asked.

“Still at it,” David affirmed, even though we could all see for ourselves.

“That kid is something else, isn’t he?” I said. “I don’t think he’s quite all there.”

“I don’t know,” David said. “You’ve got to admire his determination. Everyday he falls off, and everyday he tries again.”

“He’s going to break his neck one of these days,” I said.

“It’s Clodius and Ares,” Simon said. “They egg him on to it. Somebody ought to tell the teacher.”

I could not believe this breach of schoolyard etiquette. “What?” I yelled. “Tell the teacher?”

Simon realized what he had said. His face reddened and he tried to cover for himself. “I didn’t mean that really,” he said. “But somebody ought to do something about it.”

“He won’t break his neck,” David said. “He’ll get to the top one of these days. Wait and see.”

I had a feeling that if it were me climbing that tree, David would have been a lot more critical. But David seemed to almost admire Icarus, as strange as that sounds. But then David saw the best parts in everyone.

The bell rang and everyone returned to class. Helen sat next to me again. Despite her acceptance by the rest of the girls, Helen still relied on me to explain most of the workings of the school. She even stayed close to me as we were leaving the school at the end of the day. “I give up Jon,” she said exasperated. “Everything’s so different in this school I’ll never get used to it.”

“Different in the West,” I suggested, sensing a pattern.

Her eyes flashed a smile. “Yes, exactly.”

“Don’t worry,” I explained. “Most of the people are pretty friendly once you get to know them. And as for the rest…Well you’ll figure out who they are soon enough, and then you can just avoid them.”

She thought about this, and then answered, “Most people seemed pretty friendly.” There was a note of caution in her voice that indicated she was still reserving final judgement.

“Where are you going now?” I asked.

“Home I suppose. Why?”

“Because if your father works for the Duke, then your house is probably out in the suburbs like mine. We probably have the same walk back home.”

“No, my father wanted to live in the city. He said that if he was going to be in charge of the police, he should live in the same city they did.”

“I guess that sounds like a good idea.”

“Yeah, I guess.” She shrugged her shoulders slightly dismissing the topic, and then looked at me with a smile that seemed to say, “Isn’t it silly that we’re even talking about this.” I smiled back.

I got the sense that she was waiting for me to initiate further conversation, but I was in a hurry to go catch up with David and Simon, who had left ahead of us. “Listen, I’ve got to go,” I said apologetically. “Anything else you need help with?”

“No, I’m okay. Thank you for everything today Jon. You’ve really been a help. I would have been lost without you.”

“No problem. See you tomorrow.”