Kaity D. scowled, she hated Jefferson Junior High School. Well, not the school itself, but the people in it. She hated the popular kids the most, as they were the most hostile. Eighth grade was the worst, she thought. She walked quickly to class, hoping to avoid running into Jordan. She brushed her brown hair out of her eyes, she actually didn’t look altogether too bad, she had long dark brown hair that made it past her shoulder, and an identical eye color. A brilliant smile, she was a little taller than average, and skinny. Her skin was slightly tan, which was all that could be expected from living in Mesa, Arizona. She was good at dancing, dance class was her elective, but that was next semester. This semester she had Choir, which she was sure she would like if she had more friends. She dodged around a crowd of people, ignoring an insult shouted at her. There was always that odd kid in Junior High that got picked on, and Kaity was that one kid. She walked past her English teacher, who waved, Kaity was an over achiever, which made her even more hated, as people didn’t like the smart kids. Someone came up behind her. Oh please let it be Jill. Kaity prayed silently, hoping against hope it was her only friend at this forsaken establishment.

It wasn’t, someone pushed her, she scowled and whipped around. “Jordan Kay! Why do you have to be such a jerk?” She yelled heatedly. She didn’t have to see who it was; it was always Jordan or one of his cronies, they were the only ones who got physical while bullying her.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” It was Jordan; his sickening smirk was directed at her, “was that you?” Jordan was of average height, or average for someone his age. He was sixteen, which was much older than the average eighth grader, but he had been held back twice, and was therefore older. His ears stuck out at odd angles from his thick hair; he wore the same dirty white jacket and blue jeans outfit he wore every day. He was what one might consider a ‘pervert’ he had a twisted sense of humor, purposely did bad in school, and had a girlfriend, which apparently made him cooler. Being ‘cooler’ made Kaity hate him more, and Jordan sensed that and used it, he hated Kaity, although he didn’t know why, it was just a burning feeling in his chest that made his neck hair stand on end.

“Yes that was me!” Kaity shouted, “And you knew it, Jordan, I swear, if you touch my backpack one more time, I will report you!”

“I tremble in anticipation!” Jordan said, one of his cronies, Jacob, laughed.
“Wow anticipation that’s a big word for you...but come to think, so are tremble, and in” Kaity retorted smartly.
Jordan was about to reply when a small nervous cough came from behind Kaity, she turned around, expecting to see Jordan’s smart aleck girlfriend, instead she saw a short girl. She was a little taller than Kaity, but not by much, and blond, very blonde. She had a strange look about her, and Kaity heard one of Jordan’s friends whistle. The girls face flashed to a look of anger. She looked at Kaity, “Um, I’m sorry, but I can’t find my next class, I’m new here, my name is Jenna.” She held out her hand, Kaity gave it a high-five, and Jenna laughed.
“Cool, my next class is Mr. Rapier, social studies!” Jenna said, she had begun to walk away from Jordan, Kaity followed now.

Kaity smiled, she thought Jenna seemed very nice; she seemed to have a magical presence about her. “That’s awesome; my next class is Rapier social studies too! Mr. Rapier is soooo cool! You’re going to love his class!”

Jenna laughed, “If I had a dime for every time I heard that I’d make Bill gates look homeless, I have always hated social studies.”

Kaity nodded, “In elementary school it’s always the same thing, the pilgrims and the crap, but this is fun, trust me, it’s great!”

Jenna grinned, flashing unnaturally white teeth, “That’s great!”

Kaity nodded, “A fun class, I never knew they existed ‘till social studies, do you have any siblings that come here, or are you an only child?”

“No, I have an older brother, you?”

“Only child.”

“Lucky.”

Kaity laughed. “No, I always wanted a sister, but my mom had a problem, she can’t have any more kids, she nearly died having me, it’s a miracle she lived the doctors said. My mom always claims it was me that kept her alive, she calls me her lifesaver, it gets embarrassing.”

Jenna shook her head, “You should hear what my mom calls my brother, it’s pathetic, and he’s in ninth grade too! It is soooo funny!”

Kaity smiled, a rare thing during passing period, the last time she had smiled during passing period was when Jordan had tripped and cut his knee in front of his girlfriend, and had to change pants because he fell into irrigation, Kaity was still smiling about that when she walked into the class that day. She liked to smile, and she had a nice smile, but she had little reason too in the hostile, and for her, highly abusive, territory of school.

She hadn’t realized it, but when she went back to that day when Jordan had soaked his pants when he tripped, she had began to smile again, Jenna now commented, “You have a wonderful smile.”

Kaity gasped, “Oh, dang it, was I smiling?”

“Were you not supposed to be?” Jenna replied.

“Well, I was remembering the time this one jerk fell into an irrigation puddle, it was hilarious, he did it right in front of his girlfriend and had to change into those really dorky pants the nurse has that look like there from the seventies, but I’m not supposed to smile about that, its mean.”

“Was that jerk you were remembering the guy you were yelling at back there?”

Kaity nodded, “Yes.”

Jenna scowled, “He did seem like a jerk, I hate it when people whistle at me!”

Kaity looked at Jenna, she wore a brown T-shirt, had blonde hair back in a ponytail, and wore blue jeans, she was very pretty Kaity thought. “Does it happen often?”

“Ugh, all the time.”

“I’d love it if people did that to me!”

Jenna stopped walking, “Oh no you wouldn’t, it gets soooo old, and it’s really embarrassing!”

Kaity took a step forward, Jenna followed, seeming to realize she had stopped for the first time, “I know, it must be embarrassing to you, but I’d just like to know that somebody in this danged school doesn’t hate me!”

“Why do they hate you?”

“Because Jordan does.”

“Oh...who’s Jordan?”

“The jerk from back there,” Kaity said, motioning back from where she had been yelling at Jordan.

“Oh, that’s stupid!”

“I know, but Jordan is kinda the ‘in’ person, people want to do what he says, they laugh at his crude jokes, start to cuss, some of them start drinking alcohol, Jordan does drugs, drinks, smokes, breaks laws, graffiti’s, ditches school a lot, and everybody loves it! The teachers don’t know, because nobody has the guts to rat him out, or even wants to rat him out! It is so annoying! And his friends are just as bad, minus the drugs and smoking though.”

Jenna looked astounded, “And he gets away with it? Oh wow, he’s screwing himself up already, the good news is he’s killing his liver at early age, hopefully he does it before he hits highschool and starts doing other stuff, hurting girls instead of himself.”

“That’s mean!”

“I don’t want him going around doing stuff with girls, it’s sickening, creeps like him are everywhere! There despicable!”

Kaity nodded, “I know, but it would better if he got rehab or something, I don’t want him to die!”

Jenna nodded, “I know, you’re right, but still, it’s not fair!”

“Tell me about it!”

Jenna stopped walking, she held her hand to her head, and then said, “Wait, don’t tell me about it! Tell a counselor, or the principal! Come on, let’s go!”

“Are you kidding me? Have you seen the size of his friends? They’d kill us! Or, if he didn’t get caught doing that, we’d get yelled at for trying to get him in trouble!”

“So, if you know what you’re doing is right, does it matter?” Jenna said, “If you know that you’re helping save this kid’s life, does it matter that you get beat up? If you know that you just helped someone with a problem gripping this nation like a steel fist, would it matter? If you knew you weren’t lying, would it matter how much trouble you got in? Just so long as you did the right thing?”

The bell chose that specific moment to ring, and Kaity was forced to wait until it had stopped, “No...No, you’re right, c’mon, we’ll do it together, after school ok?”

Jenna nodded resolutely, “Ok!”

They shook on it, and then dashed towards there next class, Jenna walked up to the teacher, and was assigned a seat next to Austin Sprouse, one of Jordan’s friends. Kaity moaned as Jenna walked over to the seat, she was all alone at her seat in the back. she watched as Jenna sat down, Austin sat up straighter, smoothing his hair, he leaned over, giving a greeting, practically dripping with enthusiasm at his new partner, he reached a hand out towards her, Jenna tried to give him a high five, but the hand dodged past her hand, continuing towards her chest, it tingled eagerly. Jenna glared at Austin, who, screamed, he clutched his head as if he was in pain, and fell out of his chair. Jenna glared at him some more, and he continued to scream, he was now beating his head on the ground, the teacher dashed over to where Austin was, and Jenna immediately put on a face of panic, she looked at Mr. Rapier and said worriedly, “What just happened, does he have a medical condition? Has he ever done this before?”

Mr. Rapier was baffled, and replied shakily, “I, I don’t know, Austin are you ok?”

Austin groaned and shook his head, “I don’t feel so good Mr. Rapier.”

“Ok, go to the office, Kaity, could you go with him?”

Kaity nodded, “Of course!” she said, overjoyed to be getting rid of one of Jordan’s friends, yet as she walked Austin out of the room, she could help but wonder what had just happened, and the more she thought, the more she realized something. Austin had screamed when Jenna had glared at him, and stopped when she took her eyes off of him, she would have to see a little more, but she thought there was a side to Jenna that hadn’t been made obvious during their first few minutes of talking. She would have to check it out, but for now, she was just happy to have a new friend.