I’ve been dreading this day for weeks now. Today is the day Nat comes to live with us. She is an Australian girl who is coming to the United States for a whole year. Of course, my mother offered up our house to take her in. My mom says I have to be nice to her and bring her everywhere I go. Hello, I am NOT her babysitter!

Nat’s here. She seems alright, but not someone I would pick to live with, that’s for sure. She acts like she is six years old! She would never fit in to my crowd, we are way too mature. She probably doesn’t even care about her grades or anything. This is so going to hurt my reputation!

Oh goodness, Jessica is meeting Nat today! I’m so nervous. I’ve tried talking to Nat about acting mature and about not acting so silly, but all she says is “Gosh, mate, why do you care so much?” Why wouldn’t I care?! I mean hello, these are my friends and I don’t want to look like the girl who lives with an Australian maniac!

Jessica hates her! I know she does. Now she’s going to go and tell Emilie, Meagan, and Jena. I hope she doesn’t tell Jake! I’ve been crushing on him since the 6th grade and if she tells him I live with a maniac, my chances are so gone.

Today is the first day of 9th grade and Nat is coming with me. She has every single class with me, thanks to my mother. I was right; Jessica did tell everyone about her and more. She told her that I yelled at her for being mean to Nat, which is not true. Now everyone knows I live with a maniac and they think I ditched them for her!

No one talks to me anymore because of Nat, except for Jake, which is good. Nat found my diary and read it and now knows I have a crush on him! And get this, she went and told him about it! When I first found out I was furious and I wanted to kill her, but then she told me that he likes me, too.
Ever since that day, we have been dating. Nat turned out to be really cool. She might even stay forever! I really hope so. I can’t believe I was so wrong about her in the beginning. Nat taught me to not care what other people think and to just be yourself. If you have to put makeup on, and fix your hair, and not act like yourself to stay friends with these people, then they aren’t your true friends. I have learned this year that Nat and Jake are my two true friends and I am perfectly fine with that. I still miss Jessica, Emilie, Meagan, and Jena, but I’ll live. I’m happy with who I am and who my friends are.