Rachel read the menu:

Meatloaf: $7.50

Tuna Sandwich: $5.50

Grilled Cheese: $5.00

Chips: $2.50

Cookie: $1.50

Juice: $2.00

Rachel looked into her palm, at the four, moist dollar bills. She realized they wouldn’t go far in this school, and bypassed the hot food line as her stomach growled.

Rachel reached for a bag of Fritos and a cookie, paid the cashier, and exited through the opposite door.

As she left the lunch line and entered the large cafeteria room again, it had gotten much more crowded. All the tables were full, and everyone was already eating. Apparently it wasn’t cool to buy hot lunch at AHS. Everyone had brought their lunches from home, and she looked at the array of wraps, salads, and freshly made deli sandwiches that spread across each table.

As Rachel looked at all the kids, she couldn’t help but feel like she was part of a cliché teen movie. New girl in the cafeteria, with no friends, having a hard time finding a place to sit and eat.

She continued walking, looking for a table to sit at. She passed a table full of nerdy looking kids, all with their laptops and schoolbooks out.

At another table Rachel saw a group of grungy, punk kids with baggy pants, chain wallets, streaked hair and dark black eyeliner.

At another table sat a group of pretty girls, and Rachel could hear them going over a cheer. Rachel assumed they were cheerleaders. This reminded her of her plan to try out for her old school’s cheerleading team. She took another look at those girls, and felt deflated, and she didn’t feel like she belonged on the same team as them.

At the table next to the pretty girls sat Greene, in his #80 jersey. He was sitting there with about ten other jock types: some in their football jerseys, and others looking sharp in preppy clothing.

Rachel came upon a table behind Greene’s, with a few random people scattered at it. Nobody was talking to each other and they were all looking down, quietly munching away at their lunches. She found an open seat and sat down.

Nobody even looked up to acknowledge that she had joined the table. Rachel felt an overwhelming feeling of solitude, and quickly ate her Fritos lunch. She didn’t want to sit in that cafeteria feeling anonymous and alone any longer than she had to.

As she scarfed down her chips, she couldn’t help but notice how cute Greene was.

“Hey Rob, check this out,” a boy sitting at Greene’s table said, and handed Greene something.

Rob Greene Rachel thought to herself. Now she knew his first name, too.

Rob was one of the hottest guys she’d ever seen. His wispy blonde hair swept over his green eyes as he brushed it back with his fingertips. Rachel wanted desperately for him to notice her. Her heart started beating faster and she realized she had her first crush at AHS.

Rachel’s mind was racing, and she suddenly remembered her Pennsylvania crush, Alex, who she’d been lusting after for all of 9th grade. He was nothing like Rob. Alex had dark brown hair, brown eyes and didn’t dress nearly as well. It was safe to say that Rachel didn’t have a specific “type.” She was attracted to all her crushes for various inexplicable reasons -- not even she could understand it.

Rachel grabbed her cookie and took it with her as she walked out of the cafeteria. She looked at her watch: twelve more minutes until seventh period. She began to roam the halls aimlessly, feeling alone and shy.

She came upon the girls’ gym locker room. On the wall outside the locker room hung a large bulletin board, with news, announcements, a calendar and fliers posted to it. Her eyes drifted to a picture of the AHS varsity cheerleading team. Below the picture read:

Tryouts – September 9th @ 3pm in the Gymnasium

Rachel took a flyer and read it closely.

“Only a few spots remain. Do you like football? Do you like dancing?” In pencil someone had written, (Do you like hot boys in uniform?) “Do you have AHS school spirit?

If so, come to tryouts tomorrow!

Coach Glass”

Rachel folded the flyer up and put it into her Filofax. The thought of making the team gave her the chills. She knew she had to go to the tryouts.

Rachel checked her watch again: five more minutes until lunch was over. She paced up and down the empty hallways. She passed by the cafeteria and saw groups of friends chatting and having fun. Rachel wished she had found a friend-- just one.

Rachel passed the office receptionist in the halls.

“You finding everything OK, Dear?” the receptionist asked in a sweet, comforting voice.

“Yup, just heading to the bathroom,” Rachel said, trying to make it seem less obvious that she was pacing the halls alone, with no destination.

Finally, the bell rang and swarms of kids flooded the hallway.

Two more periods and I’m done, Rachel thought to herself. It gave her a sense of relief knowing that the day was winding down.

The remaining two periods went by painfully slowly. She coasted through each class, her mind wandering. She wondered what Dana and all her friends back in Pennsylvania were up to. She imagined them having a fun first day of school and planning their weekends together.

DING DING DING. The loud speaker came on. It was the end of the day announcements.

“Welcome back AHS! We hope you all had a great first day of school and we are so happy to see all of your smiling faces. Don’t forget tryouts tomorrow for all sports at 3pm. Check the bulletin board for tryout location. Have a great rest of the day and don’t forget your homework!”

RING.

The final bell sounded. Rachel was done. She felt a rush of freedom fill her body as she darted out of her classroom and into the hallways. She collected all of her things in her locker and headed outside to her mom’s car.

On her way out, Rachel passed her brother Mark, who was happily walking along with two other guys. When Mark saw her, he waved and then looked around her. Rachel could tell he was wondering why she was walking all alone.

When Rachel got outside, she saw her mom behind the wheel of the Station wagon. She was first in line, parked right out front of the school. Her mom beeped the horn twice, rolled down the windows and started waving to Rachel and Mark. Rachel was mortified.

Rachel hopped into the car with her hand covering her face, hoping that nobody was watching. The car sat there and a few seconds later Mark got in. Rachel’s mom pulled up a few feet to park the car to wait for Sarah to come outside. A few long minutes later, Sarah came out the front doors, smiling and exchanging cell numbers with her new group of friends.

Rachel was flooded with jealousy. Was she the only one that didn’t make a friend?

Sarah opened the car door and said, “I’m gonna grab a bite with the girls. I’ll be back later-- they’ll drop me back home.”

“Ok, Honey, have a great time. So happy you made new friends!” their mom said, as Sarah shut the door and headed back toward her new friends.

Why couldn’t that be me?

Chapter Four

Rachel sat on her bed and looked at the heaping mess that surrounded her, and began to fold her clothes and put them into her tiny closet. She had snuck into Sarah’s room after school to see it, and had been shocked at how much bigger it was: her closet was at least twice the size.

As Rachel hung up the last dress, she began to wonder why her phone had not received any calls or texts all afternoon. She turned it off, and then back on, assuming it was broken.

It still flashed No New Messages. Her head fell: maybe Dana and her crew had forgotten her.

She bent down to pick up some pictures strewn about the floor and looked again at the picture of her and Dana hugging. Even though her tear mark had ruined it, she hung it on her wall anyway.

Rachel tried to re-create her old room in her new house. The layout was different, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t hang up all the same pictures, posters and awards she had won. She carefully unrolled her Avril Lavigne poster she had won at the Dutch Fair two years back. She loved Avril Lavigne, especially the song Girlfriend. She then tacked up all four corners on the wall behind her bed and stood back to make sure it looked straight.

She took all the felt junior varsity letters that she had received from her soccer, tennis, volleyball and dance teams, and hung them on the wall beside her bed. She had four letters, and she hung them in a square shape. As she stepped back to look at them, she felt a sense of pride. She had earned each and every one of those letters.

Rachel also had received a certificate for the math league at her old school. She had won first prize for the article she’d written for their Pennsylvania school newspaper about the school Book Fair and had won an award for the work she had done on her biology plant study in 9th grade. Not to mention, Rachel was on high honor roll each semester and had four high honor roll certificates that she hung all these on her wall as well.

She stepped back and looked at the display. Her wall was now a shrine to her many talents and for a moment, as she stood impressed by herself, she forgot she was in a new house and starting a new life.

She took another step back and tripped over a small folded up JCPenney’s bag. She opened it up and was delighted to find her new boyfriend jeans. She lifted them out of the bag and started thinking about what to wear with them to school the next day.

As she walked over to her stack of graphic tees, she heard her mom’s voice yell, “Kids, time for dinner! Come on down.”

She heard Mark and Sarah’s door slam shut a few seconds later and the sounds of their feet racing down the hallway.

Rachel opened her door to the smell of roast chicken filling the air. Rachel loved roast chicken, one of her favorite meals her Mom cooked.

When Rachel got downstairs, she saw mashed potatoes, corn and gravy, too. My favorite, Rachel thought to herself.

She didn’t want to let on that she was happy about the meal, though, and sat down in her hard wooden chair without cracking a smile.

Rachel sat there scooping food onto her plate, quietly eating as Sarah and Mark raved about their first days. Listening to them blissfully describe their day in detail, Rachel wondered if they were at different schools. She couldn’t understand how Mark and Sarah both had picture-perfect days.

“So, Rachel, how was your first day? her dad asked. “You’re awfully quiet over there,”