Lea arrived at school early. She looked around her new classroom. She was nervous. It was the first day of school, but it was her first day at her new school.

Would she make any friends? Would the teacher call on her?

She made her way to a seat at the very back of the room.

Good going, Lea, she thought to herself. Sit at the very back of the class, so that no one notices you. What are you trying to be, invisible? How do you ever expect to make any friends that way? 

It was a nice desk though, and she was feeling self conscious. Usually she was the centre of attention, but she didn’t really want anyone to notice her that day. Something inside her welled up. She wished that she really was invisible. She sighed. Then she sat down.

Suddenly, another girl walked in. Lea slunk lower in her seat, trying again to be invisible, but it didn’t work. It didn’t take long for the girl’s eyes to land on her.

“Hi! I’m Kit! Is anyone sitting here?” The girl came toward her. Lea just shook her head. Then she remembered her manners.

“I’m Lea,” she squeaked timidly. She didn’t know what was going on with her. At her old school, she had been captain of the cheer team. It took a lot of courage to get up in front of the entire school, and perform all the time like she did. The thought of her old school made her stomach pain. She wanted to curl up in a ball, and die.

But there was no time for that. The girl named Kit was still looking at her. And what was a name like Kit anyway? Lea had never heard of it before.

“We’ve got Mrs. Merriman this year,” Kit was chattering on. “She’s pretty nice. She does give out a lot of homework though. Where are you from?”

Kit took a seat beside Lea, and continued to stare at her. Lea shifted uncomfortably. She didn’t like talking about herself. She didn’t want to think about her old school, and her old friends either.

But she also didn’t want Kit to think that she was unfriendly. She took a breath.

“I just moved from the West Coast. My dad got a new job,” she began.

Just then another girl walked in the room. Lea let out a tiny sigh of relief.

“Oh my goodness, you guys are never going to believe what happened to me this summer!” The girl bubbled over with excited energy as she bounded into the classroom. “My dog had puppies! Puppies!! For real!”

She squealed as she danced over to where Kit and Lea were sitting.

“Brown puppies, and white puppies, and brown and white puppies, and puppies with spots, and ones without spots and…wait a minute, who’s this?” The girl cut her rambling short, and stared at Lea. Lea just blinked, a bit frozen to her spot.

Luckily, Kit filled her in.

“This is Lea,” she laughed. “She’s new here.”

“Are you kidding me? A new girl, and puppies? How lucky can I get!!” the girl flopped down in the desk in front of Kit. Then she turned to Lea. “I’m Angie! Well, Angelina, but Angie for short.”

Lea just smiled.

“Anyway, I’m going to name one Rosie, the brown one probably,” Angie went on. “She really reminds me of chocolate sauce though! Also, my mom said that we might be able to keep them all. We live on a farm, so we have plenty of space. Besides, Sugar will be so disappointed if we sell all of her babies.”

Angie began pulling all of her stuff out of her book bag.

“Gosh, I couldn’t imagine if someone sold my babies! That would be horrible! So, yeah, we’ll probably keep them. But you guys can come visit them if you like!”

A pretty blond girl flounced into the classroom.

“Hey everybody!”

“Hi Julie!” Angie smiled at the girl.

“Are you guys ready to watch me tear it up on the court this year?” Julie grabbed an eraser from Angie’s desk, and pretended to do a layup. The eraser flew across the room.

“Oops, Sorry Ang,” Julie retrieved the eraser. “I’m just super excited about making the team, that’s all.”

Angie laughed. Then she remembered her news.

“Guess what, Julie! Sugar had her puppies!”

“Oh that’s great news, Angie!” Julie plonked down in her seat. “Are they for sale? Cuz if so, I could really use a running buddy.”

Angelina’s face fell.

“Well, my mom thinks that we should keep them. You know, because Sugar would be worried,” she explained. Then her eyes lit up. “But I’ll ask okay? Maybe you could have one, and bring it back once in a while, for visits. That way Sugar will know that you’re taking good care of it.”

Julie nodded. Then she turned, and noticed Lea.

Oh boy, here goes. Lea thought with a cringe, but Julie just smiled at her, and said, “Oh hey, a new kid, that’s cool.”

“She’s Lea,” Kit piped up. “She’s from the West Coast.”

“I’ve got some family there,” Julie said. “Out in Victoria. I have an aunt and uncle, and a couple of cousins. It’s beautiful out there.”

Lea nodded. It was beautiful. It was her home. At her old school she had a view of the ocean right out the classroom window. She wondered if she would ever see the ocean again.

“Hey Angie?” Julie turned toward her friend. “Do you have a pen I could borrow? I had one, but I don’t know where it went.”

“Is that one of the ones that I borrowed to you last year?” Angie asked, rolling her eyes. “Because I don’t know where those ones went either.”

“Oh, come on, you know I’m good for it.” Julie put on her best angelic face.

“You know, you’re really not.” Angelina rolled her eyes again.

“Besides, this is a new year,” Julie waggled her eyebrows. “I think I might even turn over a new leaf.”

“You guys, be quiet!” Kit exclaimed. “Here comes Mrs. Merriman!”

Angelina handed Julie a pen. Then all of the students sat up a little straighter as their new teacher walked into the room.

“Hello class,” Mrs. Merriman announced. “I am Mrs. Merriman. I will be your teacher this year.”

The class nervously shuffled in their desks a little, but no one said anything.

“I hear that we have a new student with us today,” Mrs. Merriman came out from behind her desk.

“Everyone, I’d like you to meet, Lea Clark!”

Lea’s face turned red. She mumbled a quick hello to all of the eyes that were now staring at her. She really wished that she could disappear now.

Luckily, Mrs. Merriman just smiled at her.

“Welcome Lea,” she said in a friendly tone. Then she went back to her lesson. Lea breathed a sigh of relief. She couldn’t wait until her life went back to normal.

“Now, as you know, we have a fall Bake Sale coming up,” Mrs. Merriman was saying. “We are going to need some volunteers.”

Julie’s hand shot in the air. She loved to get involved. Especially if there was cake to be had.

“I’ll help, Mrs. Merriman!” she declared eagerly. The rest of the class laughed. They knew that Julie was fond of bake sales.

“I will help too!” Kit raised her hand. She didn’t mind helping. She was the head of the school newspaper. She had to put herself at the heart of the action. That way, she could write all about it.

Mrs. Merriman nodded.

“That’s wonderful, girls. I will put you both down for it. Now, the next order of the day is Art History. Would you all please get out your textbooks?”

A mild groan rippled through the classroom from everyone except Angelina. She was excited. Art History was her favourite subject! She got her textbook out quickly, and sat eagerly awaiting the lesson.

For the rest of the morning, Mrs. Merriman taught the children all about the common Art Styles found throughout history.

She covered everything from Impressionism to Contemporary art.

She explained the difference between Abstract and Realism.

Then she helped them to create some art of their very own.

Before Lea knew it, it was already time for lunch.

“Hey Lea, you can sit with us for lunch if you want,” said Kit as she packed up her books.

Lea smiled and nodded.

She was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t going to be the absolute worst day of her life, after all. ❤

THE END

I hope you enjoyed our Back to School photo story! 🙂

Have you ever been the new girl in school?

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