Mackenzie Blue (4 page)

Kathi groaned.

“You don't like Dylan?” Mr. P asked her.

Before answering, Kathi rolled her eyes at Jen. But Zee could tell that Jen was only pretending to understand when Kathi heaved a dramatic sigh. “I just expected a more original answer from a music teacher,” she said.

“Who's your favorite?” Mr. P asked.

“Anyone but Bob Dylan,” Kathi said. “He's way over-rated.”

Mr. P was silent. Zee knew he was trying to figure out what to say next. Finally he spoke to the class. “I'd like everyone to write down a little bit about yourself—what instrument you play, how long you've played…” He paused to think some more. “Oh, and what you like best about music.”

Everyone took out a piece of paper and began writing—including Zee.

 

 

As Zee finished, Kathi walked to the front of the room and handed Mr. P her piece of paper. She had covered the entire sheet with information about herself.

“Thanks,” Mr. P said, taking the assignment.

“No prob,” Kathi told him, heading back to her seat. “I'm surprised you didn't ask us to write about what we did over our summer vacation,” she mumbled to no one in particular.

One by one, the other students finished and gave Mr. P their papers. As Zee delivered hers, the bell rang overhead. The first period—or in Kathi's case, the first round—was over.

Z
ee grabbed her book bag and turned to Jasper. “Let's go!” she said as she hurried past the other students toward the door. As much as Zee liked music, she couldn't wait to get out of the room. After only one class period with Kathi, she'd had enough of her to last a week. Mr. P seemed nice but nervous. She hoped he got over it fast.

Just as Zee took a step into the hall—CRASH!—she slammed into another body. The two of them bounced off each other in different directions, and the girl barely missed ricocheting off a senior boy who could have been a body double for a gorilla.

“Ohmylanta!” Zee declared. How could this be happening again?

The girl looked at Zee. “What did you say?” Her dark hair was pulled back in a long ponytail, which made her green eyes stand out.

Zee shrugged. “Oh, it's nothing. It's just something I say when I get nervous or surprised!”

The girl laughed. “That's funny! I'm from Atlanta, Georgia. I thought maybe you knew that.” Zee had never seen the girl before, but her Southern accent definitely told Zee she was
not
from Brookdale. As if the girl could read Zee's mind, she said, “But that would be totally weird since you don't know me.” She paused. “I'm Chloe. I'm sorry I ran into you.”

“It was
so
not your fault,” Zee said. “I think aliens abducted me last night and turned me into a human-size piece of metal. It turns out the rest of the world are magnets.”

“Maybe you just have a magnetic personality!” Chloe suggested with a smile. “Did the aliens name you?”

Zee nodded. “Mackenzie. You can call me Zee. Everyone does—except teachers. And sometimes my parents. And their friends.”

“Wow! That's a lot of information.”

“Too much?” Zee asked.

“A teeny bit.” Chloe laughed. “You're not the only one having a bad day. It took me forever to get my schedule figured out, and
then
I went to the wrong classroom. I sat in photography for fifteen minutes before I figured out my mistake. Now I have to find
another
class.”

“What class did you miss?” asked Zee.

“Music,” Chloe replied.

“Oh, I was in that class! You're Chloe Lawrence-Johnson! What do you have second period?” Zee asked.

Chloe looked at her schedule. “English.”

“Me, too. Let's look for it together.”

“Maybe we'll find it twice as fast,” Chloe said.

Zee rolled her eyes. “Or get twice as lost.” The girls started walking.

Behind her, Zee heard someone clear his throat. She looked up. Oops! Jasper. “Sorry,” Zee said. Sometimes he was soooo quiet—especially around girls—that it was easy to forget he was even there.

Zee introduced her two newest friends to each other. “Hi,” Jasper said quickly. “Maths class is in the other direction. I'll meet up with you at lunch.” He started to walk away, then added, “Try not to forget about me—please.”

“I won't!” Zee promised.

The girls began to search for their English room. “I like
your bag,” Zee told Chloe as they wove in and out of the other students. The body was a diamond pattern with black, green, and red squares. “Where did you get it?”

“I made it.”

“You made it? Cool beans!”

“I couldn't find anything I liked in the store. I wish I'd seen yours.”

Zee laughed. “I didn't buy it like this,” she said. “It was plain, so I decorated it.”

“Oh,
my
gosh! It looks better than the ones in the boutiques in Los Angeles. Can I look at it?”

Zee slipped it off her shoulder. “If I can see yours?”

The girls swapped bags. Zee couldn't believe how great Chloe's looked. “This would cost over two hundred dollars in a store.”

Chloe looked down at herself. “Next I'm gonna try to do something about this uniform.” She tugged on her pants and stuck out her tongue. “Blech. I hope I can make it look as awesome as you did.”

“Really?” Zee could feel herself blushing from the compliment. She couldn't believe that on the very first day of school she'd found another friend—one who liked to individualize her stuff as much as Zee did!

 

The rest of the morning went by in a flash. Every teacher explained the rules that
must
be followed, handed out forms that
must
come back the next day, and gave each student textbooks that
must
have weighed a ton. It helped that Chloe had been in all of Zee's classes. But her new friend wasn't taking her next class with her—French. Zee didn't know any other seventh graders who were.

When Zee found out Ally was moving to France, she had signed up for French right away. She wanted to visit her friend, and when she did, she wanted to be able to read and speak well enough to avoid total embarrassment. Like accidentally ordering frog legs instead of ice cream. Or asking for the kitchen instead of the bathroom.

Thinking about it made Zee miss Ally more than ever. She pulled out her Sidekick and stared at it. Because it was too expensive, she wasn't allowed to text or call her best friend without permission.
But I need to talk to
someone, Zee thought. Then she remembered someone who might be even lonelier than she was.

Zee tapped out a message to Jasper.

Jasper wrote back,

Zee giggled as she turned the corner of the foreign language hall. Jasper may have been a brand-new student, but he was already fitting in.

When Zee got to the French room, she discovered she wasn't alone. Jen was already there. “Hey, Zee!” she shouted, motioning for Zee to sit next to her. Ugh! If Jen was there, it wouldn't be long before Kathi was, too.

“Don't you want Kathi to sit there?” Zee asked.

“She's taking Spanish.”

“Then why aren't
you
?”

“Mamá y Papá me están haciendo tomar francés,”
Jen explained. Even though Zee didn't grow up speaking Spanish like Jen, she had studied it since kindergarten, so she knew Jen's parents were making her take French.

“I guess it's
adios
, easy class, for you,” Zee said.

“Bonjour!”
Marcus greeted the girls as he slid backward into the chair in front of Jen. “Just the people I want to see.”

“Why?” Jen asked, leaning forward.

“Look for a text message from me later today. I'm having a party.”

“A party? What's the excuse this time?” Jen asked, grinning. Set against her dark hair, Jen's smile was incredibly bright.

Marcus looked up at the ceiling as if he were deep in thought. “Beginning of the school year. End of summer. Finally making it to the upper school. First day of the rest of your life,” he rattled off. “Take your pick.” Marcus had so many parties, he never needed an excuse. They were always amazing. He usually had a DJ—sometimes even a live band.

“I'll take first-day-of-the-rest-of-your-life party,” Jen said, giggling.

“I'm definitely going to the finally-making-it-to-the-upper-school party,” Zee said, laughing.

Who knew Jen could be so fun—and funny? It was just another bit of first-day-of-school weirdness. But this time it was a
good
thing.

Z
ee zigzagged through the cafeteria crowd, clutching her lunch tray so hard her knuckles ached. The lentil loaf was so soggy it almost looked like stew. She figured she would just survive on the organic apple until she got home. Each time another student whizzed past, Zee's plate slid close to the edge. Somehow her bottle of water slid the opposite direction. Just as she got everything in place, it happened again.

What had Zee been thinking? She had decided that buying hot lunch on the first day would make her feel more like a mature upper schooler. Bad idea. She felt more like a kindergartner who'd wandered into the wrong lunchroom.

It didn't help that she was still carrying around her book
bag, now completely loaded with the textbooks she'd collected that morning.

It wasn't as though Zee had never felt out of place before, but usually Ally was there—and feeling just as out of place. Together they had always managed to figure everything out. Now Zee resembled the main character in an Animal Planet special.
Without the other members of her group to guide her, the young chimp looks for a safe place to eat her lunch. Will she find it? Or will she be eaten first?

Zee took a deep breath and scanned the room, trying to find a friendly face.

“Hi, Zee.”

“Aaaaaa!” Zee jumped, her plate taking a dive off the side of her tray. Her brother, Adam, who had snuck up behind her, grabbed it before it hit the ground. “Adam! You scared me!” Zee cried, chasing after her water bottle. “Were you sent by the chimp leader?” she asked when she returned to where Adam was standing.

“Huh?”

“Never mind.”

“Actually I came over to save you, so you don't sit in the wrong place and end up with your underwear flying from the flagpole, but if you don't want my help…,” he said, then turned to walk away.

“No! Wait!” Zee called out a little too loudly. When Adam turned around, she said in a normal voice, “What do I need to know?”

Adam pointed across the noisy room to an area all the way over to the farthest corner. “Those are the seventh-grade tables over there.”

“I thought there was no assigned seating,” Zee said.

“The administration doesn't assign—the seniors do.” Great. Another reminder that Zee was on the bottom rung of the upper-school ladder. She glared at her brother.

Adam held his hands in the air. “Don't blame me. I'd let you sit at a better table, but this is the social order.”

“Just what I thought—the seniors
are
like chimps,” Zee said.

“You're weird,” Adam said. Then he pointed at the senior table. “Just don't make the mistake of sitting there—like that girl.”

Oh no!
That girl
was Chloe, eating at the end of the forbidden table. Zee rushed over to get her. “Let's sit over here,” she said, swooping in to save her new friend. As the girls switched tables, Zee realized her work wasn't done. Jasper was reading a book at the eighth-grade table.

She tapped Jasper on the shoulder. “Want to sit with us?”

Jasper had just bitten into his apple. “Pffwmph,” he said as he stood.

As the three of them finally made it over to the right place, Marcus waved and motioned for them to sit across from him. Excellent! Marcus was next to Landon. Zee could sit close to her crush without even trying.

Of course, Kathi was on the other side of Landon, and as Zee got closer, she could hear her talking to Jen. “I mean, I know lots of upperclassmen, but I would never sit at their tables—unless they invited me, which they eventually will.” She laughed. “But
not
the first day.”

Zee dropped her tray on the table. “I think they should just be honest and start calling it
lukewarm
lunch from now on,” she said to let Kathi know they could hear her talking about them.

Unfortunately for Kathi she had failed to make Chloe feel bad about sitting at the wrong table. “Hi, y'all,” Chloe said cheerfully. “I'm new here—in case you couldn't tell.” Then she looked right at Kathi. “You sound like you know what you're doing. If I have any problems, I'll come right to you!”

Kathi looked like someone had just told her she had a giant piece of spinach on her front tooth.

“Hi, I'm Marcus.” Behind his black glasses, his eyes lit up as he spoke. “I'm having a welcome-to-Brookdale party. I'll text
you the information if you give me your cell phone number.”

“I have to check,” Chloe said. “I just got a phone, and I don't know the number yet.”

Kathi made a miraculous recovery from her stunned condition. “You
just
got a cell phone?” she exclaimed. “Where'd you move from? The last century?”

“Not hardly,” Chloe said with a friendly smile. “Atlanta, Georgia.”

Marcus unwrapped his sandwich, then held half up to Chloe. “Want some?” he asked. “It's tuna fish.”

“No, thanks,” Chloe said. “I'm a vegetarian.”

Kathi forced an incredibly loud laugh, then looked around as if she expected everyone to join her. Of course, Jen followed her lead, but no one else did.

“What's up with that?” Kathi asked.

“I don't eat meat.”

“I know that. Why not?”

Chloe shrugged. “I guess 'cause I just don't want to.”

Zee thought Kathi's head might explode when Landon said, “Cool. I've been thinking about becoming a vegetarian, too.”

Kathi shook her head so furiously you could hear her earrings jingle. “Oh, you don't want to do that,” she told him. The fury in Kathi's eyes looked like it would burn a hole through
Chloe. “It'll make you look small…and kind of…sick.”

“Well, I've always looked this way,” Chloe said. “But I just became a vegetarian last year. And I love animals, so it was sort of natural for me.”

“What
ev
,” Kathi said, defeated.

Whoa. This girl knew exactly how to get to Kathi.

For the rest of lunch, Kathi was quiet. She practically didn't speak again until the other seventh graders began comparing schedules. Zee, Jasper, Chloe, Landon, Marcus, Jen, and Kathi all had seventh-grade science—Introduction to the Environment—together right after lunch.

“I'm sure we're going to get another fat book for that class,”
Zee said. She lifted her heavy bag onto her shoulder. “I guess I should make some room in here. I gotta go to my locker.”

“I'll go with you,” Chloe volunteered.

Jasper looked from Kathi to Jen, then stood up. “Me, too,” he said. Zee guessed Marcus and Landon weren't enough protection against the girls for Jasper.

As the three of them crossed the noisy cafeteria, Zee dropped her water bottle in the plastic recycling bin. Then she waved to Adam, who smiled back.

“Is that your boyfriend?” Chloe asked.

Shocked, Zee stumbled. “No way,” she said. “He's my brother.”

“Oh,” Chloe said, biting her lower lip and glancing back at Adam.

 

Zee entered the science room and glanced around. It didn't look like any of her other classrooms. Instead of separate desks arranged in rows, high tables were spaced evenly throughout the room. Each one had a sink in the middle and two tall chairs behind it.

Ms. Merriweather, the science teacher, looked up and smiled. “Welcome. Just take a seat anywhere.” Zee grabbed the closest chair, and Jasper climbed into the chair next to her as Chloe sat on the other side.

About halfway into the period, Ms. Merriweather began matching lab partners. Because her life was perfect, Kathi was with Landon. Zee and Jen were together. Zee wasn't thrilled, but since Jen had actually been nice to her in French class, she figured it would be okay.

Ms. Merriweather paired Chloe with Jasper. Zee was happy that they didn't have to sit with kids they didn't know.

Then their teacher began explaining the big project every set of lab partners would do. “Brookdale Academy is a LEED-certified school,” she began. “LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Here at Brookdale, we find ways to conserve energy and water and
to make less of an impact on our natural environment.”

If your dad drives an SUV, I hope you don't have to work extra hard to make up for it,
Zee thought.

“Throughout the year, we'll be studying environmental issues,” Ms. Merriweather went on. “Each month, one set of lab partners will present a project that explores how this school can do even more to take care of the planet.” She put a sheet of paper on the lab table closest to her and told everyone to sign up for the month in which they wanted to present their project. The first set of partners chose June, and the next picked May.

Jen and Zee sat at the third table, and like the students before her, Jen wanted to put off the project as long as possible. “Let's sign up for April,” she suggested. Zee was psyched to do the project in April. Earth Day was in April, and she knew they could plan something really awesome.

Jasper and Chloe were the last partners to sign up, so they got October. They had to present the first project. But they didn't seem to mind. They had their heads together and were talking a mile a minute.

Jen sighed. It looked as though it took all the energy she had to prop her head up with the palm of her hand. “Why do we have to come up with ideas for the school? Isn't that the teachers' job?”

“I think it's cool that the students have a say,” Zee answered.

“What if we don't want to?”

A pang of jealousy shot through Zee as she turned around again. Jasper and Chloe were busy sharing ideas about their science project.

 

After school, Zee hopped out of Adam's car and tore through the front door. “Hi, Mom!” she shouted.

“I'm in the TV room,” Ginny Carmichael called back.

Zee took a quick detour to greet her mother, dropped her book bag on the couch, and shot upstairs to email Ally. When she turned on her computer, she saw her best friend had already written. Yay!

Boo! Zee quickly typed a reply.