MAYA, DEE-DEE, JONNY, AND ME

Okay, FLASH FORWARD! (You keeping up with me here?)

The first day of school was exactly what I expected—terrible.

Mrs. Stricker was standing by the front doors when I got there, yelling at everyone to go straight to homeroom. I think she threw up in her mouth a little when she saw me.

Of course, Mrs. Stonecase was standing right next to her. They’re like the Twins of Terror, except they’re not twins. Sisters of Suffering? Siblings of Sorrow? Family of Fe—

“MOVE ALONG, MR. KHATCHADORIAN!”

“Okay, okay,” I muttered as I went in.

I also saw the super-crush of my life, Jeanne Galletta, in the hall. When she asked me how it was going, I said, “Fine.” She said, “Good.” Then she left to talk to her stupid boyfriend, Jared “Perfect” McCall. For all the stuff he’s so good at, I sure wish he was better at going to someone else’s school.

I saw Miller the Killer too, but I don’t think he saw me. It probably helped that I held my backpack up in front of my head when I walked by his usual hangout spot.

And all that was before I even got to first period!

My first three classes were English, math, and science. They piled on the homework too. Mr.Fanucci said I was supposed to bring all my assignments to Learning Skills, which was fourth period.

So while everyone else was taking World Languages or Computer Technology, I was heading down to the resource room in the library to find out who else was “special” like me.

I guess Mr. Fanucci works with different kids every period. There were only five of us in my group, which meant I couldn’t exactly hide in the back. But it also means it won’t take you very long to meet them.

This is Maya Lee. She has something nice to say about everything and everyone, all the time. Seriously. I’m not complaining, exactly, but after a while it’s like, “Yeah, okay, I get it, Maya. You really like my pen. And my chair. And the way my shoelaces look.” But at least she’s nice.

Plus, she always brings homemade cookies for our group on Fridays. So I’m not complaining.

This is Dee-Dee Molia. And to be honest, I kind of thought there would be more kids like her in our group. I think her brain works fine on the inside, but she needs a lot of help. She even uses an iPad to talk with, which is actually pretty cool. They let her sit in the front of every class so she can read the board. And when we have reading assignments, Mr. Fanucci makes sure they’re all books she can listen to on her headphones. Sometimes I wonder if she’s just listening to Taylor Swift or something. Hey, I couldn’t blame her.

Jonny Hermenez knows a lot. And I mean a lot. As far as I can tell, the only thing he doesn’t know about is how to get his homework done. But when it comes to stuff like why octopuses have three hearts, or how there are more than fourteen billion lightbulbs in the world, Jonny’s got all that stuff down cold. If I’m ever on some game show and the million-dollar category is “Weird Little Facts,” I’m calling Jonny for help, no question.

And this is me. You already know what I look like, but I figured I’d throw myself in here anyway. Maybe I’ll never be best buds with Maya, Dee-Dee, or Jonny, but I don’t think I’m any better than them either. I just wished I didn’t have to take Learning Skills in the first place.

Meanwhile, if you’re keeping track, you know there’s one more kid in our group. Let’s just say I saved the best for last.