Ring aRound the Robin: Title Pending
 

“Welcome to 9th grade English. I am your teacher, Mr. Holland, and this is first period in room 236. If you have some other class scheduled during this period, I suggest you leave and find the room before your teacher calls roll,” Mr. Holland began his class with his usual strict composure. In his mind, students always needed to be set straight at the beginning of the school year. All summer vacation did was give them a long enough period to forget how to behave in a classroom, which was why Mr. Holland was an advocate for year round schooling. He waited for two boys to leave the classroom before continuing on with his first day of class lecture.

“Now that everyone believes they are in the correct room, I’ll call roll. When I call your name, raise your hand and if you have any reasonable nickname, tell me so I can correct my roll call. Andrews, Jacob.”

“Here!” came the response from an African American boy two-thirds of the way back. Mr. Holland continued calling roll in the same manner, last name first followed by the student’s first name. Occasionally, he would receive a pronunciation correction or a preferred name, but mostly the students responded with a “here” and a raised hand. As each student responded, Mr. Holland observed them with a glance he’d acquired over his twenty-some odd years of teaching. Generally from this glance he could tell who the trouble makers were and who the brownnosers were. He had also learned to tell who belonged to which clique within the walls of Hollyhock High School. Each group had their own preferred placements within the classroom. Generally, the stoners and slackers sat in the far back left-hand corner, although they also enjoyed sitting right nearby the door so they could leave as soon as the bell rang. However, on most days it was the main popular girls who sat by the door--that way they could mouth messages to their many friends as they walked by. The brownnosers usually sat right up in front, either the first or second row so that when they raised their hand, it would be right in your face where you would be sure to notice it. The solid students who tended to be a bit more shy sat at about the third and fourth rows in the middle of the room where they had a clear view of the blackboard. And the windows were reserved for the rowdy boys and the daydreamers.

Done with roll call, Mr. Holland went on to address his students with more important information.

“Starting tomorrow, you will have a seating chart. Whether or not you continue to have one, will depend on how you as a class decided to conducted yourselves. Now then. The rules of this classroom are posted on the blackboard; they will always be posted there; they are for your reference. I suggest you read them sometime during this week. When you signed up for this class, a roster was mailed to your permanent address. If you bothered to look at it, which almost none of you did, you would have noticed that you have a year-long assignment--” Mr. Holland was instantly interrupted by groans and whispered complaints to neighboring students. He cleared his throat, bringing the classroom’s attention back to himself within a couple of moments.

“This--” he began again, holding up a stack of green papers, “--details the assignment. In a few moments we will go over the guidelines together and then you’ll be on your way to second period.” Mr. Holland walked from column to column, handing the first students a stack of the papers exact to the number of students seated behind him.

“Did anyone not get a paper?” he asked, once done. When no one raised their hand, he continued, “Your assignment is to keep a journal. How you keep this journal is entirely up to you, although I do require a minimum of ten pages worth of writing since this is an English class. Other than that, I do not permit anything that goes against the school rules or the Zero Tolerance Policy. There is a minimum requirement of one entry per week. When you are given days in class to work on the project, I expect that you work on it. If you don’t, prepare to give me a valid reason as to why not. This project should not be something that takes up more than at least fifteen minutes per entry, so if I hear complaints from parents saying that I am giving his or her son or daughter too much homework with this project, then I will calmly explain to said parent that it was their student’s choice to spend so much time on the project. This is also a project that you will not want to wait until the last minute to accomplish because there are 52 weeks in a year and with 15 minutes per entry, then that’s 780 minutes or 13 hours. I highly doubt you want to be spending that much time the day before it’s due trying to complete the project. Now, with all of that said, you have a total of ten minutes to get started.”

Katherine Tanaka was new to Hollyhock High School. Her mother had insisted on moving here after Katherine spent the summer with her Aunt Mika and came back completely different in a way that Mrs. Hipshire (Katherine’s parents had divorced when she was three years old) did not approve of. Therefore, the family moved to Hollyhock where Katherine would attend the local public high school known for its strict methods in dealing with trouble-makers while her older step-brother and step-sister attended Hollyhock Catholic Junior/Senior High School. Apparently, the Catholic school was less strict than the public school. This was a first, in Katherine’s mind, anyway. All of this was the reason behind why she came to Mr. Holland’s class a half hour late, accompanied by her counselor, a short red-headed plump woman of about forty who wore copper wire-rimmed glasses and had a face that made her look like a hamster. Her name was Rose Faulkner, and she insisted that her students call her Rose so that they had more of a “connection.” Katherine thought she was twit and refused to call her “Rose,” for, as she explained to her mother, “a rose by any other name, would still smell as sweet.” Ms. Faulkner took her quotation of Shakespeare to be a compliment; her mother could now say nothing about it.

“Mr. Holland,” Ms. Faulkner said, sticking her head inside of his classroom. From Katherine’s position, all she could see was Ms. Faulkner’s curly red head unfortunately complimenting her tickle-me-pink ensemble. “I have a new student to introduce into your class!” Her voice was all too cheery for this early in the morning (8:05, a full twenty-five minutes before she would be leaving her house had she stayed at her old school).

“In that case, please come in, Rose,” said Mr. Holland. To Katherine’s ears, his voice sounded slightly annoyed and Katherine made a note of never coming late to his class again. Ms. Faulkner opened the door, and Katherine found a sea of nearly thirty faces staring blanking at her. Suddenly she felt small. This school was so large! Her old school would have had maybe fifteen students in a class, unless it was science or math, then there’d be at maximum 20 students. What surprised her the most was that there was this many students at school in a town where the population was less than a third than that of Springdale. Katherine’s palms were sweating as Ms. Faulkner beckoned to stand beside her next to Mr. Holland’s desk.

“Students, this is Katherine ta-NA-ka--”began, Ms. Faulkner.

“Actually, it’s ta-na-ka,” corrected Katherine, she hated it when people mispronounced her last name; after all, it wasn’t that hard of a name.

“She’s coming to us from a much smaller school, so I want each and every one of you to be kind to her,” she continued without missing a beat. The class half-heartedly clapped in welcoming her and Ms. Faulkner turned to Mr. Holland. “Well, she’s all yours, Mr. Holland.” And she left the room with a smile to Katherine that made her look purely evil and rather creepy. Katherine shivered slightly.

“Well, Katherine, first, do you have a preferred name?” Mr. Holland asked her. Katherine thought about asking him to call her by her middle name, but instead she shook her head. Mr. Holland wrote down her name onto his roll call sheet and placed a neat check mark beside her name. “This is a copy of the roster,” he said drawing a sheet of white Xerox paper from the accordion filing system sitting on his desk. “and this is the details of the year-long project. Please read it carefully and ask me any questions you might have. Now then, it looks as though there aren’t any empty seats at the moment, so I’ll have the janitor bring in an extra desk for tomorrow. For now, you can wait for class to end by the door.” Katherine nodded and walked over to the door where she made herself comfortable by leaning against the wall.

Sein Kana sat very bored in Mr. Holland's class. She didn't really like English, and therefore, liked sitting in the back. She was creative, but felt very little of her own work seemed to be so great in her mind. She sat there looking at the assignment paper, taking out her pencil and adding her own "personal touch". She drew through the words and in the margin. Sometimes small drawings like a small chibi character going through the words, or climbing up a rope to the top of the words. Slowly the drawing grew till it was a person behind the words with a group of chibi people playing with the words.

It wasn't until her normal boredom in class got interrupted. The "new student" looked shy. She though did speak up when her name was badly mispronounced. Sein had the same problem, and her last name sounded like it was pronounced similar to Sein.

Maybe I should say hi to her, Sein thought, but wasn't sure. Plus the stupid seating chart would cause her to move, she doesn't like seating charts, but it would be hard to even make a friend if they didn't have classes together and sit near each other.

The bell rings and Sein, moves her jean trench coat behind her so it flowed behind her like she likes. Sein knew that trench coats were discouraged and made her stand out ,but she did like them, them and her easy wardrobe of T-shirt and black pants. She watched Katherine as she walked toward the door to second period. Katherine just watched the people go by. Who was she waiting for? someone to say hi, or some friend of hers, Sein never knew with this school.

Katherine waited for the rest of the students file out of the classroom. It was a bit awkward, she knew, but Katherine enjoyed watching her peers as the walked past. It helped give her an idea of what they were like or which groups they belonged to. At her old school the cliques had been horrendous. So much so that principal had to institute a program to try and help out with the situation. Of course, none of those measures had worked. Springdale could be real nasty, especially among the members of the upper class.

One girl in particular who walked by, Katherine could tell was more of an outcast than the rest of the students. First off, she wore a trench coat. Katherine knew that she shouldn’t “judge a book by it’s cover,” but she couldn’t help it. This was in part because of her upper-class city background that years of private school had given her. The second thing that labeled the girl as an outcast was the fact that she left the classroom alone. Admittedly, the way things worked were probably much different than back home, but normally students didn’t leave a classroom on their own, usually they were with at least one friend.

The last group to pass by Katherine was a quintet of boys. As they walked past, the each stole one quick glance at Katherine. Katherine had noticed the boy closer to the back of the staring at her throughout most of the ten minutes that she’d been standing by the door. Katherine wasn’t used to that sort of stare. It wasn’t the kind that boys usually gave to her. In fact, it was a type of stare that she’d been collecting a lot this morning. Katherine figured that the look she received was one that students gave to every new student and she suddenly felt guilty for the looks she’d given to new students in the past. The look was not a very pleasant one. It was one that people gave and then immediately proceeded to whisper afterwards. This process was very similar to the gossip stare, however the look was different. And Katherine was tired of the look already.

After the boys had passed, Katherine left the classroom and stood by a water fountain across the hall to examine her schedule.

Alex Young was one of the first out of his seat when the bell rang, followed closely by his group of friends. The new girl stayed where she was and waited for everyone to walk by. Alex and his friends waited outside the door, chatting as the girl walked out of the classroom and went over to the water fountain where she stood examining her schedule.

“That new girl sure does look tough,” remarked Darren, Alex’s best friend since third grade.

“Nah, she’s just trying to appear more collected than she really is,” responded Alex. Darren nodded; none of Alex’s friends second-guessed is intuition when it came to other people. “Let’s help her find her next class.”

The boys walked over to her. “Hey,” said Alex. “You’re the new girl, right?” She nodded, eyeing Alex and his friends warily. “I’m Alex, and this is Darren, Pete, Chris, and Dale.” Again, she nodded.

“I’m Ayu--I mean, Katherine,” she replied. Obviously, she wasn’t used to being called Katherine.

“You might want to come up with a nickname. There are about six “Katherines” here,” suggested Dale.

“Oh.”

“So, what’s your next class?” asked Darren.

“Chemistry. With Mr. Johnson,” she answered, looking at her schedule.

“Room 303?” She nodded again.

“That’s easy enough to find. Down the stairs, turn right and keep following the corridor. Mr. Johnson painted his door purple a couple years back, so you should find 303 without a glitch.”

“Thanks,” Katherine said, and headed toward the stairs. The boys watched her go and then split up to their own classes. All through Mr. Wyman’s lecture on the importance of learning geography, Alex couldn’t keep his mind from thinking about Katherine. She was captivating; mostly because he had never encountered a girl like her before. She had dark brown hair that fell in waves to her upper-back, green almond-shaped eyes, and peach-colored skin. Her clothes were more stylish than anyone in Hollyhock wore and so it was easy to tell she was from some larger town, maybe even the city.

Katherine went quickly down the stairs to the main floor. As she made it to the end of the stairs, she ran right into someone, sitting down hard on the steps. Her saddlebag flew open and all of its contents spilled all over the steps and the hallway floor. Knowing she was late, Katherine only dared take one glance at who it was she’d knocked into before bending to pick up the contents of her bag. From that single glance, Katherine gathered that the boy she’d knocked into was rather annoyed. This was especially obvious once he stood and tossed a pen at her before resuming his course down the hall. Katherine shook her head, and continued picking up her belongings.

“Here,” came a voice above her. Katherine looked up to see a boy with brown hair and green eyes smiling down at her and holding out a notebook and a couple of pens.

“Thanks,” replied Katherine as she took the items from him. He squatted down next to her and began helping her pick up. “You know, you are late. You don’t have to help me.”

“It’s alright. Besides, I’m late already, so what if I’m a few minutes later? I’m Nick, by the way.” he handed her another notebook.

“Katherine,” she said, taking the notebook.

“When did you move here?”

“Saturday,” there was a hint of disapproval in her voice. Nick nodded in response.

“Well, if you have any trouble finding someone to sit with at lunch, my friends and I are always in the courtyard. Just look for the big blue door in the cafeteria that has a sign proclaiming it locked.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” replied Katherine, stuffing the last few items into her bag and hurrying down the hallway. Just as Alex had said, Katherine found room 303 with no trouble at all. Who could possibly miss a bright purple door? She entered just as Mr. Johnson was making the announcement of a new student within the walls of his classroom. She was given a slight scolding that caused her cheeks to color slightly, and then told to sit in the back near Kaleb Davis. Unfortunately, this happened to be the boy that she’d bumped into in the hall. Katherine took her seat a bit uncomfortably as the class commenced.

Sein follows her normal route, avoiding the crowds of people, and pushing to her next class, chemistry. For her chemistry was also a bore, she didn't mind the simple parts of it, but really did prefer not having to memorize elements.

She watched as the teacher, Mr. Johnson, was a quirky teacher, he first painted the door purple. He was famous for being the odd teacher, though he didn't really teach chemistry all that differently than the other teachers taught their subjects. He liked chemistry, and the labs weren't bad, but getting paired in groups was a pain.

Sein watched as the new girl, Katherine, came in late. She looked interesting, but looked very nervous. Sein watched Katherine go to her seat, following her rather than paying attention. Sein watched as Nick, the cool but slacker of a kid, started talking to Katherine.

Katherine was a rather plain name, Sein was glad her family hadn't bestowed such a common name on her. She found names sometimes a hindrance with remembering people. There were two people named Rachel and people just called them twins just because of their name. No individual qualities between them.

Sein returned to the classroom though when she heard the word "lab". She hated labs, only because it required her to socialize. She ended up normally doing more work than the rest, and just getting fed up with everyone in the school.

Chris and Dale left Darren, Alex and Pete to go to class. They had German together. On the way to the language wing, Chris brought up some unusual behavior.
"Alex seems to be interested in that new girl, what you think?"

"Defiantly, he never reaches even a finger out to anyone, and now this new girl just comes in, I wonder what he sees in her?" Dale said.

"She just isn't your type at all." Chris patted Dale on the back, and then walked into German.

Katherine entered Mr. Johnson's classroom a bit warrily, mostly because she didn't ish to receive detention on her first day. However, Mr. Johnson merely smiled and pointed her to an empty seat when she told him that she was new here. The seat he gestured to was on the other side of a lab table from a Korean boy who sat in his chair with his head back. She sat down in her seat and stole a glance at the boy. He opened his eyes and looked over at Katherine.

“You should really watch where you’re walking around here,” he said, coolly. Katherine looked at him sharply. She was shocked. Luckily she didn’t have a chance to say anything to him as a blond girl sat down in between them and stuck out her hand.

“Hi! I’m Liz Turner,” said the blond, a little bit too cheerfully for Katherine’s mood. Katherine shook her hand and introduced herself trying to keep her voice calm and collected. Liz proceeded to ask her if she had any nicknames


Elizabeth Turner arrived in Mr. Johnson’s second hour chemistry class just as he was placing the students into groups for a lab. She was quickly given detention and told sit in the only available seat next to Kaleb Song who was talking to a new student. That in itself amazed Elizabeth, Kaleb may be a “cool” kid, but he hardly ever spoke to anyone except his posy members. She gave Kaleb a grudging nod and turned her attention to the new student.

“Hi! I’m Liz Turner,” she said, sticking out her hand.

“Katherine Tanaka,” replied the girl, taking Liz’s hand.

“Cute top,” remarked Liz, smiling. “Where’d you get it?”

“Macy’s,” Katherine answered, casually.

“Listen, you got any nicknames? There’s, like, at least six people named Katherine in ninth grade alone.”

“Ummm…Katie?”

“Hmmm…How ‘bout Kat? One of my friends is Kadee, and it sounds almost exactly like Katie,” said Liz, glancing at Mr. Johnson to make sure he wasn’t paying attention.

“Sure, why not,” said Katherine, shrugging.

“Well, then, Kat, who are you sitting with at lunch?”

“Ummm…not sure, actually.”

“Perfect. Just look for me, I’ll probably be at table 6. And, yes, the tables are numbered.”

“Liz! Stop distracting your neighbors!” called Mr. Johnson. “You already have fifteen minutes of detention, do really want more?”

Liz tried not to snort or smile as she shook her head.

“That’s what I thought. Now, class, here follows your lab assignments. Group One: Hannah Alpert, Greg Lee, Michael Drew, and Henry Jacobs. Group Two: Alicia Keys, Lauren Salisbury, Grace London, Jerry Meyer. Group Three…” Mr. Johnson’s voice was drowned out by the sudden tone of the fire alarm.

“Now I know it’s the first day of school!” remarked Liz. Mr. Johnson calmly led the class outside, where he immediately called roll and continued his lab assignments.

“Group Six: Elizabeth Turner, Sein Kana, Kaleb Song, Katherine Tanaka, and Hilari Bell. We’ll be doing the lab on the block day. Class dismissed.” As soon as these words were spoken, the students began to disperse.

Sein was not happy with her group for science, though glad she might even meet the new girl. Sein wanted nothing more though than to curl up in her art world and avoid the rest of the stupid people. She found boys stupid, and girls worse at times. Sein pulled out her sketchbook that she carried and drew instead of listening, such is her life. She started by drawing an eye, then going to the nose and the mouth, then the hair, and finally some clothes. She was bad at clothes drawings, but better at faces. Eyes amused her the most.

The class bell rand and she headed to third period, her least favorite class, P.E. It did her no good cause she was constantly made fun of in the changing room, and wasn't great against everything else. She hauled all her stuff onto her back, and walked over to the class. She was so focused on avoiding other people she didn't notice the five boys in the hall as she almost bumped into them. Alex, Darren, Dale, Pete, and Chris were talking again. She almost hit Alex, the schools "hot guy". She also even after missing them barely as they moved for her, missed Katherine following her.

Sein, engrossed in her dream world, turned the corner and headed to P.E. to change.

Katherine walked out of science with specific instructions on how to reach the large gym from Liz. She felt overwhelmed; everyone was talking to her; everyone wanted to help her; everyone was happy. It was almost too much to bear, which was why she left science frustrated.

As she passed by the stairs, she was stopped by the boy from her first period. She’d forgotten his name, but didn’t really care. When she saw him and his friends hanging around there, she prayed that he wouldn’t notice her so that she could get some peace of mind. Unfortunately, she wasn’t so lucky.

“Hey, Katherine. What’s your next class?” asked the boy. Politely, Katherine responded.

“PE.” It was short and simple, and Katherine hoped he wouldn’t ask her any more questions. Again, she had no such luck.

“Oh. I think Darren has PE next, too,” he said, looking back at his friend. Darren merely raised his eyebrows in one quick rise and fall action.

“Neat,” replied Katherine. “I should really get going, I don’t want to be late.”

“Oh. Yeah. I guess I’ll see you around, then? Maybe at lunch?” Would he ever get the message?

“Yeah, maybe. See you,” said Katherine, turning and heading towards PE. Of course, “Darren” walked right along with her. “I can find my own way,” she said to him. He didn’t respond. At the gym, Darren went and pounded fists with a few of his buddies in the back of the room, and Katherine went to talk to the coach. After a short three minute conversation, in which she was asked the same questions she’d been asked all day, where are you from, what was your old school, what year are you, etc, etc, etc, Katherine was left to sit on the bleachers and watch the other students.

She chose to sit on the top riser, and she took the free time to lean her head back against the painted-over brick wall and close her eyes. While she sat there, she thought of Aunt Mira, with whom she’d spent the summer. At first, she’d hated the thought of living out the summer with Aunt Mira, who always seemed strict and uninteresting, but once she was there….well, everything changed. In truth, her whole life had changed. Now, she was here, in the States, with her overbearing mother and perfect brothers and sister. It only made it worse that her mother thought that she’d gone awry in Japan because now she was at a school known for having delinquents and trouble-makers. She wanted so bad to go back to Springdale where she’d at least have loyal and understanding friends. Everyone’s parents were overbearing at Bridgewater Academy. Not only that, but Bridgewater was truly a magnificent school with magnificent people. She just couldn’t see herself anywhere else, well, apart from her Aunt’s. But that was for other non-academic reasons. Aunt Mira was just everything that her mother was not.

“Sitting out?” came a voice from beside her. Katherine started and turned her head to look at the person next to her. Next to her was a girl her age who in many ways looked as though she could be her twin. She had black hair that was curled to waves and tumbled to her upper back, she was of slight build with peach skin and deep blue eyes. Of course, Katherine had green eyes and her hair had been dyed black from its naturally dark brown hue. The girl in front of her sported a loose dark green hat, a white tank top with an olive ¾ sleeve jacket, a camouflage skirt with black knee-length leggings and dark green sneakers.

“Yeah,” replied Katherine.

“I’m Stacey Young,” said the girl, offering a hand. Katherine took it, and shook.

“Katherine Tanaka.”

“You’re half-Asian, too?” she asked. When Katherine nodded and gave her a funny look, she added, “Sorry. It’s that’s there not many of us in these parts. There’s really only like seven kids at this school who are even remotely part-Asian. My brother is one of them. You’ve probably met him, Alex Young?”

“Come to think of it, I have,” answered Katherine, trying not to let her annoyance at Stacey’s brother seep into her voice.

“Yeah, he can be a nuisance. He thinks he’s all that, you know?” Katherine nodded. “Anyway, I’m probably bothering you. I just wanted to introduce myself to you. I hope we can get to know each other more,” finished Stacey.

“Me too,” said Katherine. Stacey slid over to the other end of the bleachers. Fifteen minutes later, the coach blew her whistle and the students headed into the changing rooms. Katherine was taken into the girl’s room to choose a locker. She chose the only available one, between Stacey’s and one belonging to a girl she recognized from both her English and her science classes.

Darren, sitting up a few rows was talking to his friends, and Sein, not inclined to join in listened in.

"What do you think of the new girl?"
"She is pretty hot, like Alex's sister hot."
Darren laughs, "if only he knew, but he is so protective of him."
"I dig half-asian girls."
"Katherine better watch out." Darren laughs, he was such a different person with his other buddies.
"Well she is the second half-asian in the school, they are such a rarity." Sein gets slightly mad, she knows she is in the background, but to not even be considered half-asian, it made her angry inside.

"Technically the third, Sein is the other."
"Sein?"
"yeah, that weird girl who dresses in trench coats."
"Oh...her...she doesn't seem half asain to me, she has that creepy feeling, all the others are so inviting."
"So they do."

Sein had heard enough, she went back and stared at katherine, and pulled out a small sketchbook, she quickly drew Katherine sitting on the bench, it was just a sketch, but it didn't look too bad."

Sein wasn't sure if she could ever have a class alone where someone wouldn't approach Katherine so she could say hi.

As Katherine was leaving the gym, Stacey came up behind her and hooked her arm through Katherine's.

"Come on, the lunch room's this way," said Stacey, tugging Katherine in the opposite direction from where she was headed--the library. "Now I understand that you probably want to be left alone by now, but eating by yourself is never fun." From that comment, Katherine found herself being led into the cafeteria.

The cafeteria was honestly quike remarkable. There were two levels to the room and on the first level were the hot lunch line and the snack line. Past these the room opened up for tens upon tens of tables with little booths lining the back wall for various food items that were brough in from the community. Above this level was a balcony configured in much the same way as the back of the first level.

As soon as Stacey and Katherine entered the cafeteria, Stacey began swivling her head looking for her friends. Just as she was about to drag Katherine over to the snack line where a boy with curly blond hair was standing, the came a shout from up above.

"Stace! We're up here!" Up on the balcony was a group of six or seven girls, all either standing on kneeling on benches and chairs waving down to Stacey to get her attention. Stacey waved back and headed up the stairs, towing Katherine along with her.

"Good thing I have my lunch with me," thought Katherine. When the pair reached the table where the girls were, another chair was dragged over Katherine and she was introduced to one of the "cliques" at Hollyhock. By the time lunch was over, Katherine's head was spinning.