father unwittingly echoed the same topic over dinner.
“Hey, Terra . . .” He pushed some wood aside and took his place at the dining room table. He smiled at his wife and daughter and said the grace.
“Well, Terra, how do you like your new school?”
She shrugged.
Her parents looked at her expectantly.
“Well . . . it’s okay.”
“You don’t like it, Terra?” her mom asked. Her voice had a worried tone.
Her father paused, mid-bite, waiting for her answer.
“The classes seem okay,” she added, “but I don’t really know anybody, so it’s not all that fun.”
“So make some friends,” said her father bluntly.
Terra frowned, but her mother interjected. “Jack, you can’t just order her to make friends—that’s not how it works.”
“It wasn’t an order,” he protested. “Just a suggestion.”
“Well, I’m sure she’s trying!” Her mom turned an anxious eye in Terra’s direction. “You are trying, aren’t you, dear?”
Terra sighed.
“Because sometimes you can be kind of grumpy.”
“What?” said her dad. “No way. Terra’s the friendliest sort there is.” He reached over and touched her on the shoulder. “Right, kid?”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Terra, squinting at her mom. Grumpy?
“So you’re going to make some friends?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Her mom watched her worriedly.
“That’s my girl,” said her dad with an approving nod.
Terra glumly pushed her food around, while her father enthusiastically finished off his plate.
Lisa too tried to be encouraging when she phoned later that evening.
“Oh, you’ll make friends at your new school, Terra. Didn’t you have lots of friends here?”
“I guess. But we all grew up together.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter. I’m sure the kids there will think you’re just as nice as we do.” Lisa had that familiar teasing, cajoling note in her voice.
Terra rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” she said, settling in a big armchair for a prolonged chat-fest.
But it wasn’t to be. “Hey, I can’t talk long,” Lisa said. “I just wanted to say a quick hello. Some of the girls are coming over to work on a biology project.”
“Oh,” said Terra. She felt a bit of a pang, because she wasn’t one of the girls going over to Lisa’s.
“We’re doing experiments on bean sprouts.”
“Yeah, well . . . I’ll see you,” said Terra. She hung up the phone, lay on her bed and stared at her ceiling for a long time.
Dear Diary:
My parents don’t understand what they’re putting me through. Basically they just uprooted me, and they expect me to be happy about it.
The kids here aren’t very friendly. I tried to talk to a couple of them, but I didn’t get very far.
I miss my old friends, especially Lisa. She phoned me tonight and told me the people who bought our old house are painting it pink. Pink! What was wrong with off-white, I’d like to know!
I got an A on today’s surprise math quiz. I think the girl behind me might have been trying to copy my answers.
Terra closed her diary and shoved it into her drawer.
Then, on impulse, she dug for the envelope that she kept beneath her underwear and pulled out the two photos. The first showed a young woman with long dark hair and brown eyes, not unlike Terra’s own. She turned it over; all that was written on the back was “Donna”.
The other photo showed the same woman smiling into the camera, leaning against a pillow, clutching a small baby. “A rather ugly baby, with a pointy head,” Terra thought to herself, with a frown.
There was a small crumpled note in the envelope, but Terra didn’t open it. She held it in the palm of her hand for a moment, then suddenly shoved everything back in the envelope. Carefully, she slid the envelope back beneath the underwear.
three
Terra could feel her heart pounding against the walls of her chest. She bent over to take a deep breath, just in time to hear Ms. Brown, the gym teacher, bellow: “Keep moving, Terra, you’ve got to keep your heart rate up.”
Terra managed an insincere smile for the teacher and began to run. Finally, she came to the end of the track. Blaine lounged in her gym clothes on the bleachers.
“Hey. You don’t have to run?”
“Naw.” Blaine loudly smacked her gum. “I’ve got terrible cramps.”
Terra looked at her dubiously. The other girl looked cheerful enough.
Blaine grinned. Then, as if to demonstrate the point, she grabbed her stomach and moaned pathetically.
Terra blinked. “Ah. Does that work?”
Blaine shrugged philosophically. “Sorta. They used to make me run anyhow. So I took it up with the vice-principal.” She grinned. “I went crying to his office. He was very uncomfortable . . . Long story short: now I get gym class off once a month.” Blaine took out a little bottle and started painting her nails a bright red.
Ms. Brown frowned at them. “Blaine, are you doing that extra health homework?”
“Yeah, Ms. Brown.” Blaine patted the book on the bleacher beside her. “I’m working on it.”
The teacher looked like she wanted to say more. Instead she clapped her hands together. “Come on, Terra, one more lap!”
Blaine laughed softly. “See ya.”
Terra began running again.
A whistle blew shrilly. “Faster, Terra, faster,” urged Ms. Brown.
Terra thought she could hear the sound of laughter behind her.
The
