*
‘Four reasons you might get expelled on the first day of high school,’ I say to my friends glumly after the assembly. We are standing outside the bubblers in the quadrangle unofficially reserved for first-year students. Double-storey buildings, each labelled with a large black capital letter, surround a concrete basketball court. Hundreds of kids scurry up and down stairways and along the balconies that look out over the quadrangle. A narrow strip of grass and a row of leafy trees line one side of the court. A large clock is mounted on the brick wall of Block D.
‘Being late,’ Jed says.
‘Wearing a really short skirt,’ Elfi says, tugging at my hem.
‘Telling the deputy principal to read it and weep ,’ Rochelle says. ‘What’s that all about?’
‘It’s just something from my holiday,’ I say.
‘What else happened on that holiday?’ Rochelle pinches me on the waist. ‘You lost half your body and half your hair.’
And half my parents , I want to add.
‘We didn’t recognise you,’ Elfi says. ‘You look so different.’
‘Speaking of different,’ Jed says, consulting his timetable and school map. ‘We’re all in different classes this year, so we’d better get going. It sucks that none of us ended up in home room together.’
We all look down at the mass of papers in our hands and up at the clock. We turn in four separate directions.
Suddenly, I stop and look back at my friends. They have also stopped. Something is not right. We run back together for a hug.
‘ Track three! ’ Elfi declares, thrusting her palm into the middle of the hug.
‘ Track three! ’ Rochelle echoes, slapping her hand on top.
‘ Track three! ’ Jed says, grinning at me.
I throw my hand down on the other three but, as I do, images of blank Passport pages fill my head. And then Claire, the Queen of Clairvoyance’s words haunt me. If you are to survive the changes, you must change, too.
I can’t bring myself to say the words. As always, no one notices I have not joined in. They also didn’t notice I missed my turn at giving a reason for being expelled on the first day of high school. But today, instead of being grateful, this annoys me. I don’t know why.
At that moment the in-class bell clangs above our heads and, without wriggling our fingers up in the air and slamming them down in a hand sandwich, we race off to begin our high-school lives.
It looks like I’m the only one who realises we didn’t finish the ritual.
14
I stop outside a thick wooden door with a glass panel. Room Seven. My home room. What did Claire, the Queen of Clairvoyance, say about the number seven?
I take a deep breath and open the door. Once again, I am met with stares from my classmates and a disgruntled teacher standing at the front of the room, scanning a list of names.
‘Hey, it’s Paige,’ says a strangely familiar-looking blonde girl in the back row, ‘as in Read It and Weep.’
I sneak a sideways glance at the girl who made the comment. She smiles at me.
And so do a few of the others. Another girl removes her bag from the chair beside her and indicates for me to sit.
‘That’s not a very nice way to talk about a fellow student,’ the teacher says to the blonde girl.
‘But that’s how she introduced herself to Mrs McKenna at assembly just now,’ says a boy with messy brown hair.
Mrs McKenna must be the name of the teacher who wants to see me at lunchtime, I think.
‘Really, Nick?’ says our home room teacher. He sounds disapproving.
I gulp, wishing I was a million miles away from this high school. I’d like to be back on Bloodstone Beach. I wonder how Shelly is doing at her school this morning.
‘Well, Paige, as in Read It and Weep,’ the teacher says, ‘I’m Mr Reyne, as in Don’t Rain on My Parade. And now, because you were late, you can tell us a bit about who you are.’
I look down at my new leather shoes, already scuffed at the toe, then back up at the sea of faces. I recognise Stacy
‘Four reasons you might get expelled on the first day of high school,’ I say to my friends glumly after the assembly. We are standing outside the bubblers in the quadrangle unofficially reserved for first-year students. Double-storey buildings, each labelled with a large black capital letter, surround a concrete basketball court. Hundreds of kids scurry up and down stairways and along the balconies that look out over the quadrangle. A narrow strip of grass and a row of leafy trees line one side of the court. A large clock is mounted on the brick wall of Block D.
‘Being late,’ Jed says.
‘Wearing a really short skirt,’ Elfi says, tugging at my hem.
‘Telling the deputy principal to read it and weep ,’ Rochelle says. ‘What’s that all about?’
‘It’s just something from my holiday,’ I say.
‘What else happened on that holiday?’ Rochelle pinches me on the waist. ‘You lost half your body and half your hair.’
And half my parents , I want to add.
‘We didn’t recognise you,’ Elfi says. ‘You look so different.’
‘Speaking of different,’ Jed says, consulting his timetable and school map. ‘We’re all in different classes this year, so we’d better get going. It sucks that none of us ended up in home room together.’
We all look down at the mass of papers in our hands and up at the clock. We turn in four separate directions.
Suddenly, I stop and look back at my friends. They have also stopped. Something is not right. We run back together for a hug.
‘ Track three! ’ Elfi declares, thrusting her palm into the middle of the hug.
‘ Track three! ’ Rochelle echoes, slapping her hand on top.
‘ Track three! ’ Jed says, grinning at me.
I throw my hand down on the other three but, as I do, images of blank Passport pages fill my head. And then Claire, the Queen of Clairvoyance’s words haunt me. If you are to survive the changes, you must change, too.
I can’t bring myself to say the words. As always, no one notices I have not joined in. They also didn’t notice I missed my turn at giving a reason for being expelled on the first day of high school. But today, instead of being grateful, this annoys me. I don’t know why.
At that moment the in-class bell clangs above our heads and, without wriggling our fingers up in the air and slamming them down in a hand sandwich, we race off to begin our high-school lives.
It looks like I’m the only one who realises we didn’t finish the ritual.
14
I stop outside a thick wooden door with a glass panel. Room Seven. My home room. What did Claire, the Queen of Clairvoyance, say about the number seven?
I take a deep breath and open the door. Once again, I am met with stares from my classmates and a disgruntled teacher standing at the front of the room, scanning a list of names.
‘Hey, it’s Paige,’ says a strangely familiar-looking blonde girl in the back row, ‘as in Read It and Weep.’
I sneak a sideways glance at the girl who made the comment. She smiles at me.
And so do a few of the others. Another girl removes her bag from the chair beside her and indicates for me to sit.
‘That’s not a very nice way to talk about a fellow student,’ the teacher says to the blonde girl.
‘But that’s how she introduced herself to Mrs McKenna at assembly just now,’ says a boy with messy brown hair.
Mrs McKenna must be the name of the teacher who wants to see me at lunchtime, I think.
‘Really, Nick?’ says our home room teacher. He sounds disapproving.
I gulp, wishing I was a million miles away from this high school. I’d like to be back on Bloodstone Beach. I wonder how Shelly is doing at her school this morning.
‘Well, Paige, as in Read It and Weep,’ the teacher says, ‘I’m Mr Reyne, as in Don’t Rain on My Parade. And now, because you were late, you can tell us a bit about who you are.’
I look down at my new leather shoes, already scuffed at the toe, then back up at the sea of faces. I recognise Stacy
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