Chapter 3: Teams
At Finewood Junior High School, students were arranged into “teams”. You were with your team for all five of your core classes: math, literacy, English, science, and social studies. The same exact group of kids, class after class, just like in elementary school. The only classes you got with other kids were your two UAs, or Unified Arts, which was basically a fancy word for “specials.” Your UAs switched every trimester, so in one year you’d get six of them. Mine for this first trimester were art and FCS, which stood for Family and Consumer Science, which was basically a cooking and sewing class.
It really stunk having my five core classes with all the same kids. Well, it wouldn’t have stunk if Daniel was on my team. But he wasn’t. I was on team 7-2, and he was on team 7-4. Poo.
I figured that at least if Daniel wasn’t on my team, he would be in one of my UAs. But when I went to art in the morning, he wasn’t there. A few kids I knew from elementary school were there, but I didn’t want to talk to any of them. It didn’t feel right without Daniel.
I was so relieved when it came time for lunch. I spotted Daniel right away. I fought my way over to him through the pushing, yelling crowd. “Daniel!”
Daniel had been standing by a table, talking to someone. He turned around when he heard me yell his name. “Hey Alanna.”
I joined him at the table. “What UA do you have seventh period?” I asked, first thing.
“Music. What about you?”
“GRRRR!” I yelled it a little too loudly. Students from surrounding tables turned to stare at me. “Poo. I have FCS.”
“So do I!” a cheery voice peeped up from the other side of Daniel. It was only then that I realized that the person he’d been talking to was Madalaine. “I have FCS seventh period. Do you have Mrs. Haller?”
I pulled my schedule out of my pocket and consulted it. “Yep.”
“Me too!” Madalaine held up her hand for a high five, and I slapped it. “That’s awesome. I have FCS with you, and all of my core classes with Daniel.”
What?! Not fair! Why did Madalaine get to be on Daniel’s team? Why couldn’t I be the one who shared all of Daniel’s core classes? Madalaine got to see my best friend five periods a day, and I wasn’t with him for a single stinking class.
Daniel sat down, so Madalaine and I sat down as well, one on either side of him. I remembered what I had wanted to tell him in the morning, about the teacher with the storm cloud hair. I turned to him. “Hey, Danie—”
The words weren’t even fully out of my mouth before Daniel turned to Madalaine. “That was so funny, second period, when that kid knocked his pencil case down and it made that big crash everywhere.”
“Yeah!” Madalaine laughed. “And Mr. Brett jumped like a mile, and everyone was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what was that?’”
They got into a conversation about their classes, and I was out of the loop because, oh yeah, I wasn’t in any of their classes. None of the ones they had together, anyway.
I ate my lunch without saying much of anything. Then the bell rang, and Daniel and Madalaine had to go off to their literacy class together, and I had to go to my math class.
“I’ll see you in FCS,” Madalaine said to me. She paused. “Sorry, I’m bad with names. What’s your name again?”
“Alanna,” I told her.
“Alanna. Right. I’ll remember that! OK, well, I’ll see you in FCS, Alanna.”
Math was boring. So was English, which I had after math. Seventh period was FCS. I was a little late because I couldn’t find the room at first, but apparently so was half the class. When I finally found the room and went inside, I had to refrain from gasping.
It was unlike any other classroom I’d ever been in. It actually resembled a kitchen more so than a classroom. It was big and open, with all sorts of ovens and countertops, microwaves and toaster ovens, a refrigerator, and large tubs of what looked like fabric. Despite the bad mood I’d been carrying around all day since finding out that Daniel and I weren’t on the same team, a smile came to my face. I got the feeling that I was going to like this class.
“Alanna!” I looked toward the sound of my name and saw Madalaine waving to me from a table. The tables were interesting too—they looked more like kitchen tables than school desks. I walked over and sat next to Madalaine. “I imagine you three all know each other already,” Madalaine said, motioning to me and the two girls sitting across from us.
I knew one of the girls from elementary school. “Hi Shelly,” I said. She said hi back. I didn’t know the other girl.
“This is Amanda,” Shelly introduced me to the girl next to her. Amanda and I said hi to each other.
“How do you like junior high so far?” Shelly asked me.
I shrugged. “It’s okay.” Except for not having Daniel in any of my classes.
“It’s different from elementary school,” said Amanda. We all agreed.
Class started, and one of the first things the teacher said was that we were going to pick groups that we’d be in for the entire trimester. These would be our groups for anytime we cooked anything, since there weren’t enough cooking appliances for each student to use their own.
“You can have three or four people in a group,” Mrs. Haller said. “I’ll let you choose your own groups unless there’s any trouble. If you’re having a hard time finding a group, let me know.”
Madalaine looked around the table at Shelly, Amanda, and me. “Group?” she suggested. “The four of us?”
We all nodded. “It’s weird how we’re picking groups the first day. Like, before we really get to know anyone,” Amanda commented.
“Maybe that’s the point,” I said. “Maybe she doesn’t want people to have really good friends yet in the class, because then there’d be all these little cliques and people would get left out.”
“Good point,” said Amanda.
Mrs. Haller passed around a sheet of paper and asked one person from each group to write down the names of everyone in the group. Shelly wrote down the names for our group. Now we were a team.
The class wasn’t all that interesting, because it was just the first day. Mrs. Haller went over the rules of the class and told us what we’d be working on throughout the trimester. And then the period was over, and so was my first day of junior high.
Madalaine and I walked to the bus loop together. Well, actually, Shelly and Amanda walked to the bus loop with us, but Madalaine and I were the only ones of the four of us who were on the same bus. As soon as we boarded the bus, I looked around for Daniel. I didn’t see him yet.
“Looking for Daniel?” Madalaine asked me.
I nodded.
“Hmm… I don’t see him yet. Hey, so, I actually had a question for you about Daniel.”
“Yeah?”
For the first time since I’d met her that morning, Madalaine looked a little bit nervous. “Well… I mean, I was just wondering… you guys are friends, right? Like, neighbor friends?”
“Yeah. Best friends. And next-door neighbors. We’ve grown up together, me and him and my sister and his brother. We’re like one big family.” Finally, I got to tell her the part about Daniel that he had omitted earlier. “Daniel and I are one set of best friends, and Travis and Lacey are the other set of best friends. But we also hang out together, all four of us. It feels like we’re all siblings.”
“Oh.” Madalaine didn’t look nervous anymore. “So, you think of Daniel like he’s your brother?”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
“That’s cool.”
If I’d been smart, I would have wondered why she was asking. I might have also been a little more careful with my words. After all, brothers and sisters don’t marry each other when they grow up. Even though it sort of felt like Daniel was my brother sometimes, I knew he wasn’t really. And I knew that once we graduated high school, once we finished college and got jobs together at the same place (wherever that might be, we didn’t have a clue what we wanted to be when we grew up), we’d get married. We’d get married and live in the mansion next door to Travis and Lacey and our kids would be best friends with their kids and we’d all live happily ever after. I knew all that, and I wasn’t thinking at the time that I needed to explain it.
But Madalaine didn’t know that.
At Finewood Junior High School, students were arranged into “teams”. You were with your team for all five of your core classes: math, literacy, English, science, and social studies. The same exact group of kids, class after class, just like in elementary school. The only classes you got with other kids were your two UAs, or Unified Arts, which was basically a fancy word for “specials.” Your UAs switched every trimester, so in one year you’d get six of them. Mine for this first trimester were art and FCS, which stood for Family and Consumer Science, which was basically a cooking and sewing class.
It really stunk having my five core classes with all the same kids. Well, it wouldn’t have stunk if Daniel was on my team. But he wasn’t. I was on team 7-2, and he was on team 7-4. Poo.
I figured that at least if Daniel wasn’t on my team, he would be in one of my UAs. But when I went to art in the morning, he wasn’t there. A few kids I knew from elementary school were there, but I didn’t want to talk to any of them. It didn’t feel right without Daniel.
I was so relieved when it came time for lunch. I spotted Daniel right away. I fought my way over to him through the pushing, yelling crowd. “Daniel!”
Daniel had been standing by a table, talking to someone. He turned around when he heard me yell his name. “Hey Alanna.”
I joined him at the table. “What UA do you have seventh period?” I asked, first thing.
“Music. What about you?”
“GRRRR!” I yelled it a little too loudly. Students from surrounding tables turned to stare at me. “Poo. I have FCS.”
“So do I!” a cheery voice peeped up from the other side of Daniel. It was only then that I realized that the person he’d been talking to was Madalaine. “I have FCS seventh period. Do you have Mrs. Haller?”
I pulled my schedule out of my pocket and consulted it. “Yep.”
“Me too!” Madalaine held up her hand for a high five, and I slapped it. “That’s awesome. I have FCS with you, and all of my core classes with Daniel.”
What?! Not fair! Why did Madalaine get to be on Daniel’s team? Why couldn’t I be the one who shared all of Daniel’s core classes? Madalaine got to see my best friend five periods a day, and I wasn’t with him for a single stinking class.
Daniel sat down, so Madalaine and I sat down as well, one on either side of him. I remembered what I had wanted to tell him in the morning, about the teacher with the storm cloud hair. I turned to him. “Hey, Danie—”
The words weren’t even fully out of my mouth before Daniel turned to Madalaine. “That was so funny, second period, when that kid knocked his pencil case down and it made that big crash everywhere.”
“Yeah!” Madalaine laughed. “And Mr. Brett jumped like a mile, and everyone was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what was that?’”
They got into a conversation about their classes, and I was out of the loop because, oh yeah, I wasn’t in any of their classes. None of the ones they had together, anyway.
I ate my lunch without saying much of anything. Then the bell rang, and Daniel and Madalaine had to go off to their literacy class together, and I had to go to my math class.
“I’ll see you in FCS,” Madalaine said to me. She paused. “Sorry, I’m bad with names. What’s your name again?”
“Alanna,” I told her.
“Alanna. Right. I’ll remember that! OK, well, I’ll see you in FCS, Alanna.”
Math was boring. So was English, which I had after math. Seventh period was FCS. I was a little late because I couldn’t find the room at first, but apparently so was half the class. When I finally found the room and went inside, I had to refrain from gasping.
It was unlike any other classroom I’d ever been in. It actually resembled a kitchen more so than a classroom. It was big and open, with all sorts of ovens and countertops, microwaves and toaster ovens, a refrigerator, and large tubs of what looked like fabric. Despite the bad mood I’d been carrying around all day since finding out that Daniel and I weren’t on the same team, a smile came to my face. I got the feeling that I was going to like this class.
“Alanna!” I looked toward the sound of my name and saw Madalaine waving to me from a table. The tables were interesting too—they looked more like kitchen tables than school desks. I walked over and sat next to Madalaine. “I imagine you three all know each other already,” Madalaine said, motioning to me and the two girls sitting across from us.
I knew one of the girls from elementary school. “Hi Shelly,” I said. She said hi back. I didn’t know the other girl.
“This is Amanda,” Shelly introduced me to the girl next to her. Amanda and I said hi to each other.
“How do you like junior high so far?” Shelly asked me.
I shrugged. “It’s okay.” Except for not having Daniel in any of my classes.
“It’s different from elementary school,” said Amanda. We all agreed.
Class started, and one of the first things the teacher said was that we were going to pick groups that we’d be in for the entire trimester. These would be our groups for anytime we cooked anything, since there weren’t enough cooking appliances for each student to use their own.
“You can have three or four people in a group,” Mrs. Haller said. “I’ll let you choose your own groups unless there’s any trouble. If you’re having a hard time finding a group, let me know.”
Madalaine looked around the table at Shelly, Amanda, and me. “Group?” she suggested. “The four of us?”
We all nodded. “It’s weird how we’re picking groups the first day. Like, before we really get to know anyone,” Amanda commented.
“Maybe that’s the point,” I said. “Maybe she doesn’t want people to have really good friends yet in the class, because then there’d be all these little cliques and people would get left out.”
“Good point,” said Amanda.
Mrs. Haller passed around a sheet of paper and asked one person from each group to write down the names of everyone in the group. Shelly wrote down the names for our group. Now we were a team.
The class wasn’t all that interesting, because it was just the first day. Mrs. Haller went over the rules of the class and told us what we’d be working on throughout the trimester. And then the period was over, and so was my first day of junior high.
Madalaine and I walked to the bus loop together. Well, actually, Shelly and Amanda walked to the bus loop with us, but Madalaine and I were the only ones of the four of us who were on the same bus. As soon as we boarded the bus, I looked around for Daniel. I didn’t see him yet.
“Looking for Daniel?” Madalaine asked me.
I nodded.
“Hmm… I don’t see him yet. Hey, so, I actually had a question for you about Daniel.”
“Yeah?”
For the first time since I’d met her that morning, Madalaine looked a little bit nervous. “Well… I mean, I was just wondering… you guys are friends, right? Like, neighbor friends?”
“Yeah. Best friends. And next-door neighbors. We’ve grown up together, me and him and my sister and his brother. We’re like one big family.” Finally, I got to tell her the part about Daniel that he had omitted earlier. “Daniel and I are one set of best friends, and Travis and Lacey are the other set of best friends. But we also hang out together, all four of us. It feels like we’re all siblings.”
“Oh.” Madalaine didn’t look nervous anymore. “So, you think of Daniel like he’s your brother?”
“Yeah. Pretty much.”
“That’s cool.”
If I’d been smart, I would have wondered why she was asking. I might have also been a little more careful with my words. After all, brothers and sisters don’t marry each other when they grow up. Even though it sort of felt like Daniel was my brother sometimes, I knew he wasn’t really. And I knew that once we graduated high school, once we finished college and got jobs together at the same place (wherever that might be, we didn’t have a clue what we wanted to be when we grew up), we’d get married. We’d get married and live in the mansion next door to Travis and Lacey and our kids would be best friends with their kids and we’d all live happily ever after. I knew all that, and I wasn’t thinking at the time that I needed to explain it.
But Madalaine didn’t know that.
