TRACES SPRING 2017 | Page 50

The Underdog's New Family Kendra was the quiet girl. She hardly spoke, and when she did she never had anything good to say. She kept her head down in the hallways with her tangled brown hair swaying in front of her eyes as she walked. She didn’t have to look around to notice the glares, the snickering, and the laughing. She could practically feel it piercing into her, making her headache far worse than lack of sleep could ever cause. She had heard it all. ‘Ugly, nasty, dirty,’ she tuned it all out to the point where she was almost impressed when somebody came up with an original name to call her. Mondays were the worst for Kedra. Walking into a classroom full of pretty girls who lovedt o gossip and guys who couldn’t hold their tongues was like being the new kid every day, even though she had been a student there for a year already. She laid her head down, only to feel a strong tap on the shoulder, followed by a command to take a stroll around the room from the stern man in charge of the class. She shook her head violently, almost as if to punish herself for her rude behavior although she could hardly control it. Sounds of whispering and the smacking of paper balls smacking against her chair weren’t enough to keep her alert, and her eyes slowly drifted shut, and her head met her desk, this time with no tap from the teacher. She would miss another lesson. She would fail again. As the day drew on and her classmates grew worse, she finally decided that it couldn’t get any worse. While munching on a cheese sandwich and a sipping a half full bottle of soda still covered in food scraps, she almost didn’t notice a tall girl standing in front of her. Covered in glittery makeup and carrying a fancy purse, Kendra expected the worst. ‘No good could ever come out of a girl like that,’ she thought, rolling her eyes in instinct. The girl was taken back by the gesture and raised an eyebrow. Kendra buried her face in her hands, shaking her head ‘no’ in disbelief that she had offended the only popular girl who had ever made an effort to approach her. “No, it’s okay,” the girl chuckled, “I was just going to ask if you wanted to come eat your lunch around the back of the building. It’s where me and my friends like to hang out!” Kendra rose to her feet, and skeptically trailed behind the girl. -read more here!