{"id":2317,"date":"2019-09-09T15:13:36","date_gmt":"2019-09-09T19:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2022-08-10T13:54:41","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T17:54:41","slug":"odd-girl-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/odd-girl-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Odd Girl Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Odd Girl Out <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Melody Carlson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoey s school year is beginning…without her new BFF. Louisa is out with a bad case of the flu, and that leaves Zoey to fend for herself in the first days of middle school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She thinks maybe it won t be so bad when she strikes up a conversation with another new girl, Taylor. But as she tags along on Taylor s quest to become one of the A-crowd, she starts to wonder how much of herself she can safely change and still be…well, herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worse, new friends don t get rid of old enemies. And somehow, despite trying so hard to fit in, Zoey finds herself exactly where she didn t<\/em> want to be all alone in her new school. The odd girl out.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Chapter 1<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

I feel like hurling as I pick up my new backpack. And it\u2019s\nnot because Gramps made me eat oatmeal for breakfast. It\u2019s because my stomach\nis tied in a million knots. How can it be that Louisa is going to miss the\nfirst day of school? How can I be expected to walk into Cedarville Middle School\nalone?<\/em> It\u2019s just wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre you okay?\u201d Grams asks me with\nconcern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI, uh, I don\u2019t know.\u201d My feet are\nnailed to the floor as I stand by the front door, one hand on the knob. \u201cMy,\nuh, my stomach\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grams comes over to feel my\nforehead. \u201cYou don\u2019t feel feverish. But you have been around the Cardwell kids,\nand they\u2019re all down with flu. Do you feel sick?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cKinda.\u201d I touch my midsection and\nfrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll go get the thermometer to\ncheck\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNever mind.\u201d I open the door. \u201cI\u2019m\nokay, Grams. I just wish<\/em> I were sick.\nI don\u2019t want to go to school\u2026not without Louisa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh, Zoey, don\u2019t worry. You\u2019re\ngoing to do great in school. And Louisa will be well soon. You\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople aren\u2019t supposed to get sick\nin the summertime.\u201d I frown at the sunny morning light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMrs. Cardwell says it\u2019s a summer strain\nof flu\u2014the twins picked up the bug from a birthday party last week.\u201d Grams\nwalks me out to the front porch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, and then they generously\ngave it to Louisa.\u201d I sigh dramatically. \u201cI wish they\u2019d given it to me too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019m glad you\u2019re not sick.\u201d\nGrams fiddles with the loose screen-door hinge, removing a small screwdriver\nfrom her overalls pocket to tighten it. \u201cYou shouldn\u2019t miss your first day of\nschool, Zoey. It\u2019s too important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Important\nto who?<\/em> But instead of questioning this, I force a smile and tell Grams\ngood-bye. Then, feeling like the condemned, I head down the porch steps\u2014clump-clump-clump.\nI pause to look across the street and up at Louisa\u2019s window in the hopes that\nshe\u2019ll be sitting there, that she\u2019ll wave and wish me good luck. Or better yet,\nshe\u2019ll burst out the front door, fully dressed in the outfit we agreed upon\nlast week. That she\u2019ll be all well and ready to go to school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Louisa\u2019s blinds are closed, and\nthe cheery yellow house looks still and quiet. Feeling lonelier than ever, I\nplod down the street toward my new school. Too bad it\u2019s not farther away, to\nallow me more time to get my head on straight. Six blocks will go too fast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting my first year in a new\ntown and a new middle school is bad enough, but\ngoing there alone?<\/em> This feels just plain pathetic. And even though I got to\nknow some kids at camp last week, I don\u2019t know them very well. And it won\u2019t\nmake up for my missing BFF. I can hardly believe that just last Friday, before\nLouisa got sick, we went to sixth grade orientation together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that we went to her house to\nplan what we\u2019d wear for our first day. It wasn\u2019t that we wanted to be twinnies,\nwhich is ridiculous because we look nothing alike. Louisa is short, with red\ncurly hair, green eyes, and freckles. She reminds me of the Lucky Charms\nleprechaun\u2014but prettier. And I\u2019m tall and lanky, with brown eyes and long brown\nhair that\u2019s too thick and too wavy. Anyway, no one would confuse us for twins. Just\nBFFs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going with Louisa to middle school orientation\ntook all my jitters away. We were so happy to get our schedules and discover\nwe\u2019d have homeroom together. And it was cool to tour the school. We went to all\nour classrooms and found the locker assigned to us. Having Louisa for my locker\npartner was the icing on the cake. But now she\u2019s not here, and I\u2019m not even\nsure if I can remember my locker combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I slip my hand into my back pocket\nto make sure the piece of paper with the secret numbers is still there and then\ncontinue\u2026one slow step after the next. I went ahead and wore our agreed upon\nfirst-day outfit. It\u2019s nothing special, really. It was my suggestion to wear our\nfavorite jeans, a plain white T-shirt under a plaid shirt, and high-top tennis\nshoes. Louisa\u2019s Converse are a little worn, but I\u2019ve kept my blue high-tops\nalmost like new. And I suppose I feel okay about what I\u2019m wearing. Although I\u2019d\nfeel a million times better if Louisa were with me, wearing her similar outfit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I get closer to school, spotting\nlittle groups of kids here and there\u2014some looking flashier than I expected\u2014I\nwonder if I should\u2019ve tried harder. Should I have worn something a bit more\nstylish, like Louisa had suggested for our second day of school? She probably\nhas a little more style than me. Not that either of us are into fads. That\u2019s a\nrelief. But, at the same time, I don\u2019t want to look like the new girl with\nabsolutely no fashion sense. Not by myself anyway. It would be different if\nLouisa was by my side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thinking about fashion reminds me\nof Louisa\u2019s ex-BFF, Kayla Sharpe. She will probably be dressed to the\nnines\u2014what does that really mean? And Kayla will most certainly be wearing\nmakeup. She even wore makeup to camp, which IMO was totally dumb. I haven\u2019t\nactually seen Kayla since camp, but she did write me an \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d note for\nthe way she kidnapped me and locked me into that old pump-house. Although I\nhave forgiven her, I don\u2019t completely trust her, and I\u2019m pretty sure someone\nmade her write that note because it sounded a little too <\/em>sorry.<\/em> But I could be\nwrong. Anyway, I hope I\u2019m wrong. And I hope I don\u2019t cross paths with her today.\nNot without Louisa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the school comes into sight, I\nsilently tell myself I can do this. It can\u2019t be that hard. It\u2019s just a small-town\nschool. What\u2019s the big deal? I remember what our youth pastor, Brent Zimmerman,\nsaid in youth group yesterday\u2014about how God gives us strength when we feel\nweak. So, trying to calm myself, I decide to pray about this. I tell God that\nI\u2019m feeling weak and scared and I ask for His help. And by the time I walk up\nto the entrance of Cedarville\n Middle School, I feel a\ntiny bit better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until I see Kayla and Julie\nstanding at the top of the steps. They stare down at me like predators. Like a\npair of she-wolves. Or maybe it\u2019s my imagination. Remembering the words \u201clove\nyour enemies,\u201d I force a stiff smile. As I go past them, I even mutter a weak \u201cHello.\u201d\nBut they say nothing. And that is not reassuring. Louisa Cardwell, I need you right now!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n