Her friends were all taller than she was, and they were all mostly in the gifted classes too. Her friends were even weirder than she was.
There was Ginger, who was almost six feet tall already and had spiky brown hair that she brushed each morning till it was fluff. Ginger wasn't just tall, but she was also a tomboy and fairly good at it; the boys on the basketball team were horrified of her. For someone in the gifted classes, Ginger wasn't all that smart; she'd once stuck a blue crayon up her nose on a dare.
David was about seven inches taller than Hallie, and his brown hair was more manageable than Ginger's. His mother made him sit to a breakfast of cold cereal while she brushed it neatly to the side each morning. David didn't complain about it, though. As a matter of fact, David didn't speak at all. Which made him the smartest person in the school (everyone said so, at least).
Lucky never wore dresses to school. She preferred skirts, but as her mom was afraid boys would look up the skirts, she had to wear them over her jeans. She had a tendency to die her hair different colors, and her mom would always put her hair in high pigtails using whatever colors Lucky's hair wasn't. The hair bands she used were bright and fluffy, nearly as big as Lucky's head. Lucky was the only one with a gambling problem.
Simon was the only other boy, and he was the one that stuck out the most. His hair was a flaming red, and he had the largest feet of anyone in their grade by far. Beyond that, he looked pretty average, which was the most attention-grabbing thing about him. Bright red hair, big feet, and besides that, completely ordinary. Sad, really. Simon didn't have a gambling problem. His problem was getting beaten up by girls and eating weird-tasting foods, like pineapple - oreo - liver-oil topping for his broccoli.
In discussing how they aren't weird, there's nothing really to discuss. Even Hallie had been a bit odd at times; she once agreed to take care of a homicidal parrot named Peaches.
From now on, things are going to be moving rather quickly, or let's hope, at least, because the sooner it's over, the better. You've already met the main characters. That means there will be others, and though they will have a part to play, they won't officially be one of the main characters until they do something spectacular, like roast sausages with their toes. They would have to eat the sausages afterwards, too.
The beginning of the downfall came on a Monday morning. Mondays, as we all know, are never good. This one was worse than never good, though, because this was the day that Jane called Hallie's mother.
Hallie could only hear one side of the conversation. This is what she heard:
"Hi, Jane . . . Yes, good morning . . . Oh, no. It's no trouble you called so early. We were already up . . . You're going out of town? Oh, that's great. Where- . . . Oh, certainly, we'll take care of Peaches . . . Yes, Hallie just loves him."
Hallie ate a spoonful and Apple Jacks and considered that last statement.
"All right. Till Friday after next . . . Yes, good bye, and have fun on your trip!" With that, Hallie's mother hung up and went back to slicing celery.
At school that day, Hallie stood in the doorway, contemplating the structure of the frame and whether the green latex paint would make it break more easily, when she was grabbed by her purple backpack and dragged down the hall.
"Ginger's beating the boys all by herself," Lucky began proudly, leading her through the hall to the gym, where the students met each morning before going to their assigned classrooms. "The odds are sixteen to one, or at least that's what I told people. I'm going to cash in!" With a delighted squeal she dropped Hallie on one of the small bleachers, where David was already sitting and looking bored with everything, and started screaming at Ginger to hurry up and win.
Ginger waved her off and stole the ball obligingly.
It was then that Simon came into the gym, tugging his Barney tin lunchbox as always and looking rather scared. Which was mostly the reason the girls hanging around the door jumped him, trying to sit on him or hit him. The group of girls that beat Simon up before the eight o'clock bell called themselves the First Shift. They didn't really know what it meant, but it sounded all right.
The First Shift was composed of Lily, Hester, Andra, Fauna, and Bell. There were a few things they didn't like. They'd even made a list of things they disliked. Those things were these:
1) Skool
2) Smart ppel
3) Barney
4) Stewpd ppel
5) Boys
6) Fanzy stuf (lunchbockses, fishh)
7) Simon
8) Fraydy cats
Simon reminded them of 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8. They were pretty sure he wasn't stupid (or stewpd, if you prefer), but they weren't sure who was, either.
So Simon started getting pounded, and within moments he was screaming like a girl for fear of his life.
Ginger called time out in the game and rushed to help him, and while she was gone, the boys kept shooting hoops anyway. It took Ginger four seconds to save Simon from certain death. One to walk over to him, one to tower over Lily, Hester, Andra, Fauna, and Bell. One for Lily, Hester, Andra, Fauna, and Bell to see her. And one for Lily, Hester, Andra, Fauna, and Bell to run. She offered Simon a hand. He took it, sniffling, and wiped his eyes and nose on his sleeve.
"You really ought to stand up to them sometime," she said conversationally.
He sniffled.
She took him across the gym to where the others were sitting and trying to make David talk (this had distracted them till they hadn't noticed when Simon had come in), and then turned back to the game.
It was then that the first bell rang, telling them all to get to class, and the boys declared victory. Ginger argued that she had called time, but they said they hadn't seen her do so. Lucky was extraordinarily upset when she had to give them their winnings; it emptied nearly half of her locker, which was stuffed with candy. But she gave it to the team captain, Brian Gumbel, anyway. Needless to say, though, she didn't say a word to Ginger and refused to forgive her.
Refused to forgive her, of course, until Brian Gumbel threw up all the candy in second period. Mr. Homely was listing countries found in southeast Asia, pointing to them on a map when Brian Gumbel sudden spewed chunks all over Burma. Everyone could clearly see the dissolved shapes of Tootsie Rolls and Starbursts.
Timothy Lake, one of the defense for Brian Gumbel's basketball team, showed more indignation than anyone else, even Mr. Homely at having his map ruined. "You ate all those?" he demanded. "Where's my candy? Did you eat that too?"
Brian Gumbel moaned and grabbed his stomach, trying to inspire enough pity in Timothy that he wouldn't have to answer the question.
"Never mind that," Mr. Homely said viciously. "If you'd eaten all your candy you probably would have thrown up all over Nepal. Somebody get- Hallie, you're closest to the door. Go get the janitor. Tell him one of my maps is in danger."
Hallie nodded, grabbed a hall pass, and left, searching the corridors until she reached the janitor's closet. When she reached it, she was about to knock when she realized the could hear voices. She hesitated. Hallie got along with grown-ups, sure, but the whole point about getting along with grown-ups was that you didn't overload on them. And so she stood there, not wanting to interrupt, because that meant talking to at least two of them, and then she'd have to go back to the smell of vomit that much sooner. But then the voices quieted. Knowing now that she couldn't take any more time, she knocked, and no one answered. When she jiggled the knob to try and go in herself, she found it locked.
Hallie backed away quickly. She'd heard about things like this. Their school was haunted; everyone said so. With that, she ran down the hall back to room 312, and panted to Mr. Homely that there wasn't anyone but ghosts in the janitor's closet.
Which didn't do him any good. It lost time in saving his map, if indeed it could be saved, and it didn't make him any happier. He snapped at Timothy to get the janitor and proceeded teaching the lesson until third period, when by then one of the janitors had come and sprinkled load of white powder on the map.
Hallie was on her way out when Ginger whispered in her ear from behind, "Ghosts, huh?"
She nodded. "I heard them talking."
Ginger veered off the others' path, going to the janitor's closet and dragging Hallie along.
"What are you doing?" Hallie demanded.
"I want to see a ghost," Ginger said patiently.
They ended up seeing a bit more than that.
They waited in the janitor's closet for twenty minutes, squirming between a mop in its big yellow bucket and a bunch of cans of green latex paint. Hallie knew that Ginger had picked the lock, but she didn't want to know. She was trying to study her geometry and getting shushed by Ginger every time she rustled the papers. She couldn't help it, though; Ginger took up more than half their hiding space, and the papers were hard to hold and read in a contortionist position. She felt as if she were in the most boring circus ever.
Finally, though, three things happened at once. A yellow light flashed somewhere; the cement around the sink spun round, and the janitor, Mr. Clarkson, jumped out and ran on long legs out the door. Hallie and Ginger gaped after him. He certainly hadn't been there before. They looked at the spot where he had appeared. The wall calmly spun round back into place, and the four-armed silver handled spun around this way and that, and then they heard a click.
Hallie and Ginger looked at each other, and then they bolted, Hallie hitting the damp mop head-first and not even knowing.
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed it. This is for Hannah, by the way, whom the main main character, Hallie, is based on. Please don't plagiarise it without asking first; I'd appreciate it.