BSC10 Logan Likes Mary Anne Read Free

were already pretty crowded. Kids showed up early (or at least on time) for the first day of school.
    My homeroom was 216, about as far from my locker as you could get. I entered it breathlessly, then slowed down. Suddenly I felt shy. Dawn was supposed to be in my homeroom, but she wasn't there yet. The room was full of kids I didn't know very well. And where was I supposed to sit? The teacher, Mr. Blake, was at his desk, but he looked busy. Had he
    planned on assigned seating? Could we sit wherever we wanted? I stood awkwardly by the door.
    "Mary Anne! Hi!" said someone behind me.
    Oh, thank goodness. It was Dawn.
    I spun around. "Hi! I just got here," I told her.
    Mr. Blake still wasn't paying attention to the kids gathering inliis room.
    "Let's sit in back," suggested Dawn.
    So we did. We watched Erica Blumberg and Shawna Riverson compare tans. We watched a new kid creep into the room and choose a seat in a corner without looking at anyone. We watched three boys whisper about Erica and Shawna.
    At last the teacher stood up. "Roll call," he announced, and the first day of school was truly underway.
    This was my morning schedule:
    First period - English Second period - math Third period - gym (yuck) Fourth period - social studies Fifth period - lunch
    My afternoon schedule wasn't so bad: science, study hall, and French dass. But I thought
    my morning schedule was sort of heavy, and by lunchtime I was starved.
    Kristy (who was in my social studies class) raced down to the cafeteria with me. We claimed the table we used to sit at last year with Dawn and some of our other friends. (Stacey and Claudia usually sat with their own group of kids.) In a moment Dawn showed up. She settled down and opened her bag lunch while Kristy and I went through the lunch line. Last year we'd brought our lunches, too. This year we'd decided brown bags looked babyish.
    When we returned to the table with our trays, we were surprised to find Stacey and Claudia there with their trays. Since when had they decided to eat with us? We were good friends, but last year they always thought they were so much more sophisticated than we were. They liked to talk about boys and movie stars and who was going out with whom. . . . Had Stacey and Claudia changed, or had Kristy and Dawn and I? I almost said something, but I decided not to. I knew we were all thinking that eating together was different and nice — and also that we weren't going to mention that it was happening.
    I opened my milk carton, put my napkin in my lap, and took a good long look at the Ston-eybrook Middle School hot lunch.
    "What is this?" I asked the others.
    "Noodles," replied Kristy.
    "No, if s poison," said Dawn, who, as usual, was eating a health-food lunch — a container of strawberries, a yogurt with granola mixed in, some dried apple slices, and something I couldn't identify.
    "I don't see any noodles here," I said. "Only glue."
    "According to the menu, that glue is mushroom and cream sauce," said Claudia.
    "Ew," I replied.
    "So," said Dawn, "how was everybody's first morning back at school?"
    "Fine, Mommy," answered Stacey.
    Dawn giggled.
    "I have third-period gym with Mrs. Rosen-auer," I said. "I hate field hockey, I hate Mrs. Rosenauer, and I hate smelling like gym class for the next five periods. ... Do I smell like gym class?" I leaned toward Kristy.
    She pulled back. "I'm not going to smell you. . . . Hey, I just figured something out. You know what the mushroom sauce tastes fike? It tastes like a dirty sock that's been left out in the rain and then hidden in a dark closet for three weeks."
    The rest of us couldn't decide whether to gag or giggle.
    Maybe this was why Claudia and Stacey didn't sit with us last year. I changed the subject. "I put the poster of Cam Geary up in my locker this morning/' I announced. "I'm going to leave him there all year."
    "I want to find a picture of Max Morrison," said Claudia. "Thaf s who I'd like in my locker."
    "The boy from 'Out of This