The Hybrid Read Free Page B

hasn’t called since she’s been here. I am all that
Gertrude needs.
The minute Gertrude opened the passenger door to
exit the car, her grandmother turned the ignition back on.
Quickly, Gertrude grabbed her backpack from the floor in
front of the seat, fearing Maggie was going to drive off
without any warning. But, as Gertrude began shutting the
car door, she paused.
“I love you, Grandma,” she said as she leaned through
the small opening.
“I love you, too,” Maggie replied, smiling as she turned
to look at Gertrude. For a moment, Gertrude could have
sworn she saw the faint glimmer of a tear forming just in
the corner of Maggie’s right eye.
    Gertrude closed the door gently, and stood back on the
sidewalk. She watched her grandmother drive a bit further
down
the
road
before
she
turned,
disappearing
around a corner. Gertrude then casually turned around,
facing her second day at school.

2
Woodcrest Hills High
    The campus of Woodcrest Hills High School was small,
with only four structures: a three storied main building⎯
the length of a football field⎯ that housed every class, a
gym, a library, and the main office. There were only about
four hundred students, no more than a hundred students
per grade, attending Woodcrest Hills High School. It was
much smaller than the nearly four thousand students that
Gertrude had gone to school with back in San Diego. But
she still had no idea how to navigate the place, even
though it might have looked simple to anyone else.
    Quickly, she removed her hand-drawn map that the
female receptionist in the office had given her the previous day before school began, and looked for her first period class⎯ History . It was the first time in Gertrude’s life
that she was happy to have arrived at school early. No one
would be able to see how truly lost she was.
    When she finally found her class on the second floor of
the main building, Gertrude quickly entered the room
and sat down in the same brown desk she had chosen the
day before, and waited for the bell to ring. Gertrude hated
waiting, but at least she wasn’t lost, and anything was
better than that. Other students slowly made their way
into the room, chatting and laughing, as she watched,
feeling slightly out of place with no one to talk to.
    The class went by in a rush. The teacher, Mr. Kushner
⎯ Gertrude fumbled through her mind trying to remember his name⎯ talked about politics and the stock market. He asked her a question she pretended not to know
the answer to and then ignored Gertrude for the rest of
the period. She returned the favor, copying down notes
written on the whiteboard, remaining silent in her seat all
while he turned to call on the raised hands of other students.
    Gertrude instantly gathered that Mr. Kushner was the
kind of teacher who had favorites, the ones he always
called on because they knew the answers to every question. She was glad she had just narrowly missed becoming
one of those students. Gertrude didn’t like being a suck
up ⎯ a teacher’s pet⎯ and she definitely never liked being called on when she hadn’t raised her hand. It made
her feel as though she was put on the spot with every single person staring at her like a caged animal at the zoo.
    Second period was English. Again, Gertrude managed
to arrive pretty early to class, getting her first choice on
where to sit. She was the only other person in the room
besides the teacher. When the passing bell finally rang
and the rest of the students piled into the classroom, Gertrude watched them in silence as they found their seats
quickly. This class also happened to be the first class
where someone besides a teacher decided talked to her.
    “Hi, my name is Bethany,” said a lanky, blue eyed,
blonde-haired girl as she sat in the seat to Gertrude’s left.
To her surprise, she had actually recognized the girl.
    Bethany was the girl who had sat in front of Gertrude
the day before, completely ignoring her. But for some