Dare to Be Different (2 page)

Kelly Garrett was the leader of the group. The girls almost always looked to her to get the final word on anything from plans they might make, to boys they liked, to clothes they wore.

She was a natural leader, which was great most of the time. Her strong opinions sometimes caused conflict, though. Sam Lowell, the comedienne of the group, searched for ways to entertain them and make them laugh. She was willing to try anything once, and her friends enjoyed testing her on that. Macy Monroe was the sweet one. She was soft-spoken and slow to speak. She hated to offend anyone and got her feelings hurt easily. Then there was Lindsay. She was in the middle, the glue. She was strong but kind and was known to be a peacemaker.

Amid complete chaos—students talking, locker doors slamming shut, high fives, and whistles—the first day of school began. There was an assembly for the eighth graders, so the four girls headed toward the gymnasium together rather than finding their separate ways to their first classes.

The girls filed into the bleachers together, tucking their belongings carefully beneath their feet so nothing would fall through to the floor below. The room was raucously loud as 150 eighth graders excitedly shared stories of their summers and reunited with friends.

The speakers squealed as the principal turned on his microphone and tried to get everyone’s attention. “Welcome back to Central Middle School. Let’s all stand together to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.”

Conversations slowly trailed off to a dull roar as teachers attempted to create some order in each row. The eighth graders shuffled to their feet and placed their right hands over their hearts to recite the pledge. The principal began: “I pledge allegiance to the flag.…”

Lindsay joined in, but her mind wandered as she looked down the row at each of her best friends. She thought back over the great summer they had just enjoyed. Together, they had spent many days languishing in the hot sun by Kelly’s pool. She remembered the day when Sam got a bad sunburn from lying on the tanning raft for hours and not listening to the girls when they suggested that she reapply her sunscreen. She had wanted a good tan, and she paid the price. Kelly had the bright idea of using olive oil and lemon juice to take away the sting—she thought she’d heard that somewhere—but all it did was make Sam smell bad for days, along with the
suffering that her burns caused.

They had gone shopping at the mall whenever Sam’s mom would pile them into her SUV and drop them off for a few hours so they could check out the latest fashions and watch for new students—boys in particular. Their favorite mall activity was to take a huge order of cheese fries and four Diet Cokes to a table at the edge of the food court so they could watch the people walk by.

They had a blast burying each other in the sand at the beach whenever Macy’s dad took a break from job hunting to spend the day lying in the sun. One time they even made a huge castle with a moat. The castle had steps they could climb, and the moat actually held water. It took them almost the entire day, but the pictures they took made it all worthwhile.

They had also shared a weeklong trip to Lindsay’s Bible camp. It was a spiritual experience for Lindsay, who used the time to deepen her relationship with God. She enjoyed being able to bring her friends into that part of her life—even if it was just for a week. Macy, more than the others, showed some interest and said that she’d
like to attend youth group with Lindsay when it started up again in the fall. All four girls enjoyed the canoe trips—even the one when the boat capsized and they got drenched. They swam in the lake and played beach volleyball. The week they spent at camp was a good end to what they considered a perfect summer.

Although there was a certain finality to their fun and freedom with the arrival of the school year, it offered excitement, too, as they took this next step toward growing up together. What would it be like in the future? In just one year they would start high school together. After several years, they would head off to the same college and room together, as the plan had always been. At some point, they would each find someone to settle down with and get married. They had already figured out who would be the maid of honor for whose wedding. That way they each got to do it once. And they would be bridesmaids for each other. Then they would have children. Hopefully they would have them at around the same time so their children could grow up together, too. Beautiful plans built on beautiful friendships … what more could a girl ask for?
“… One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” The Pledge of Allegiance ended, and all the students sat down to hear about the exciting new school year.

Chapter 2

Second period—the dreaded class two periods before lunch—seemed to drag on forever with lunch still two hours away and the day stretching on so long ahead of it. But not for Lindsay, Kelly, Macy, and Sam; they loved second period this year. Not only was it their favorite class—home economics—but it was also the only class that they all had together. It was like a little break in the day.

On the first day of school, Mrs. Portney, the much-loved home ec teacher, allowed them to break into groups of four. It would be in those groups that the class would work on cooking, sewing, and other craft projects. Of course, the Lindsay-Kelly-Macy-Sam group was a no brainer,
and the girls quickly arranged their seating so they could be together.

The first project for the class was to make a stuffed pillow—but not just any stuffed pillow. This one had to be special, unique, and creative. They were allowed to use felt, stuffing, and any other craft materials they wanted. Things like pipe cleaners, movable eyes, glitter, rhinestones, fabric markers, and stencils were all available to the class. Or they could bring things from home to contribute to their project. They had ten minutes to put their heads together to decide what to make.

“What about a teddy bear pillow?” Lindsay suggested.

“No, someone makes that every year,” Kelly said, shaking her head. “We want to do something really interesting.”

“Hmm. How about a rainbow pillow?” Lindsay tried again.

“Nah, too boring,” Sam replied.

“Oh! We could make a bicycle pillow with real wheels that spin.” Macy suggested.

The girls laughed. “Who would want to lay on that?”

“We could do a big heart that says ‘Macy loves Tyler’ and put an arrow through it,” Kelly teased.

“Yeah, right.” Macy laughed.

“I know!” Sam said, getting excited. “Why don’t we do a Mrs. Portney pillow?”

The other girls just looked at her for a minute, not quite sure if she was serious or if she had lost her mind—or both.

“Well, we could make it really fluffy, just like Mrs. Portney. We’ll put an apron on the pillow, just like the one Mrs. Portney wears. We’ll give the pillow a cute pair of round glasses made out of felt and use a shiny fabric as the glass part.”

“Yeah,” Kelly jumped in, liking the idea and adding some suggestions. “We can put scissors, pencils, and a tape measure hanging out of her apron pocket.”

“We’ll put her in a navy blue dress just like the one that Mrs. Portney wears all the time,” Macy added.

“And then,” Lindsay jumped on board, “we’ll make it a gift to Mrs. Portney when we’re done.”

All four girls agreed that it was a winning idea, and they just couldn’t wait to get started. They looked around the room and saw that the other
groups were struggling over ideas and having a difficult time getting started.

“Class, when you have your ideas, please just write them down on a slip of paper, along with the names of the students who are in your group, and turn it in to me before class is over today.”

“Uh, Mrs. Portney?” Sam hesitantly raised her hand.

“Yes, what is it, Samantha?” Mrs. Portney asked. She was the only teacher who didn’t annoy Sam when she called her by her full name.

“Well, we were just wondering.…” Sam spoke for the group. “Can we keep our pillow idea a secret until we’re done? It’s kind of a surprise.”

“Oh?” Mrs. Portney grinned at the possibilities and shifted her glasses down to peer at the four girls over the top of them. “I suppose that would be all right, even though it’s highly unusual. But then again, what else should I expect from you four? As long as you understand that if you don’t tell me what you’re doing, I can’t help guide you in the process. But even without my help, you’re still responsible for every part of the project in order to get a full grade.”

“No problem, Mrs. Portney. Thanks!”

The bell rang, and it was time to head off to their separate classes. Kelly had English, Macy had math, Lindsay went to social studies, and Sam headed off to PE.

“Ugh! What happened to summer?” Kelly lamented to her friends as they slumped toward the cafeteria for lunch on Wednesday during the second week of school.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Lindsay replied. “I thought they had to give you a few weeks before they started piling on the homework, but I think I already have two hours of homework for tonight, and the day is only half over.”

“So much for eighth grade being so great,” Sam laughingly agreed as she collapsed in her seat with her lunch tray.

“What’s with you?” Lindsay asked Macy when she noticed that Macy had hardly said a word since they met up by their lockers a few minutes before.

“Oh, nothing really,” Macy moped. Her friends just looked at her, waiting, not about to let her off the hook that easily. “Well, it’s just that
my math class is much harder this year, and I barely made it through last year’s class. My mom has been talking about a tutor, and I don’t want to have to do that.” She slumped her shoulders and dropped her head onto her arms after pushing away her lunch tray.

“Can we help?” Lindsay offered. “We could help you study. I have the same class as you, and Kelly is ahead of both of us.”

“Yeah,” Kelly jumped in. “If all of us help, you should be able to pull out of this, no problem.”

“I don’t know.” Macy wasn’t convinced. “I already failed my first quiz. I just don’t have a math brain, I guess. I think I’m prepared, but then the test starts, and I can’t remember anything about the formulas and the order of the steps. You can help me study, but I think my memory is the problem … or something like that.” Macy looked defeated.

Sam jumped up with an idea. “I know!” she shouted.

Lindsay and Kelly were startled by her outburst and almost knocked over their drinks.

“What’s gotten into you, silly?” Kelly asked, laughing.

“Well,” Sam continued, “Saturday is only
three days away. Let’s have a sleepover at my house. We’ll celebrate making it through the second week of school by eating some junk food, watching some movies, and staying up late. What do you say?”

“Oh, count me in!” Kelly jumped at the chance.

“Me, too!” Macy quickly added.

“Well, you guys know my mom won’t let me stay out on a Saturday because of church on Sunday, so you’ll have to count me out,” Lindsay replied.

“Oh no!” Sam shook her head. She held up a finger so she could finish chewing her bite of food, swallowed, grabbed a quick drink of milk to wash it down, and said, “No way are we leaving you out. We’ll do it Friday.” To a chorus of agreement from the other girls, Lindsay agreed to the plans, and the girls were relieved to have something fun to look forward to.

“Now let’s make a list,” Macy, ever the planner, suggested, excited to be able to move on from the depressing talk of her math class. “What should we do, and what should we bring?”

“Definitely a movie,” Kelly suggested.

“Okay. And we can’t do a movie without a pizza.” Macy wrote M
ovie
and P
izza
on the list.

“What about a game?” Lindsay asked.

“Oh, girls, I have a game for us, but it’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait until Friday night to find out what it is,” Sam teased.

“Sounds mysterious.” Macy wrote down: S
am’s
S
ecret
G
ame
. And all of the girls giggled. They made their plans for Friday night and agreed that it would be a nice diversion to what was shaping up to be a tough year.