Crystal (Orphans 2)

"So how did you get to school this morning?" Helga asked, ignoring my sarcasm. "You didn't

come with Bernie, did you?"

"Karl took me on the way to work. He's going

to take me every morning, but go home on the bus," I

explained.

"Still calling him Karl, I see," Helga said,

shifting her eyes to her friends. She smiled wryly, her

lips twisting again.

"Well, I wasn't as lucky as the rest of you. I wasn't born into a family," I said. I saw Alicia's

eyebrows lift. Mona's eyes filled with confusion. "I told you she was very intelligent," Helga said

quickly.

Alicia and Mona nodded, but Rachael

continued just to stare down at me.

"It doesn't take a lot of intelligence to know not

to say things that will embarrass someone who is new

and a stranger to the school," I said. "That usually

shows a lack of in" I turned and walked toward my

homeroom just as the bell rang.

Bernie Felder was in my homeroom. He nodded

when he saw me, his eyes softening as if they saw my

distress at being new and unsure of myself, but he

didn't sit near me. He took the last seat in the first

row, as if that seat had been waiting for him all summer. Our homeroom teacher didn't seem to care where

anyone sat, so I sat up front and opened my briefcase. Homeroom was extended on the first day so all

the school's rules could be explained. Most of the students paid little attention. Even our homeroom teacher

seemed bored with it and looked relieved when the

bell for passing to the first class rang.

I did make some friends during the course of

the school day: a pair of redheaded twins named Rea and Zoe, who told me their parents deliberately had looked for names with the same number of letters, a heavy black girl named Haley Thomas, and a tall, very thin boy named Randal Wolfe who was the school's chess champion. There was another girl named Ashley who remained in the background, too shy to say anything The twins wore matching dresses and had their hair styled in a similar fashion. They told me they enjoyed playing tricks on people and even their teachers by pretending to be each other

from time to time.