DAKOTA

“Oh, turn here.” I said
to Mike. He pulled into the Garelene Hights Middle
School entrance and parked in a guest parking spot. We both stared at the
gigantic three story red brick building.

“Wow. Sometimes I
forget how huge this school is.” Mike commented.

I shrugged and opened
the door. “The gyms and library are what make it look big. From the inside the
school looks pretty cramped.” I dabbed on another layer of gloss before I
jumped out and turned to my brother. “How do I look?” I asked, smoothing the
front of my shirt and fixing my beret.

Mike smiled. “Like a
princess.” I smiled back and did a small curtsy before reaching into my seat
and retrieving my handbag and back pack. Mike hopped up and circled around to
my side. “Do you want me to walk you in m’lady?” He asked. I laughed.

“No, you have a job
that you need to get to, remember? I’ll be fine.” Mike shrugged and gave me a
hug. “See you later, right?” I said.

“Yeah, I’m coming to
pick you up after school.” He answered, walking back to the driver’s side of
the car.

“K, bye.” I watched him
back out of the parking lot before I walked up to the school building. Small
groups of kids were clustered under giant oak trees or by the large brick
pillars that lined the front walkway. Other fancy cars were lined up against
the curb, dropping off more students.

I scanned the crowd of
kids for Megan. Suddenly, someone behind me screamed! I whirled around and saw
a tall and slender girl with glossy black hair running towards me. It was
Megan. I screamed too as she crashed into me and hugged me tight. “Oh my
goodness Dakota it’s so good to see you!” she said, rocking both of us back and
forth. I hugged her just as tight and laughed. Finally, we separated and began
talking all at once.

“How have you been?”

“Great! Was Paris
cool?”

“Totally! Did you go
surfing in Cali?”

“Of course! Did you go
to the Eiffel Tower?”

“Uh, yeah! It was one
of the first places that I went to!”

We both stopped at the
same time and began laughing hysterically. This is what happens when two best
friends get separated for a long period of time.

In the midst of our
laughing I sensed someone walking up behind me. I turned and saw Hannah Baker,
Teresa Hights, and Dorothy Garelene smiling, talking, and laughing as they
approached us. Hannah’s mom is the superintendent and  on the school board and Dorothy and Teresa’s
fathers were founders of the Garelene Hights Middle
School. These were the last three girls anyone would want to anger. Megan and I
hugged the three energetic girls and we all began talking about our summers.

“I went to Russia to visit my grandparents.” Teresa said proudly.
“They’re the ones who bought me this fabulous outfit along with a $200 purse.”
We all admired her fancy clothing. Her fitted blouse was light pink at the top
but faded into a hot pink at the bottom. Small sequins lined the bottom of the shirt
and sparkled in the sun light. Her jean A-line skirt stopped just above the
knees and sparkling diamonds-obviously fake-were scattered about her skirt,
causing her to glisten in the morning sun. She wore light pink converse shoes
which, luckily, didn’t have any sequins or diamonds.

Hannah and Dorothy both
went to Ecuador together with their family so they had the same stories of
swimming in exotic rivers and hiking in mountains (though I’m sure only half of
what they said was true).

“Oh by the way,” I
interrupted when they began talking about wrestling alligators, “Hannah, Megan
told me that you were having a party this Thursday after school. Is that true?”
Hannah suddenly squealed with delight.

“Oh, yeah I almost
forgot.” she said, hopping from one foot to another. “My daddy just bought out
that country club down the street and he said that I could have a party there
on Thursday. It’ll be the best. Bright lights, awesome music, and food made by the
top chefs in the city. It will all be hosted by yours truly.” She flipped her
blonde hair and gave us a bright smile.

Before I could comment,
a disgusting gas smell filled my nose. The others were covering their noses and
staring at something behind me. I turned around just in time to see the old
school bus rumble up to us. 

“Who uses the school
bus anymore?” Dorothy remarked. She and Teresa let out a giggle as the bus
stopped right in front of us.  All five
of us stepped far back before the bus could let out that weird puff that made
it sound like someone broke wind.

I watched the bus doors
slowly open creak open. When I glanced behind me Hannah, Teresa, and Dorothy
had gone all the way up to the school doors, far away from the big yellow gas
machine. Megan pulled me back as the first kids got off the bus.

“Anyway,” Megan said,
turning my attention back to my friend, “Guess what? My cousin taught me a
whole bunch of French phrases while I was gone like, Comment allez-vous ? That
means, how are you doing? And another one is, Je ‘m’appelle Megan. That means…” she
stopped talking and stared past me as I heard someone else climb off the bus.
“Who in the world is that?”