Going Wild

by Lisa McMann

  “Named after your dad? That’s weird. Did your parents want a boy or something?”

  Charlie blinked. “Um, yeah,” she said, a sinking feeling coming over her. “That’s exactly it.” It was going to be a very long day.

  CHAPTER 5

  A Very Long Day

  Charlie followed Kelly from building to building making small talk, a smile stuck on her face. She knew it was important to make a good impression with the students and teachers, but inside she was dying a little. She wasn’t sure how to act with these kids who all knew each other and had one thing in common: they didn’t know her.

  Her face hurt from smiling. And from repeating phrases like “Short for Charlotte. Named after my dad, not the spider. No, his name is Charles. Yes, it was a great book. No, I don’t mind that Charlotte dies. It’s integral to the story.” That last line tended to stop the kids’ questions about her name, probably because they didn’t know what integral meant.

  Kelly was nice to everyone—to their faces, at least. Between classes Kelly breezed through the hallways and across the courtyard, speaking cheerily to the students who seemed to go out of their way to say hi to her. But in between pleasantries Kelly kept a running commentary in a low voice to Charlie, explaining who people were and what she liked—or didn’t like—about them.

  “Hey, Kel,” said a plain-looking girl in a brown dress.

  “Oh, hi, Carmelita,” exclaimed Kelly. “Great job finding those stage props.”

  “Thanks! I got them at a garage sale,” said Carmelita, beaming.

  Kelly gave her the thumbs-up as she whisked away and muttered, “That’s probably where she got her clothes, too.”

  Charlie frowned. “You never know what you can find,” she said lightly.

  Kelly turned to her. “Really?” she asked.

  “Well, yeah,” said Charlie as she followed Kelly into another building and down a hallway to the next classroom. “I mean, I’m guessing that when your family has a garage sale, people think they’ve come across some pretty nice stuff.”

  Kelly knit her brow. “My family doesn’t do garage sales,” she said, like it was beneath her. “We donate.”

  “Oh,” Charlie said. “That’s . . . really interesting.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to keep discussing it. She was relieved when the teacher walked in so she could report to him and get her seat assignment.

  At lunch students waved at Kelly from the back table in the cafeteria and moved to make room for her and Charlie. Kelly introduced Charlie all around, and Charlie felt a little uneasy until she discovered that she didn’t have to talk so much within this group of chatty students. It gave her a chance to eat her lunch, and she was starving after her light breakfast. Once Kelly got up to leave, with Charlie following, the commentary returned.

  “Did you notice the girl who sat across from me?” Kelly said in a hushed voice on their way to drop off their lunch trays. “Her brother got arrested last year.” She whispered the last word. “Shoplifting.”

  Charlie cringed. She didn’t want to know that. But she also didn’t want to alienate Kelly by telling her to stop—she was stuck with her for the rest of the day. Charlie had known people like Kelly at her old school, and she’d steered clear. But she couldn’t do that now. Kelly was all she had.

  With a sinking feeling she started to realize that if Kelly gossiped about other people to her, a complete stranger, she would probably do the same about Charlie. That made Charlie want to be very careful about how she acted. Yet Kelly continued to be outwardly charming to almost everyone, and they all seemed to like her. Maybe they were all too scared to act any other way.

  “So who’s your best friend?” Charlie asked, thinking the best way to get through the rest of the day was to be the one asking the questions. “Was she there at lunch?”

  Kelly’s face clouded. “Oh, you know,” she said. “I think having a best friend is kind of babyish, really. Don’t you?” She waved to a group of boys walking down the hall the other way, and they all waved or lifted their heads or smiled in acknowledgment.

  “Hmm.” Charlie nodded thoughtfully, but totally disagreed. Having Amari as a best friend was not babyish at all. Maybe Kelly thought that way because she didn’t have one.

  On their way to sixth period, Kelly kept on with her cheery, outgoing personality, while never failing to follow up with casual, sometimes biting remarks about people once they were out of earshot. Charlie was growing tired of it. She almost stopped Kelly several times, but then remembered that if she did something to make Kelly mad, Kelly might just tell the whole school behind her back—and that was just not something Charlie needed to happen on her first day. Charlie began to dread the time between classes almost as much as she dreaded facing another period where she had no idea what was going on. The entire day was overwhelming.

  As Kelly and Charlie walked through the sunny courtyard to the auditorium for sixth-period theater class, a girl with black hair and an athletic build waved. “Three days!” she belted out to Kelly.

  “Can’t wait,” said Kelly, with a genuine smile this time. Charlie looked on curiously.

  “Hiya, Charlie,” the black-haired girl said. “I’m Maria Torres. I’m in your first and second periods, though I’m sure you wouldn’t remember me.” She flashed an infectious grin.

  Charlie felt herself smiling back. “At this point I can’t even remember what my first- and second-period classes are,” she said.

  “Math and science,” Maria said with a laugh, and continued walking. “See you around!” she called, and waved at the girls.

  Charlie waited cautiously to see what negative thing Kelly would say about Maria, but the girl was silent.

  “What’s happening in three days?” Charlie asked.

  “Soccer team tryouts,” said Kelly.

  “Oh, right!” said Charlie, growing excited. “You play soccer? Me too! I’m definitely going to be there.”

  “Yep,” said Kelly, who didn’t seem nearly as excited. She pushed through the door and narrowed her eyes at Charlie. “Are you any good?”

  Charlie was taken aback, and then she struggled over how to answer. If she said yes, would Kelly think she was bragging? If she said no . . . well, that would be silly. Charlie shrugged and tried to look mysterious.

  Kelly put on her plastic smile again as theater students surrounded her with questions and shoved fabric for costumes in her face. Soon she was swept away, leaving Charlie standing alone, trying like mad to figure out what Kelly’s deal was. But soon Mr. Anderson and his bright-yellow shirt beckoned her backstage and explained what the class was working on to prepare for the big show. He introduced her to Sara, the stage manager, and then assigned her to work with the student props manager, Carmelita, the girl Kelly had talked to in the hallway earlier. Carmelita kept Charlie on the move fetching things.

  At first Charlie didn’t know the difference between upstage and downstage, and she had stage right confused with stage left, so she wasn’t very useful. But Carmelita and the other crew members helped her out, and by the end of the class period she was feeling more confident. Despite her initial confusion, she really liked the unstructured atmosphere of theater class and the friendly students. The fact that there was no homework wasn’t bad either.

  Every now and then Charlie glanced at Kelly, who was fully in her element as one of the lead actors in this musical. She rehearsed scenes in the back of the auditorium with fellow actors who often asked her advice on how to deliver their lines. Charlie wondered what sort of mean things Kelly would say after class about them.

  When the bell rang, Charlie caught up with Kelly as usual. Walking to their last class, Kelly was preoccupied with texting, even though they weren’t supposed to be on their phones during school. They passed two teachers on their trek to the language arts building, but neither of them seemed to care. Maybe Kelly had special powers with teachers, too.

  “Is everything okay?” Charlie asked when Kelly stopped outside the classro
om door to finish texting.

  “Ugh, parents,” said Kelly, not looking up.

  “Yeah, tell me about it,” agreed Charlie. “They’re the worst.”

  “For sure.” Kelly put away her phone and stared at Charlie for a long moment, as if she was going to say something more. But then the warning bell rang, and the look on her face went away. The two dashed into the room and separated, Kelly to her desk and Charlie to get her final seat assignment of the day.

  The teacher gave her a seat by the window. As Charlie stared outside at the tops of the barren tree branches, her mind wandered. She was exhausted from the new faces and questions. All day long, students and teachers had wanted to know why Charlie’s family had moved in the middle of the semester, and what kind of jobs her parents had, and how she liked it here. And she’d answered them all, over and over again, to be polite. Now the day was almost over, and Charlie couldn’t wait to call Amari and tell her about it.

  A wave of homesickness swept through her. She wondered how long it would take her to walk back to Chicago.

  “Charlie?” the language arts teacher said, interrupting her thoughts. “Something interesting going on out there?”

  Charlie whipped her head around to face the front, her cheeks growing warm “Sorry,” she said. “Just . . . doing a, um, a math problem in my head that I was stuck on in, um, in math class. Earlier, I mean,” she mumbled. She glanced across the room at Kelly for support, but Kelly was whispering something to the boy in front of her. The boy glanced sidelong at Charlie.

  Charlie shifted uncomfortably. Was Kelly talking about her now? She forced herself to face the whiteboard, where the teacher was pointing to a sentence and talking about direct objects, but her mind swam.

  Finally the bell rang at the end of the day, and Charlie couldn’t be more ready for it. Flustered and not sure what to say to Kelly, she decided a hasty thank-you would do. She smiled weakly and ran out of the language arts building, reoriented herself to the lockers, and then followed the masses to the pick-up area in the circle drive. She scanned the line of cars, looking for her dad.

  When she finally found him, she walked rapidly toward their car and climbed inside.

  “Let’s go,” she said, closing the door.

  Her dad pulled away from the curb. “How was it?” he asked, his voice guarded. It was like he already knew.

  Charlie clipped her seat belt together, then leaned her head against the headrest, closed her stinging eyes, and sighed, exhausted. “I want to go back to Chicago.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Figuring Things Out

  After school Charlie collapsed on her bed and called Amari. She told her about all the things that were strange and different and unsettling about her new school. And how Kelly had talked about her behind her back already.

  Amari was sympathetic. “I’m so sorry you got stuck with that gossipy tour guide,” she said. “She sounds kinda sneaky. Maybe you can avoid her.”

  “I’d like to, but she’s in all my classes,” Charlie said glumly. “And she plays soccer, too.”

  “It figures,” said Amari. “Did anything good happen?”

  Charlie tried to pull herself out of her gloomy mood. “I guess theater class was all right.”

  “That’s great! Well, it’s a good start, at least. Right?”

  There was a tiny edge to Amari’s voice that puzzled Charlie at first, but then she realized Amari was probably getting tired of hearing her complain all the time. Charlie didn’t blame her. “Yeah, for sure,” she said sheepishly.

  Soon Amari had to go, and Charlie reluctantly turned to the piles of homework she had racked up throughout the day. Luckily all but one of her teachers had been lenient on due dates and said she could have extra time if she needed it. That was a relief, but with soccer coming up, Charlie wanted to get as much work out of the way as possible. Besides, what else was she going to do?

  Charlie’s mom came home from work and popped her head in right as Charlie was climbing into bed. “Hey, kiddo!” she said. She put her hand up to cover her yawn. “How was your first day? Everything go okay?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” said Charlie grumpily, ignoring the part of herself that did. She wanted to stay mad at her mom for making them move here.

  “Sounds pretty rough. Are you sure you don’t want to talk it through?” She entered the room and sat down on the edge of Charlie’s bed.

  “I already called Amari about everything, and I’m tired. Have you found my soccer stuff?”

  “Um . . . when do you need it again?”

  “Thursday.”

  “I’ll look for it,” promised Charlie’s mom. “Want me to tuck you in?”

  Charlie frowned. Her parents rarely did that anymore. “No, that’s okay.”

  “Aw, come on,” said Mom. “These hands were made for it.” She wiggled her fingers.

  “I thought they were made for emergency surgery,” said Charlie drily.

  “That too,” agreed Mom. She straightened the comforter and gave Charlie a questioning look.

  “Oh, all right,” Charlie said reluctantly. It made her feel like a little kid, but she kind of loved it, too.

  Dr. Wilde smiled. She reached over Charlie to tuck the blankets in on the far side, then secured them on the near side, so she was nice and snug. It made her feel warm and safe.

  When her mom turned out the bedside lamp and kissed Charlie on the forehead and said “I love you, little bunny” like she always used to, Charlie balked. “Mom,” she said. “Enough.”

  Charlie’s mom laughed softly and hugged her through the blankets. “Okay. Good night. Tomorrow will be better.”

  “Night, Mom.”

  Mom got up and left the bedroom, closing the door softly behind her. Charlie stared into the darkness after her.

  The next day Charlie navigated her own way to first period. She got there early and found Kelly talking to Maria about soccer tryouts. She joined them.

  “Charlotte plays soccer, too,” Kelly said to Maria, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yep,” said Charlie. She wasn’t sure why Kelly was calling her Charlotte all of a sudden, but it was just one more thing that bothered her about Kelly.

  “That’s fantastic!” said Maria. “We’ll have fun at tryouts.” It looked like she really meant it.

  “Thanks,” said Charlie with a cautious smile. Maria seemed like a cool person. And Kelly didn’t have anything bad to say about her. That had to mean something, though Charlie wasn’t really sure what.

  Charlie made it through the morning on her own, though sometimes she naturally fell in step with Kelly since they were always going in the same direction. She joined Kelly for lunch again and sat quietly like she’d done the previous day, content to observe and try to find people who might be better friends for her. But the others at the table all seemed to have their own best friends already, which wasn’t surprising. Several of them politely asked Charlie a question or two, but then went back to conversations with their friends about horse shows or various clubs they belonged to, which Charlie wasn’t really into.

  Kelly was superpopular, and she reveled in attention, but she didn’t actually seem to have any close friends. Charlie was sure she was not going be one either. Halfway through lunch, she began to scout out the rest of the cafeteria to see where she might sit in the future, because she really didn’t see herself fitting in with these students. Just as she shoved the last of her food into her mouth, she spied Maria a few tables away, sitting with a boy who was constantly messing around on his phone while they talked a little now and then. And there were open seats at their table. Charlie smiled to herself. She’d look for Maria tomorrow.

  On Wednesday Charlie stopped shadowing Kelly and went to her classes on her own. She strode more confidently through the buildings and across the courtyard, saying hi to a few familiar-looking people now and then. At lunch she stopped short of Kelly’s table and went to the one where Maria was sitting across from the boy.r />
  “Hi, Maria,” said Charlie, eyeing the open chair next to her.

  “Hey, Charlie,” said Maria. “You want to sit?”

  “Sure,” Charlie replied, relieved. “That would be great.” She set down her tray, glanced at the boy, who was furiously typing on his phone, and sat in the chair next to Maria.

  Maria wore her hair in a ponytail. The corners of her mouth turned up naturally, which made her look like a very pleasant person even when she wasn’t smiling. But she was smiling now. “That’s Mac Barnes,” she said, pointing to the kid across from her.

  The boy, who had braces and an impeccably perfect squared-off Afro, leaned forward on one elbow and looked up. “Hey. How’s it going so far?”

  “Pretty good,” said Charlie. “You’re in my first class too, aren’t you? You sit near me.”

  “Yep,” he said. “One row over.” He went back to his phone.

  Maria butted in. “Are you excited for tryouts tomorrow?”

  Charlie perked up. “Yeah! But where do we go? My mom got an email about it when I signed up, but I forgot to ask her about that.”

  “Behind the school,” Mac said, still typing. “The field inside the track. The goalposts aren’t up yet, but they should be soon.”

  “Do you play too?” Charlie asked him, surprised. “I thought it was a girl’s team.”

  “No,” said Mac, glancing at her. “I just come to watch Maria once in a while.”

  “That’s really cool,” Charlie said with a grin, and then she looked slyly at Maria and back at Mac. “Are you two . . .”

  “No,” they both replied, a little hastily.

  “We’re just friends,” Maria told Charlie. “We’ve been friends since we were really little.” She frowned at Mac. “Anyway, for soccer we’ll all go to the locker rooms to change first—just like for PE class.”

  “Cool. I know where that is.”

  “And be prepared—Coach Candy is tough, and she works us really hard. Our team was undefeated in the fall, so we want to keep up the perfect record.”