When she got to school, Annie decided that she was not going to play her private game of comparing her memory to reality. Depressingly, she had always gotten the details mostly correct, never with full marks. Thus, Annie refused to consider what her school, Fernham High, looked like.
That was how she came to stand at the door of the classroom, looking in at the unfamiliar setting, and wondering where her seat was.
"Excuse me, are you looking for someone?" A stocky boy seated near the door asked.
As Annie thought of a reply, the brown-haired girl at the desk next to the boy spoke, "Aren't you Annie Billings from 9-C?"
Annie glanced up at the Class 9-B label above the door. Perhaps she should have given more thought about her school's layout. "Yeah. Looks like what I'm looking for isn't here," she excused herself and hurried away.
Well, it was not exactly a lie - she did not find her class there.
Class 9-C next door was much more recognizable, to her relief. The cupboard and the coat hangars at the back of the class, the whiteboard and the educational charts at the front, the windows, the lights, the desks and the chairs, the teacher's table - they were all familiar to her.
Annie hung her hat and coat at the back. She sat on her seat, hung her handbag on the chair's back and dropped her schoolbag on the floor. Then she rubbed her hands over the smooth lacquered surface of her desk.
"Hey, hello," she heard a boy beside her, "Are you new here?"
Annie looked up to see a brown-haired boy. Billy Townsend. Popular with all the girls. Spent every free moment, every excuse to chat with them.
Billy started as he recognized her. "Ah, sorry, Annie. Er... welcome back." He slipped away to join a group of girls.
'All the girls' except Annie, it appeared.
She had not been recognized immediately. Annie guessed that she probably appeared different that day too. Second Sis might have been too upset to mention it for it was unlikely that she was already sick of her new game of point-out-Annie's-oddities. Around the class, the other students were starting to murmur among themselves while staring in her direction. Annie definitely got her fashion wrong.
"Hey, Annie!" A tall redhead appeared next to her with a bright smile on her face. It was Connie Baker. "You're back! How are you feeling?"
"Okay," Annie replied. At least someone was happy to see her.
"Glad you're back! We're going to have so much fun again!" The other girl returned to her seat at the front of the class.
Class started shortly after that. It was then that Annie realized the full consequence of missing school for a long time. History in the first period had a pile of catch-up homework for her. A big pile.
Such a heavy burden for a little child to bear.
Physical education after that was a relief since there should not be any homework. But once the physical lessons began, Annie discovered that she had absolutely no stamina. And no physical strength. And horrible dexterity. It was a wonder that she was not also fat and round.
Groan... she needed to get into shape.
After the gym class was dismissed, Annie brooded in the communal shower, hoping that the warm water running down her hair would also wash her worries away. When she was almost done, she noticed that the other girls were watching her. A few were openly staring while many glanced covertly. They had also acted similarly earlier when she was changing into her gym outfit though she had paid no attention to them then.
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