Savannah Woods was shell-shocked as she stepped off the bus. She'd seen the front of Lake Point High School hundreds of times, but she hadn't seen it from this vantage point ever. All of Sarah's confidence and self-esteem was gone, having somehow been replaced by a girl who didn't look like her who was two years younger and...
Savannah got inside and tried to find a quiet corner to look through her things and figure out where her locker was and her schedule for the day. She rummaged through the book bag and finally came upon a single piece of paper, taped to the front of one of her binders, listing her schedule, classrooms, and teachers.
Savannah Woods
Period 1: Algebra
Period 2: Freshman English
Period 3: Biology
Period 4: World History
L U N C H
Period 5: Health
Period 6: Spanish
Written in handwriting that still looked like hers below Period 6 was the words "Cheer Practice". Well, some consolation. She put away the binder and headed off to the locker, which was rather inconveniently located on the other side of campus. She got there to find that the locker was neat but spartan; at least it had a couple books that looked like they might be useful in math class. She stuffed them in her bag and trudged off to class, feeling lonely for the first time in years.
Savannah sat in the back row and was among the last people in the room at the start of math class. The math teacher, a young man named Mr. Hall whom she didn't recognize. Mr. Hall started the class by taking roll without a class roster in hand; Savannah had to remind herself that her last name didn't start with M when "Mallory" was followed by "Michaels".
Even though he had the names of the other students down pat, when he got to W, he hesitated. "It's Sierra, right?"
Savannah remained quiet, not realizing he was talking to her.
"Sierra...Woods, right?"
"No, it's S-Savannah," she spoke up, and even though she'd actually tried to say Sarah, it just didn't come out.
"Oh, OK," Mr. Hall replied, sighing as he moved on to the last few names.
Math class was otherwise uneventful and boring. But she felt alone. None of the names were anyone she recognized, and not even the teacher could get hers right.
