“These are going to be your Little Sisters,” Ms. Minors gestured to the row of students standing before the whiteboard. The lineup was almost comical: twenty-nine little girls, and one high school senior, each giving their own little awkward wave of hello. “And those are your Big Sisters,” she gestured to the class, who waved back in a slightly less-awkward manner.
And one-by-one, Ms. Minors went down the line and instructed each girl on which table they should sit at, each one responding with a thank-you, or a giggle, or a shy little shrug before taking her seat. Except for Sarah, who said “I know” as she huffed over to join Jon and her friends.
Once everyone was seated, three high schoolers on one side of each table and three 3rd graders on the other, the instruction became: “Now I want everyone to introduce yourselves to your group. Go around and tell everyone your name, your age, and what’s your favorite hobby.”
“My name is Andrea Hwan,” said the first little girl at Jon’s table, “and I’m eight years old, and my favorite hobby is cheerleading.”
The eyes of the two high school girls beside Jon lit up, while both Jon’s and Sarah’s eyes rolled, for unsurprisingly different reasons. While Sarah was just frustrated and ready to roll her eyes at anything that the younger girls said, Jon had the sudden realization that he was now nearly completely encircled by cheerleaders.
“My name is Juana Andre,” came the second girl, “and I’m also eight, and my favorite hobby is also cheerleading!”
Squeals from the two “Big Sister” cheerleaders. “Where do you cheer?” “Lake Point Rotary Park, every Saturday.”
“My name is Sarah McMillan,” Sarah interrupted the budding conversation pointedly. “And I turned eighteen two weeks ago, and I am the best cheerleader in the entire school.” She had intended for the words “entire school” to sound authoritative, but somehow they came out more wide-eyed. Almost the same tone as if she had just said “the blue whale is the biggest animal in the entire world.”
“So you’re the youngest one here!”Andrea beamed from her end of the table.
“What? No.” Sarah snapped. “I’m obviously older than you two.”
“But I’m turning nine next month,” Juana insisted, “and Andrea’s turning nine in July, and you just said you just turned--”
Sarah interrupted. “I said I turned--”
“Remember, let’s be gentle with one another,” Ms. Minors’ voice cut through all conversations in the room in the way only teachers know how to do. “Our Big Sisters may all be in high school, but our Little Sisters are all in 3rd grade.”
Sarah’s breath held in her lungs for several seconds, like the muscles in her throat, in her diaphragm, were all refusing to respond to her commands.
Then all of a sudden, they worked again and she took in a gasp of breath to say, “I said I just turned eight, so that makes me the youngest here, and that’s final,” with a little more petulance than she’d intended.
“Did you skip a grade?”
Sarah was torn between figuring out how to answer that question and figuring out why she’d just said what she’d said, when Jon saved her.
“It’s my turn,” he said. “My name is Jon Gibson, and I’m eighteen years old, and my favorite--”
“And remember, we organized all of the groups so that you’re with people that you share things in common with. Try to find out what those things are!”
Jon coughed. He felt like an insect had just flown down his throat. But then he started again: “My name is Jon Gibson, and I’m eighteen, and my favorite thing in the world is cheerleading.”
Amber Levine, and then Tiffany Sanders, continued with their own introductions as though nothing strange had happened, but Jon and Sarah just stared at one another, a mixture of disbelief and dread on each face.
