October 12

Dear diary:

People always say I'm "different" (read: weird), and today did absolutely nothing to contradict that. Biology class was boring, so while Ms. Carr was droning on about how she didn't want to take up our whole class period on woolly mammoths and extinction, Terra and I were writing notes. Just as I was writing to Terra about how cute and funny Bryan is — The laugh! The laugh! — I happened to look up at the windowsill. There, seeming to wave at me, was a newt! It kind of reminded me of a Geico commercial.

I looked around to see if anybody noticed, but all I saw was Connor, the most childish guy in school, repeatedly flicking Monique in the back of the head with the pencil he always chewed on. When I looked back at the windowsill, the newt was gone. When Ms. Carr left the room, I got up and asked Monique to sit in the empty desk next to me so that she could be as far away from Connor as possible. The whole time, though, the only thing I could think of was the newt.

Hannah