BSC123 - Claudia's Big Party - Martin, Ann M.

    Chapter 1.

    "Claudia! Why are you cleaning out your locker now? It's Friday. School's out for the weekend. And we're going S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G." Joanna Fried sang the letters of the last word as she, Shira Epstein, and Jeannie Kim swooped down on me.

    S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G. Two P's? Joanna would know better than I, the world's biggest enemy of the spelled word. Although you'd think I'd know how to spell one of my favorite activities.

    "Earrings," said Jeannie, "to go with this vest." She modeled her black velour vest, pointing out the red ribbon roses decorating the bottom edge. With her black jeans, black suede shoes, and long-sleeved white shirt, it made a very cool outfit.

    "Dangly red roses?" I leaned forward to look at the vest a little more closely. If we found matching red ribbon, I might be able to make Jeannie some earrings. As I leaned over, I shrugged my overstaffed backpack to the ground. The sound of at least a hundred pounds of books hitting the floor made people turn around and look.

    "It's not an earthquake," Joanna assured the crowd in the hallway, "only Claudia's backpack." Shira burst into giggles, which spread to the rest of us.

    "What is in there?" Jeannie asked. "Explosives?" "Homework," I explained.

    Shira stopped laughing, and her blue eyes grew to the size of small plates. "Eighth grade means that much homework?" "It does for me," I said to my seventh-grade friends. And they understood. They know me pretty well, even though we haven't been friends all that long. I'd been a year ahead of them in school until recently. And I'd always had to dog-paddle like crazy just to keep my head above water in all my subjects - except art, which happens to be my best subject and my favorite. My teachers, parents, and counselors came up with a plan that involved my going back to seventh grade to catch up. I did and found out that school wasn't as hard as I'd thought. And, it wasn't long before I did so well that I was offered the chance to move back to eighth grade. I took it. But not before I picked up an entire group of new friends, plus a boyfriend, Josh Rocker, who was walking toward us just then, as if my thoughts had summoned him.