Trudy

I decided it was time to introduce some more characters to see how they would work into the story.  Here, we get a glimpse of Trudy, Savannah's soon to be friend.  We are also introduced to Eileen and "The Brat Pack" who enjoy bullying both Savannah and Trudy.  Trudy is the target in this scene and we get to see how Trudy deals with it.

ead bent low over the math assignment on her desk, Savannah looked up through the brown curtain of her bangs to steal a glance at the new girl.  Well, she technically wasn’t new anymore since she’d moved to the school a month ago.  The girl, Trudy, sat at her desk with a concentrated expression as her pencil hovered just over her math paper.  Her long blonde hair draped over her shoulders and her straight bangs hung just to the middle of her green eyes.  Blowing the bangs out of her eyes, Trudy appeared to attack the next math problem with her pencil, jabbing and scraping the lead over the paper, the concentrated look on her face getting even deeper and creasing her brow.  Breathing out a huge sigh, Trudy flipped the pencil over in her fist and began furiously erasing then quickly began writing again without even wiping away the bits of used eraser. 

Savannah looked back down at her own math paper and saw rows of neat numbers, each problem carefully numerated and the answers circled with heavy pencil mark.  Math had always been Savannah’s favorite subject, mostly because it was easy for her.  She liked the way that numbers didn’t surprise you.  They were so predictable with their patterns and formulas.  It didn’t matter which way you wrote 4 + 4, the answer would always be 8, and that certainty was comfortable.  Savannah glanced up through her bangs again at Trudy who had taken to chewing the end of her pencil as she looked down unblinking at her math paper, as if winning a staring contest with it would reveal the answers she needed. 

The girl sitting just in front of Trudy turned around, took one look at Trudy’s paper and smirked.  Eileen’s shiny black hair hung in perfect waves down to her shoulders, a hint of eye shadow on her eyes and gloss on her lips gave her the appearance of being older than the 12 she was.  She pointed one pink tipped fingernail at Trudy’s paper.

“Here’s your problem,” she said in a voice loud enough for everyone in the nearby seats to hear.  “You forgot to ROUND the numbers before you multiplied them.” 

The word round rolled out of her mouth and hung in the air like the echo of a fireworks shell after it explodes.  Muffled laughter broke out nearby and Eileen settled her face into a self-satisfied smile.  She looked from side to side to acknowledge the laughter coming from her friends Jonetta, Shelley and Lisa, better known as “The Brat Pack” by Savannah. 

Encouraged, Eileen continued her lecture.  “Of course, we learned how to do that over a month ago, but you weren’t here then.  I guess your last school never taught you that?” 

Trudy’s cheeks bloomed pink, but from embarrassment or anger Savannah wasn’t sure.  “Oh sure, they taught us that,” Trudy said, eyes narrowed at Eileen.  “They also taught us how to be respectful, which it seems your teacher hasn’t gotten to yet.”  Savannah recognized a slight drawl in her voice; the kind that you get after spending just enough time in a southern state to pick up the habit. 

Eileen’s glossy lips turned down in a little frown.  “Well, I was only trying to help,” she muttered and quickly turned back around to her own work.  Savannah couldn’t hear Trudy’s mumbled response as she returned to chewing on the end of her pencil and staring down the math problems on her page.