I never did like the look of spiky hair. The new girl wore all black. She had painted her nails black. Her hair, that was bright red, was extremely short and was all spiked up. Her backpack, purse, and lunchbox were also black. She was not smiling and did not talk to anyone.
I walked into the computer class. There were four rows of computers with seven desks in each row. Next to each of the desks stood a blue roller chair for a student to sit in. As I sat down in my seat, I started to talk to my friends that were sitting next to me. We all wondered who she was and if she was emo.

“Class, lets line up for breakfast,” the teacher said. She was a bit overweight and wore a pair of jeans with a pink t-shirt.

“I hope we don’t have to sit next to the new girl. I think she is emo and she is probably weird,” said my friend, Harley.

“Yeah, I hope so, too. I wonder if she cuts herself,” I said. I had never been friends with a emo person and I hoped that I never would have to seat near one. All the emo kids at my school were freaks. They were the ones who did drugs and got into trouble.

As we walked down the hallway to the lunchroom, I let other people pass in front of me so that I would not be near the emo girl. I passed the freshly painted blue walls and saw the newly installed vending machines. There were also new recycling and garbage cans standing next to the vending machines. As I walked through the door that said enter only, I saw that the tables were sectioned off with teacher’s names on a section.

“Oh bummers. I was hoping to get to sit wherever I wanted to. All the upperclassmen were talking about how at ninth grade breakfast we got to sit wherever we wanted to. I wonder why we don’t get to,” I said.

“I don’t know. Just be glad that we do not have assigned seats. At least we get to sit next to our friends in our class,” Harley said.

I got into the breakfast line. I picked up a slice of breakfast pizza, a doughnut, a hash brown patty, and a cartoon of chocolate milk. When I got to the checkout area, I got in line behind Harley. I pressed in my lunch number and the lunch lady told me that I was good.

“Where should we sit?” I asked Harley.

“I don’t know. Do you see a seat?” Harley said.

“The only two that I see for our class is next to the creepy new girl,” I said,
“Are you sure? I don’t want to have to spend all of breakfast sitting next to her,” Harley said.

“Yep. That is all that is left,” I said.

“Oh, well. I guess we will just have to make the best of it,” Harley said.

We both walked over to our table and sat down into the only two available seats left.

“What are your classes for this semester, Kelsey?” My friend, Brittany, said.

“I have Computer first block, Pre-AP Geometry second block, Marching Band third block, and Pre-AP Biology fourth block,” the new girl, who I had just discovered was named Kelsey.

“Besides this block, I also have you fourth block. Oh, hi, Harley and Katie. How are y’all doing?” Brittany said.

“I’m fine,” Harley said.

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Harley, this is Kelsey Newbird. Kelsey, this is Harley Goodman,” Brittany said.

“Nice to meet you,” said Kelsey as Harley looked on with horror.

“Katie, this is Kelsey Newbird. Kelsey, this is Katie Reed,” Brittany said.

“Nice to meet you,” Kelsey said to me even though I was not paying her any attention.

“You know her? She doesn’t seem to be your type. I mean, you know, you being a good girl, I would not think that you would hang out with an emo girl,” I said.

“Of course I know her. She and I have been best friends for as long as I can remember. This is her first year in public school. Second off she is not emo. Her favorite color is black, but that most certainly does not make her emo. She is a very sweet and nice girl. She is a bit shy but once you know her, you will be friends forever,” Brittany said.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Kelsey, I am glad to meet you,” I said. I started to chatter with her and the more that I talked to her the more that I realized what a terrible misjudgment I had made. That day I learned that Things are not always what they seem.