“It’s Rachael! It’s Rachael! It’s Rachael!”

Katie groaned, and turned over to look at her alarm clock. 8:15...Didn’t Rachael know that all normal human beings slept until at least 9 o’clock? She looked around for her Vid Phone, before realizing that it was in her hand. How did it get there? Shrugging, she answered it with a none-too-gracious “Hello?”

She looked at the phone’s monitor, expecting to see her best friend’s face there as it always was, but the screen was black. “Hello?” she repeated. “Rachael, are you there? Rachael?” Still nothing. She could have sworn she heard the phone ring. What was going on? “Rachael?”

Then she heard a voice, coming from somewhere that sounded far away: “Katie?” Hellooooooooooooooooooooo? Girl, are you there? Hello?”

Katie was beyond confused now. Couldn’t her best friend hear her? “Rachael? I’m right here...Can’t you hear me?”

“Hello? Katie, can’t you hear me? Or are you mad at me for waking you up? If you are, GET OVER IT! Katie? Katie? KATIE BYRRDE, YOU ANSWER ME!”

Katie Byrrde woke with a start. She had had the weirdest dream...Wait, where was that yelling coming from? It was her phone!

“Katie? Okay, you have to have answered your phone, it wasn’t mag...Just answer me!”

Katie sat up. Where was her Vid Phone? It was on the...dresser? How could she have answered the phone when it was sitting at least five feet away, and she couldn’t have gotten up in her sleep, because her cat, Mr. Waffles, was lying asleep over both of her legs, and every time she moved he hissed at her. So how it had gotten there?

“KATIE! I AM NOT HANGING UP! I’M JUST GOING TO SCREAM AT YOU UNTIL YOU PICK UP THE PHONE! I PLAY THE TUBA!!! YOU KNOW HOW GOOD MY LUNG CAPACITY IS!!!”

Katie sighed, and rolled out of bed, predictably angering Mr. Waffles, who hissed, jumped off of the bed, and ran away down the hallway. She went to the dresser and picked up her phone, glaring at the screen. Rachael Doogal’s irate face leered back at her.

“Geez, Katie, what took you so long to answer the dang phone?” she complained.

Katie rolled her green eyes, twirling her light brown hair around her finger. “Sorry, Rachael, but I was ASLEEP. You know I never waste a perfectly good summer morning by waking up before 9!”

Rachael’s blue eyes stared up at her. “What do you mean you were asleep? Who answered the phone, then?”

“Um...I’m not sure, Rachie...It was...Well, I don’t know what it was...” It was weirding her out so much, she tried to change the subject. “ANYWAY, why did you call me anyway? You knew I was asleep...”

Rachael fidgeted a little. “Well, I kind of wanted to talk to you about something...About school...”

Katie laughed. “In case you haven’t noticed, stupid, it’s the middle of June. School doesn’t start until, like, August! Do you want to go shopping for new school clothes already?”

Rachael really looked nervous now. “It’s not that, K-K. I’m not going to start 6th grade with you next year. I’m not going to Middle School at all.”

Katie fell onto her bed, nearly squashing Mr. Waffles, who was back for a nap. “What do you mean, you’re not going to Middle School? You HAVE to go to Middle School. It’s like, a law or something.”

“I mean,” said Rachael, “That I’m not going to THIS Middle School. Like, here, in University Depot. I’m going to a boarding school. In Iowa.”

Katie burst out laughing. “Oh, wow, Rachie, you really HAD me there for a second!” she giggled. She was hysterical now. The whole thing was just so...ridiculous! “I mean, I actually believed that you were going to a boarding school in Iowa! IOWA!” She rolled around on her bed, laughing hysterically. “IOWA!”

Rachael Doogal sat on the couch in her living room, watching her best friend laugh at her. This was going even worse than she had expected. “How’s it going, Sweetie?” her mother called from the kitchen.

Rachael set the phone down on the coffee table (Kay was rolling around on the floor, still laughing, pausing now and then to scream, “IOWA!”) to go talk to her mother. “Not well, Mom,” she admitted to her mother’s backside, watching her dig around in the fridge for some yogurt. “She started laughing when I got to the part about Iowa.” Sara Doogal turned around, her favorite flavor of yogurt clutched triumphantly in her hand. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like her only child. The only difference between the physical appearances of the two of them was that Sara was obviously older than her daughter, and that she was wearing a set of bright red robes, while Rachael went for the more mainstream jeans and t-shirt.

“Oh, honey,” said Sara sympathetically, “I’m sorry this is hard. That’s the problem with having friends so different from us.”

Rachael shook her head. “I know, Mom, but sometimes I get the feeling that she’s...just like us. Can’t I tell her?”

Sara hugged her daughter. “She can’t be like us, Sweetie; you know what the odds are, her parents being...you know. And you know you can’t tell her.”

Rachael started to reply, but was drowned out by the sound of someone calling: “Rachael! I’m done now! Where are youuuuuuuuuuu?”

“It’s her,” said Rachael sadly. “I gotta go, Mom.” Sara watched as her daughter walked dejected back to the living room, to talk to her friend on that infernal contraption Rachael’s father, Bob, had bought her. What was it called again? A Foone? No, that wasn’t it. Oh well. She’d ask Bob. Her husband knew the names of all of those thingies. Resolving to ask him later, she dug into her yogurt, enjoying it less than she would have if she had been less preoccupied with her daughter’s predicament.

Katie, finally done laughing, waited impatiently for Rachael to pick up her phone again. Right now all she could see was the ceiling of Rachael’s living room. She felt immensely relieved. For a couple of minutes there, she had actually thought her best friend was going to leave her to go to fancy boarding school. But Katie knew she had been kidding when she said the thing about Iowa. IOWA! Who went to school in IOWA? They were famous for their corn, for Pete’s sake! Katie snorted. Mr. Waffles looked up from her lap to give her a look of disgust. Katie ignored him. Mr. Waffles was really the most stuck up cat she had ever met. Rachael’s face appeared on the screen, looking irritated. “Sorry, I was talking to my mother about something. You finally done laughing? It took you a while!”

Katie shrugged. “Sorry, Rachie, it was just so funny! I mean, imagine going to a boarding school! In Iowa!”

Rachael rolled her eyes. “Enough with the Iowa, Katie. I really am going to a boarding school there.”

Katie stared. “You’re...actually going to a boarding school in Iowa. Why?”

“It’s...complicated, K-K. It’s like a family thing. Both of my parents went there. That’s where they met, actually.”

Katie didn’t know whether to cry or to throw something heavy. “You mean just because your parents went to this stupid boarding school, you have to go too? What’s up with that?” Then she had a brilliant idea. “Wait! Maybe I could go to this school too! It’s not too late to sign up, is it?”

“Katie...”


“And it won’t be too expensive either, because Daddy just got that promotion and...”

“Katie...”

“Oooh, this will be so fun! Does this school have a website or something so we can...”


“KATIE!” Rachael yelled, trying to get her attention.

Katie turned to look at her. “What?”


“Well...” Rachael tried to word it delicately. “This school, it’s for people with...special talents.”

Katie was stunned.

"Wait...what? Special Talents? What the heck can you do that's so much better than me?" She snapped.

Rachael blinked.

"Um...excuse me? What's that supposed to mean? It's not like i'm thrilled about this or anything! I'm just saying, this school isn't FOR people like YOU, Katie...People like--people like me go there for 7 years to sort of...perfect their abilities. It’s called.."

Katie stood up angrily, forcibly dumping Mr. Waffles out of her lap. He streaked down the hallway, looking for somewhere to nap that was a little bit more stable than his owner’s bedroom.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE GOING TO A SCHOOL FOR SEVEN YEARS FOR PEOPLE WITH ‘SPECIAL TALENTS’?” Katie roared. She was probably waking up every person in Texas, but who cared? “SO I’M SUDDENLY NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU?”

“No, Katie, that’s not what I...” interjected Rachael feebly. But Katie ignored her.

“WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT? YOU CAN HAVE YOUR STUPID SCHOOL IN IOWA! RACHAEL DOOGAL, I’M NEVER SPEAKING TO YOU AGAIN!”

“Katie, wait!”

But it was too late.

Katie turned off the phone with as much force as possible, threw it on the ground, and began to cry, sinking to the ground, still wearing her pajamas. She felt guilty for blowing up at Rachael like that, but she wouldn’t call her back. She had heard what Rachael had said, about her not being able to go to the school because it was for “talented people.” She would just have to attend the Middle School without a best friend next year. Because no matter how many weird things had been happening to her lately, she, Katie Byrrde was not special. Not at all.