#22

Anna. How do I describe her? She’s average height (compares to the rest of us). Her words are crisp and enunciated. Her hair is cropped at her shoulders. And she has a scar above her left eye brow that’s partly hidden by her bangs.

When Miss Grothoff asked her to introduce herself she said she was an aspiring oceanographer. She talked about all the countries she’s live in and travelled to. “Five continents” she’s exclaim with raving arms. She told us about countries we’d never heard of: Bolivia, Namibia, Oman, Maldives, and so on and so forth.

“I think I’ve heard of Maldives,” Kevin whispered to me. “I think it’s in Canada.”

Anna shared with the class what her parents did. They were environmental spokespersons for the WWF. They travelled from country to country giving talks about the preservation of the planet and its species.

There’s something about Anna. Maybe it’s the way her eyes grow bigger when she emphasizes a word that no one understands; or the way her bangs bounce up and down with the cadence of her monologue; or the way she acts bigger than life. Whatever it is, I hate it. She’s such an actor. She’s so fake.

I turned to rant to Kevin but he was consumed by her words. I looked to my left to talk to Dan, but he had been sucked in by Anna too. I looked at my other classmates and was shocked to see that Anna had put everyone under a trance. She had hypnotized everyone! Was this an alien invasion that uses unearthly culls to entangle our species into surrender? I bet she’s an alien. I bet she came from one of Saturn’s moons. She’s probably doing research for her mother planet – that’s why she’s travelling so much!

My train of thought was broken before my paranoia made me do anything stupid, when Miss Grothoff said quite loudly, “Sam. Could you give Anna a tour of the school? Show her where the cafeteria is, the playground, the nurses office . . . and the principal’s office – just in case.” She gave us a wink. I felt sick to my stomach.

The spot light fell on me as I got up from my desk. I could feel the gazes of my classmates as I made my way to the front of the classroom. I could hear whispers all around me. I could feel my face turn to an embarrassing shade of red.

Miss Grothoff ushered us out the door and reminded me to take her to the library also. We were going to start on a research project and Anna needs to know where she can find books for the project.

“I don’t need books,” Anna said. “My parents know everything there is to know about anything. They’re geniuses.”

And with that she bounded off with aristocratic air. Gahh . . . I can’t stand her.