Life and Liberty (pt. 1)

Liberty Westlake was not looking forward to the first day at her new school. She was just starting fourth grade, and that was scary enough. At least she had started out the year with her friends. Now, in February, shg into a new school and a public school on top of it all.

Liberty had always attended a private school with small classes of kids that had mostly known each other since kindergarten. There wouldn’t be one or two new kids in class this year. For her they would all be new kids. To them SHE would be the new kid.

When her dad lost his job, the family had to cut back a bit to make ends meet. Liberty was happy when she heard her dad had found a new job. She was not happy when she found out they’d have to move out of state.

“But why do we have to move so far away? Why couldn’t you find a job here? I don’t want to have to be so far from all my friends! Public school? The classes are so big! Surely my education will suffer…”

Liberty had tried every argument she could think of, but they ended up moving anyway.

These kids are so weird! How am I supposed to make friends here? Brent wears old clothes, Manuel doesn’t talk right, and Madison is just mean. These aren’t the kind of friends I want.

Liberty fumed as she walked to school. Her mind raced with all the injustices of having to move and being told that she would make new friends. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to make friends with these kids. She wanted her old friends back. They weren’t weird.

As she neared the school, the nerves overtook the anger, and Liberty’s footsteps slowed. She took in all the unfamiliar faces and her palms began to dampen. Her homework was done. She was wearing fashionable clothing. She had taken a shower. She could speak English. What more could those kids want? At least she was normal.

Her steps a little faster and more assured, Liberty headed into the school with new resolve. She would make some new friends. It couldn’t be that hard, could it?

“Bye, Trina! I’ll see you tomorrow!” called Liberty, as she waved at Trina getting into her mom’s car. They weren’t exactly best of friends yet, but Trina and Liberty had started talking after Mr. Rohm had made them partners in science class.

Trina was great. She did well in school, she played soccer, she liked the same shows on TV, and she was normal.

As she walked home, Liberty began to think about her homework.

She was going to have to create a collection of animal pictures for Mr. Rohm. Each one had to be labeled with the name, genus, and family of each animal. She and Trina were going to work on it together in class, but they were gathering the pictures tonight on their own.

Mrs. Patton, the history teacher had assigned the study questions at the end of chapter 20. That wouldn’t be hard. All the answers were in the book. It would just take some time.

Ms. Dickens had given the hardest homework. The class had to read individual books and write a book report on it. The hard part was that they had to give the report in front of the whole class. She didn’t know anyone but Madison in her English class, and she was worried about being teased.

When Liberty finally snapped out of it, she looked around. She was on Birch St. she had no idea where Birch St. was! How would she get home from here? There were no shops, and she couldn’t ask a stranger for directions. She would just have to hope she could find her way by herself. She adjusted her backpack and set off in what she hoped was the right direction.