Written May 2003
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

   “Your homework tonight is to outline section three of chapter twenty-four,” Mrs. Ponts said as the bell rang and her students swarmed out of the classroom. She watched the students leave, and started to put away her things before lunch. She picked a paper off the floor and looked at the name. Sarah Silverman.
   Sarah was not a noticeable student in Mrs. Ponts’s second period class, though anyone grading her papers would see a difference between her work and that of her classmates. She was quiet, but though she rarely raised her hand, she almost always knew the answer when the teacher called on her. Her grades were higher than any others in Mrs. Ponts’s classes, regular or honors.
   The teacher looked at the paper again It was an assignment from the previous class. Sarah had answered all fifteen questions in complete sentences in her regular neat cursive. Mrs. Ponts read Sarah’s responses. They were detailed and showed an understanding of information greater than that of most of her classmates. It looked like the information just clicked with her. Either that, or she was doing a great deal of studying. Either way, Sarah was the kind of student that Mrs. Ponts had hoped to teach when she started teaching.

   While Mrs. Ponts thought, Sarah was coming out of the lunch line with her friend Mary Joyce. Mary Joyce was looking down at her lasagna and poking it with her fork.
   “Is this really edible?” She asked.
   “It should be… they wouldn’t be allowed to serve it otherwise.”
    Mary Joyce poked her food again. “Even if it’s edible, it can’t taste very good.”
   “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
   “It’s not a book!”
   “Are you sure?” Sarah teased. “Is it just me, or does that part look like Li?” she asked, pointing at a piece.
   “What’s Li?”
   “Lithium.”
   “Get you head out of class, girl, and join the real world,” she said as she strolled over to the lunch table and plopped down on the bench.
   Sarah followed her, sitting at the end of first of a long string of tables. Not long after Mary Joyce’s friends came to join her, and Sarah scooted over as far as she could. She hated this. She was Mary Joyce’s friend, sure, but she wasn’t in on things. She wasn’t part of the crowd. She missed the days when she was Mary Joyce’s best friend and these other girls weren’t there. She and Mary Joyce had done everything together. Sarah and Mary Joyce were still friends, but now Mary Joyce had her group, with Sarah on the outside.
   It was like the atom they were learning about in science class. Mary Joyce was a proton in the nucleus with her neutron friends. Sarah was an electron floating around outside the nucleus, not inside but a part needed to make up the atom of life. The charges even worked out. Mary Joyce was positive to Sarah, and her friends were neutral, though somewhat annoying. Together in the nucleus, all was positive. Sarah was negative, on the outside looking it. It all fit.
    Sarah listened while Mary Joyce and her friends talked. Anna was saying how awesome a movie she had seen the night before was, and Kimberly was arguing the opposite. Katie took Anna’s side, Mary Joyce was with Kimberly, and April and Heather were pressing them for spoilers, having yet to see the movie. Sarah listened, but asked no questions. She had not seen the movie, but it sounded interesting. She knew she wouldn’t see it, though, and the lunch conversations were all she would get. She occasionally went to see a movie with Mary Joyce, but otherwise she had no one to go  with, and she found going by herself depressing. She would rather just listen.
   The bell ending lunch couldn’t end soon enough for Sarah. Mary Joyce’s group moved on to other topics: music, role-playing games they took part in, and that day’s homework. When Sarah tried to put a word in, most of them didn’t pay attention. The only time they would listen to Sarah was during the homework discussion, when Danielle needed help understanding noun clauses. Other than that, it was pointless to try to say anything.
   When the bell finally rang, Sarah shot out of the cafeteria, not even waiting for Mary Joyce.

    Mary Joyce looked down at her test paper as the bell rang for class to start. It was the one they had taken last class on the elements. She should have studied. A seventy-five percent… that was below her average. Mary Joyce remembered the test. She had to match the elements with their symbol and their classification. Most of her classmates rushed through it, but she wasn’t able to. She got stuck on a few of them. How was she supposed to remember that K stood for potassium, which is a metal, or that sodium’s symbol was Na and that is also a metal?
    Mary Joyce used the test grade to average her nine weeks grade as it was so far. The seventy-five brought her down to an eighty. A C, Mary Joyce thought. Mom’s not going to be happy. Why can’t I be good at school?

   Sarah slammed her locker shut and looked around the locker area. The hallway was almost deserted; her jammed locker had caused her to be late. There were only three other people left that she could see: a tall, blonde boy, a short redheaded girl, and a brunette girl of a height somewhere in the middle of that of the others. The girls were facing the boy and talking, seemingly unaware that they were about to be late for class.
   Sarah recognized the other students, not by name but by sight. They were part of the popular crowd, though not friends of Mary Joyce. These were three of the kids who gave Sarah the hardest time. She didn’t’ want to go past them, but there was no other way to class. She looked down and walked quickly towards the threesome of students. She quickened her pace even more as she approached them, hoping that they wouldn’t say anything. No such luck.
   The boy turned and looked at Sarah. Please, please don’t say anything, Sarah thought. The boy seemed to hear her, and he grinned an evil grin. He looked back to the girls and spoke loudly. “I wouldn’t go out with her. I don’t date girls who are smarter than me. They--” The bell rang, drowning out what he said.
   Sarah continued going on, trying to ignore the boy. She tried to pretend that it didn’t hurt. She got these comments and worse all the time. Sarah supposed that she should get used to it, but she couldn’t.
   When she got to class—English—she found everyone with journals open, writing on that day’s topic. Sarah was several days ahead in her English journal, a fact that came in handy for days like this. Sarah took out her personal journal and recorded what had just happened.
   This is my life, she concluded it. Welcome to it.

   Sarah and Mary Joyce had PE class sixth period. They were walking around the gym waiting for class to start. At first, the two were going slowly and talking. When Sarah took a runaway basketball in the face and earned a round of laughter from the group that sent it, Sarah choked back tears and took off at a quicker pace.
   “Hey, girl, wait up!’ Mary Joyce called as she ran after Sarah. Sarah slowed the slightest bit.
   “Don’t listen to those fools,” she told her friend when she caught up. “They’re just saying that to get you down. Bet they’re jealous of your Civics grade. I heard you’ve got the only A+ in the class!”
   “I don’t care, Joy. You don’t get it,” Sarah said, not looking at her friend. “You don’t get pelted with balls every gym class. You don’t get made fun of. You’re accepted. I’m not.”
   “Oh, that won’t get me anywhere. Like being accepted is important.”
   “It is! All I have is work. You’ve got people. Friends!”
   “You’ve got me. And I don’t see how you can talk down on your grades—you’re going to get a scholarship, girl! I’d give anything for grades like that.”
   “And I’d do anything to be rid of this,” Sarah said while ducking another ball.
   “Trade?”
   Sarah laughed. “I wish. Oh, I wish.”
   No more could be said on the topic because at that time Anna and Kimberly ran up. They started up a conversation with Mary Joyce while Sarah lengthened her stride and walked away

   Mrs. Ponts surveyed her last class of the day. Sitting in the back center seat was Mary Joyce Burkins. Though she often saw Mary Joyce and Sarah walking past her classroom in the hall, the teacher couldn’t think of two less alike pupils. Mary Joyce was one of the noisiest girls in the class. Often Mrs. Ponts had to point out to her that she was supposed to be paying attention and taking notes rather than talking and joking with her friends. Mary Joyce’s papers were of average quality, with short, choppy sentences where sentences were needed and one-word answers when acceptable. In contrast to Sarah’s work, Mary Joyce’s grades faded away into the background with those of her classmates. Where Sarah’s strengths seemed to be rooted in academics, Mary Joyce’s looked to be popularity. Mrs. Ponts wondered how those two had gotten together in the first place, but could come up with nothing. She supposed that it was just the old science rule coming back. Opposites attract, and surely that was what was happening here.

   It must be fun being popular, Sarah thought that night as she slipped on her nightgown. Joy must have loads of fun when she’s with them instead of me. The parties, the gossip, the jokes… it must be amazing.
   On the other side of town, Mary Joyce was thinking about the same thing. Sarah’s so lucky. To be able to ace tests without studying… it’s going to really get her somewhere someday. Watch her get into Harvard, and me stuck in some community college somewhere…she’ll get all that special attention and all those awards… lucky her.
   Both girls climbed into bed and turned off their lights. I wish I were in her shoes, they thought together.

   When Sarah woke up the next morning, she did not see her room. There was no desk across from the bed on which she lied. In the place of her certificates and awards she saw posters—a horse, a cat, and a coyote. She looked down and saw pink sheets where her green ones should have been.
   What am I doing in Joy’s room? Sarah wondered.

   Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…
   Mary Joyce was awakened by an alarm. Keeping her eyes closed, she felt around for the annoyance. She finally found it and slammed her hand down to turn it off.
   It took a few moments for Mary Joyce to fully awaken. When she did, she realized she didn’t own an alarm clock.
   “Hey, what’s going on here?” Mary Joyce asked out loud as she forced her eyes open. She saw on the nightstand not her Garfield clock, but a square, black digital alarm clock knocked on its side. Righting it, she caught a glance of a mirror on the door. The mirror with “Sarah Emma Silverman” written on the top indicating its owner.
   Mary Joyce got out of bed, discovering a nightgown covering her instead of her pajamas. She walked to the mirror and peered into it.
   Looking back at her was not Mary Joyce. Shoulder-length fiery red hair was replaced by longer black hair stopping only inches above the waist. Freckles were replaced by pale skin. The reflection was also several inches shorter than Mary Joyce should have been. Mary Joyce was staring into the mirror and seeing Sarah in return.

   “Mary Joyce, are you up yet?” Mr. Burkins called. His called worried Sarah. What would he think when he found Mary Joyce gone and Sarah in her place? Sarah remained quiet.
   The door opened. “Mary Joyce, get your butt out of bed!” Mr. Burkins commanded as he stuck his head into the bedroom. He smiled when he saw Sarah. “She’s alive,” he said.
  “What?” Sarah asked, confused. He didn’t seem at all surprised to see her.