Miss Penney was not on the playground to take the children inside, but Mrs. Heckmeyer arrived to lead them to the classroom, saying Miss Penney had asked her to.
When they trooped into Room 10, the children had a surprise. There, seated in the front row and talking to Miss Penney, was a girl that none of them had seen before.
A new kid.
“Class,” said Miss Penney, “please take a seat and I’ll introduce you all to Rin.”
The kids all stared at the little girl sitting in the desk in front of Luca’s, especially Luca. In just over two years at Gulch Valley Elementary, Luca and his classmates had never had a new student come to their school.
Bo didn’t go straight to his desk. He walked right up to the new girl, calling, “What kind of name is Rin?”
Miss Penney stepped in front of Bo, swift as a cat, and placed her hands gently on Bo’s shoulders, turning him mid-stride away from the new girl and in the direction of his desk.
Luca took his seat behind Rin, feeling a bit confused and excited.
Emma plopped in her seat behind Luca, looking a bit annoyed and impatient.
Claire was sipping from her water bottle, but the liquid inside was bubbly and dark in color. She tapped her feet on the floor, and the fingers of her right hand drummed on the desk.
Dillon had sat down but was not paying attention to the new student or Miss Penney. He was too busy twitching his nose and trying to cross his eyes so he could see it.
Delilah was fishing a book out of her large, green Army backpack and trying to look uninterested. She kept peeking at Rin, though, so Luca knew she really was interested. Just more proof that girls were weird.
“Okay, everyone,” said Miss Penney, “this is Rin Kishimoto. She is joining our class for the rest of the year. Rin, would you like to say anything?”
Rin stood up and turned slightly so she was facing most of her new classmates. Luca noticed that she was taller than most of the kids their age and had long, black hair. Luca could tell she was feeling a little shy, because it was a long moment before she smiled weakly and spoke.
“Hi. My name is Rin. I just moved back here from Japan. Omiya, actually. I was born in Gulch Valley, but we moved to Japan when I was little to live with my grandparents. But my dad got his old job back, and now we live here. Thanks, um… Thanks.”
She sat down quickly, and Luca sat with his mouth open. Japan? He had never known anyone who hadn’t always lived in Gulch Valley. Where was Japan, again?
Luca and several other children turned in their seats to try to see the world map on the wall at the back of the classroom. When all he could see was Emma looking back at him unhappily, he tried to smile, but then turned back toward Miss Penney.
The first lesson of the day was spelling. Miss Penney began writing the week’s spelling words on the whiteboard while the students got out their pencils and paper.
Luca could just see over Rin’s shoulder as she produced from her desk a shiny black pencil box. She opened it, and Luca gaped at the perfectly arranged pencils, separated from the sharpener and the erasers. Wow, he thought. This girl knows how to keep a pencil box. Then he saw it.
Sitting there in Rin’s pencil box, at the end of a stack of regular pink erasers, was the face of a very recognizable cartoon cat.