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No, Rachel was sht (not skinny but not heavy) She was decent looking, but had never considered herself to be beautiful Rachel loved sports and being outside in nature She was a good girl and always obeyed the rules She had a handful of good friends, but was not in the popular crowd She’d never had a boyfriend, although she had many crushes

So to say the two didn’t understand each other would be an understateh it, in search of her diary She had been writing in her diary every night since 7th grade, and didn’t want tonight to be any different

Rachel found it stashed at the bottom of the box and blew the dust off Her diary was her life Purple velvet, with a skull on the front, it was thick and heavy with notes from friends, ticket stubs, and pictures taped inside Rachel wore the silver key to her diary around her neck and never took it off She was a very private girl, and would rather die than have anyone read her diary

Rachel lifted her diary up close to her necklace, and then opened the heart-shaped lock She had beco the key attached to her necklace

She picked out her favorite pen from the box and leaned forward to write:

Dear Diary,

Today has been the worst day of h all my pictures of my friends, and I realize that I don’t have any friends here in Westchester Not one School starts tomorrow and I’m scared I bet nobody will talk to ht of su here in this eet any worse? I’ll write oes – if I h

XOXO,

Rachel

Rachel put down her diary and fell back onto her soft bed She put her head onto her feather pillow and pulled her red and white striped blanket over her head Rachel was too tired to cry, but too anxious to fall asleep She lay awake, running different scenarios of how her first day would go over and over in her head Each scenario was , Rachel fell asleep

Chapter Two

Rachel bolted out of bed to jarring Latin dancefrom her alarm radio She stumbled out of bed and fell over clothes, trinkets, pictures and papers she had scattered on the floor in an effort to organize her life When she finally reached the switch, the alarm mysteriously stopped

Now that Rachel had been so rudely awakened, she walked over to her bathroom door and reached for the handle: locked Rachel knocked, as she heard the shower turn on and Sarah’s voice, belting out a De Sarah would hear

"What? Can’t you hear I’er will you be? I have to get ready too, ya know!" Rachel said loudly putting her face to the crack in the door

Rachel waited, but Sarah did not answer

Rachel walked over to the mess of scattered clothes that lay on her floor None of it was organized: mismatched socks, sweaters, tank tops, shorts, jeans and her favorite Rolling Stones Tee, all lying lifeless at her feet

Rachel rolled up her blinds and opened herabout halfway, to gauge the temperature It was September 8th, and already she could feel the cool breezes of Fall The leaves rustled in the large trees outside her bedroomand she took a deep breath of the crisp air Out of her , she saw a long front laith a few trees scattered near the edges One of the trees had an old tire swing hanging from its limb, which Rachel assureen color with patches of brown throughout There was a srown flowers and weeds Rachel stared at it for a

What to wear? Rachel thought

She suddenly remembered a trip to JCPenney’s that she took with Dana about a s out over the Su early for the season Rachel re a cute new pair of worn-in boyfriend jeans, with patches and small tears in the knees She knew those would be the perfect s and belts and peered into her large box of stuff The jeans were nowhere to be found

She opened her bedroom door and yelled down to her o?"

She stood in her doorway and waited for her mom to respond

"How should I knohat you did what your clothes? Don’t blame me if you can’t find them You’re the one who packed in a huff last week, not I, Darling," her runted and slammed her door

She spotted another pair of dark blue Levi’s lying wrinkled on the floor The ends, too long, were frayed and Rachel had never gotten around to he the wrinkles out with her hands They felt a bit tighter than she’d remembered, so she squatted down a few times and then held the squat to stretch them out

RIP The crotch seam burst open

At that moment the Latin dance music came back on her alarm radio, this ti for the clock She lifted up her white puffy North Face winter coat and found her radio She slammed her hand down on the off button, and randomly turned the tuner