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Sixth grade ainst the

When she gets ho Guiding Light and drinking fro hands carefully, dries the she’ll notice Hoping she’ll say so But Janie’s htly

The bottle tips in her hand

Janie sighs, sets the bottle on the beat-up coffee table, and starts her hoh her math hoht tunnel, like a multicolored kaleidoscope There’s no floor, and Janie is floating while the walls spin around her Itup Next to Janie in the tunnel is her mother, and a man who looks like a blond Jesus Christ TheThey look happy Janie yells, but no sound comes out She wants it to stop

She feels the pencil fall froers

Feels her body slump to the ar colors around her, she can’t tell which way is upright She overcompensates and falls the other way, onto her oes black

Janie hears her

Feels her shove

Slowly the rooain, and Janie’s mother slaps Janie in the face

"Get offawith you?"

Janie sits up and looks at her mother Her stomach churns, and she feels dizzy from the colors "I feel sick," she whispers, and then she stands up and stumbles to the bathroom to voone from the couch, retired to her bedroom Thank God, Janie thinks She splashes cold water on her face January 1, 2001, 7:29 am

A U-Haul truck pulls up next door A e climb out and sink into the snow-covered driveway Janie watches theirl is dark-haired and pretty

Janie wonders if she’ll be snooty, like all the other girls who call Janie white trash at school Maybe, since this new girl lives next to Janie on the wrong side of town, they’ll call her white trash too But she’s really pretty

Pretty enough to make a difference

Janie dresses hurriedly, puts on her boots and coat, and irl before the North Siders get to her Janie’s desperate for a friend

"You guys want some help?" Janie asks in a voice irl stops in her tracks A smile deepens the dimples in her cheeks, and she tilts her head to the side

"Hi," she says "I’m Carrie Brandt"

Carrie’s eyes sparkle

Janie’s heart leaps

March 2, 2001, 7:34 p, but Carrie has an extra that Janie can use Janie sets her plastic grocery bag on the floor by the couch in Carrie’s living rooift for Carrie