The New Neighbor

Chapter 3: Pruning

In the locker room, some of the girls whispered and snickered to each other as they looked at Mellie. Lauren was walking by with her bag hanging from her shoulder, obviously leaving. She stopped and told Mellie, "Don't mind them. They're just jealous and worried you are going to beat them out for scholarships. They won't do anything to you. Jake would turn them into social pariahs if they did." She smiled at Mellie.

Mellie nodded, managed a little smile, and said, "Thanks." She gathered her things and left soon after.

The band was missing on Friday night when Mellie got home. She showered and went to bed, exhausted. The sound returned at noon on Saturday, and Mellie paid them a visit. She found out they had played at a private party the night before. During her time there, she said, "I don't know why you guys think everyone at school is mean. Most of them have been nice to me. People from all different genera have been nice to me."

Ryan tilted his head asked, "Genera?"

Mellie smiled and said, "It's the plural of genus."

The guys chuckled, and Eric explained, "That's because they can't figure out which group you belong to. You could be one of them, and they aren't mean to their own."

Keyon laughed and said, "Yeah, we've noticed how you avoid the cafeteria."

Ryan nodded. "That's where you claim membership in a group, and they claim you in return."

Mellie had guessed at all this and insisted, "I don't fit into any of them. I don't want to identify my genus."

They chuckled at her terminology again. Keyon grinned and said, "That's cool," imitating Jake. Mellie threw a pretzel at him, and he caught it in his mouth.

Ryan pointed out, "You're going to have to choose the first day it rains, Mellie."

That night at dinner, Frank asked Mellie, "So, do you like your new school?"

She shrugged. "It's okay so far. I'm still figuring it out."

"Have you made any new friends?"

"There is this guy, Jake Carter, who seems to really want to be my friend or something more." Frank's eyebrows went up, and he smiled a bit until Mellie added, "But I don't like him very much." She went on to tell him all about Jake and how the band guys weren't talking to her in school. She told her daddy everything. They had learned to communicate when they both went through therapy after her mom's death, and they kept it up. Frank was definitely not a strict father, but Mellie made that easy. She felt no need to rebel.

Mellie made the track team, and some of the girls talked to her a bit, mostly Lauren and Samantha. It wasn't that much because she would get in her untouchable zone as she ran. The girls on the team were divided into a few different genera. Mellie suspected the ones that talked to her were with the less popular jocks. They wanted to get in with the more popular jocks that were mostly football players and cheerleaders. They talked to Mellie because of Jake.

The first cross country meet was a small one in Atlanta. Mellie got the second best times overall. She was too accustomed to running far more than the three miles. Too much gas was left in her tank when she finished. Coach told her to start breaking her morning runs into segments with breaks in between, just as they did at practice, so they wouldn't throw off her internal timings. It was annoying because she just wanted to zone out, but she obeyed.

In each class, Mellie talked to individuals from different genera. They continued to be nice to her. They conversed about the music they liked, and she usually knew at least a bit about each preferred genre. She talked academics with the nerds, running with the jocks, the stupidity of high school society with the Goth/Emos, and supporting the legalization of marijuana with the stoners. She occasionally switched between groups in the same class, getting a few odd looks, but no one outright complained.