R.T. Martin - Stronghold

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me , Aisha sang to herself in her head. She knew no one would sing for her here. No one even knew it was her sixteenth birthday. It was only her second week at this school and she hadnt made any friends yet.

Sitting in class, she may as well have been invisible. No one even looked at her. At her old school, she may have been passing sketches or notes to one of her friends, but now they were hundreds of miles away, and she had to make a new life here in this tiny town of Bloomington, a far cry from Chicago.

The history teacher was explaining why it had been a bad idea for the United States to enter Vietnam while Aisha twirled her pencil and thought about how much better her birthday would have been back home. There would have been a party. She would have gotten well-wishes and hugs at school. It would have been fun. Her friends in Chicago made a huge deal out of their sixteenth birthdays, celebrating with incredible parties. Aisha had planned to do that too, but the move spoiled those plans. She lived too far away for any of her old friends to come visit, and who here would come to a party for a girl they didnt know?

Several of her friends from home had sent her celebratory text messages or posted on her social media this morning, but it wasnt the same.

The bell rang. All right, thats it for today, the teacher said. Remember to read chapter twenty-two for tomorrow.

Aisha got up from her desk and grabbed her bag. So far she wasnt doing any extracurricular activitiesno sports, no clubs. There was only one that she was even mildly interested inthe schools newspaper. Shed been a writer for the one at her old school, and she couldnt help being interested in the one here as well.

On her second day, shed picked up the Bloomington High Herald and read through it. It wasnt bad, but the stories werent nearly as interesting as theyd been in Chicago. Also there was a typo in the sports section... unless the volleyball team really had won by five pants .

At her last school, she had covered sports. Even though she wasnt very athletic, she had enjoyed the reporting process, and it was cool to see her writing distributed to the whole school and posted online. Last week, Aisha had asked a teacher about joining the newspapers staff. She had even filled out the registration form, but she wasnt sure if she would actually go. Today, she was even less sure. Starting at a new school was stressful enough without adding a new activity.

At her locker, Aisha stashed the books and folders she wouldnt need that night while grabbing the ones she would. I could just go home , she thought. I dont have to join the paper .

She closed her locker. No. Avoiding clubs and sports isnt going to get me any friends, and I need to make some friends or life here is going to be horrible until I graduate.

The papers office was located in the basement of the school. Aisha chewed her lip and stared down the hall toward the doors that led outside. Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath, she headed down the stairs instead.

It took her a while to find the room. The basement was a maze of winding hallways. She reached three dead ends before she found the office tucked away across from a custodians closet. She was surprised there was anything down here, much less the school paper.

There were already about a dozen other students in the room by the time she got there. A teacher sat at the front behind a desk cluttered with paper. There didnt seem to be any organization. It was as if whenever anyone tossed a handwritten or typed article on the desk, the teacher just left it wherever it had landed. Most of the kids were chattering away or hunched over notebooks and computers. It was definitely a smaller operation than the newsroom shed worked in back home.

Excuse me, Aisha said to the teacher. Id like to join the newspaper. I just registered for it. She held out the form to him.

What? Its April. He was giving her a confused look over the top of thick glasses.

Im new here. Aisha could feel her face flushing. I just started a couple of weeks ago

Ah, he said, taking the form. In that case, Im Mr. Westlake. Why dont you take a seat, and well find a group for you in just a little bit.