Two Sides of the World

Chapter One
"Greetings everyone! Welcome to your new school." The teacher is a thin, orderly-looking giraffe, her lips puckering up as she speaks. She looks rather as if all the juices have been sucked out of her body, leaving her empty and sour. I sigh. It's been 2 weeks since Reneesme, my best friend, moved away forever. She's gone to stay in China, with the rest of her family. I'm still stuck here in the lonely state of Rhode Island. I'm a brown-furred fox named Katniss, and I attend Pine Hills middle school. It's very deserving of it's name, pine trees are everywhere. I have a friend named Reina, who's a raccoon with light blue and turquoise fur. She's nice, but rarely talks. I'm lonely these days. My mother passed away long ago, and my father pays no attention to me. You may think that that's good, for I have freedom, but it's not. How does it feel when you go to bed and hear a TV playing a sports game downstairs, knowing it's watcher should be here, should be telling you good night, but he isn't. It makes you feel lonely. I don't even hear the teacher as she says something about how in middle school, we get our own computers. Then she says something about us having a weekly assignment to write to our pen pal, who lives far away. I did that a long time ago. My pen pals had been two girls, apparently friends, who didn't know how to spell and constantly insulted me about my unruly fur and old clothes. As the teacher announces our pen pals, I let out a sigh. The teacher says in a clear voice: "Katniss's pen pal will be Cory, from North Korea." I wonder what 'Cory' is like. Is Cory even a boy or a girl? I wonder for a minute, then find I am the only one without a math textbook out. I quietly get mine, then read the equations. The numbers come in and out of my brain, just as if they had never arrived.