Ratgirl, Chapter 2 (Samira)

     My mom and dad once told me a shocking story about our family. I wasn't supposed to be an only child. In fact, my parents had two other children, but they were both lost somehow. "Switched at birth," they called it. The story was told to me a few months ago, and ever since then, it's been clogging up my mind. No one outside my family knows about this secret, this startling revelation. And when I'm talking with Penrose after her race, I feel like I have to tell her. But she leaves so soon, I can't.
      Once I return home, I keep getting text messages from Penrose's sister, Kerry. We go to different schools, but she still wants to keep in touch with me. I can't stand too much popularity and people stalking me around. In fact, that's the very reason I started stalking people.
       Fine, what I do can't exactly be called stalking. More like learning about others' lives. I know the names and best friends of most of the eighth grade, and a few seventh and sixth graders as well. I also know many people's class schedules. But despite this, I know I can be pretty trustworthy with others. People have teased me because, according to me, they liked to pick on the nice kids. I've always ignored them, and only retalliated a few times.
       I climb the stairs to my small room, which contains only a bed, a table and chair, and a rat cage, which belongs to my rats Chip and Dale. I also have a cat, Melody, but she leaves the rats alone.
       Inside the cage, Chip is sleeping, being the lazy rat she is. Dale, however, is running around the cage, looking for treats. This is how my rats are every day. I pop a sunflower seed through the cage and Dale happily eats it up, and comes looking for more. I open the cage and pick her up. Luckily, she knows her name and comes when she's called, so she doesn't run away. She also knows how to stand up, spin, and roll over, as does Chip.
       After playing with Dale for a few minutes, I put her in the cage, where she goes to sleep with Chip. Then I get out my backpack and start on my homework. None of my teachers ever give weekend homework, but I like to get assignments over with before they're even given out! I get my math textbook and start working the problems on a lesson which we haven't covered in class yet. The teachers call my math class "advanced math," but it's super easy.
       It takes me only five minutes to finish the lesson. It's super easy, just factoring polynomials. I'm so bored that I reply to every one of Kerry's texts. For a popular girl that seems like an airhead, she can be pretty funny sometimes.