The story so far: School is over and Jenny is worried about what her life will be like after she moves.

Moving morning was just awful. Jenny woke up with her eyes crusted shut. She thought it was fromcrying all night, but her mom said that it looked like an eye virus or something. So before they hea ded down toPhiladelphia, which they planned on doing that afternoon, her mom insisted on taking her over to the doctor'soffice.The doctor said it was pink eye. Jenny needed to put in an ointment and wear sunglasses to protect h ereyes. The only sunglasses Jenny owned were a pointy pink plastic pair with rhinestones that she had worn whenshe was 7 years old.Jenny planned to spend her last day in New York by herself in her room. She figured that since she'dnever see it again, that she should have some alone time there. Plus she wouldn't go anywhere wearin g thesepink, pointy, rhinestone sunglasses. Then she heard Mark calling her from outside to come out and me et him inhis backyard. Mark was probably the only person she'd let see her in these pink glasses, so she head ed overthere.As she turned the corner of his house, she couldn't believe what she saw. There in the yard were all of herfriends. It was a surprise going-away party for Jenny. They all wanted to be there as she drove away . They wanted her to know how much theywould miss her and that they'd always be her friends. They had all taken pictures of themselves and PhotoShopped Jenny in, too, in every picture.Jenny started to cry hysterically. Then she remembered two things. She was wearing those stupid glas ses and she wasn't supposed to cry.Neither mattered to her at that point.And that is how Jenny spent her last few moments in New York. She got into the car with her parents and her baby brother and waited for her sister to join them. Marniehad insisted on taking the wooden trunk from her room in the car instead of shipping it with the res t of the stuff on the moving van. As they waited outside in the car, they heard ashriek from inside the house. It was Marnie.When she lifted the small wooden trunk, Fuzzy the turtle crawled out. He was still alive, amazingly enough, and now his name finally made sense. He was actually a littlefuzzy.The family drove away. Marnie was on top of the world, she was so happy about reuniting with her bel oved pet. Jenny couldn't have been less happy. If there is a bottom ofthe world, she was there.She tried not to cry as she looked out the window at her friends waving wildly. She tried, but she d idn't succeed. Finally, she fell asleep.Jenny opened her eyes just as the car stopped outside a motel. “Where are we?” Jenny asked, sleepily .“Philadelphia,” her mom answered.“No, why are we at a motel?” Jenny wanted to know.“Because we're going to live here a while,” her father explained.“What?” Jenny exclaimed.“Our new house isn't finished being built yet, so we have to stay here until it is,” her mother answ ered, as if it was the most normal thing in the world for a family to live in amotel.“Oh, this is great,” Marnie beamed, “we'll have a pool all summer.”Jenny didn't think this moving thing could get any worse, but now, somehow it actually was.For the rest of the summer, Jenny did basically three things. She swam in the motel pool and she wat ched TV, butmostly she e-mailed and IM'd her friends. It hurt her to hear about the terrific things they were al l doing without her, but shedecided she would rather know than not know. They were all excited about the new school they were go ing to go to in sixthgrade. A new middle school was being built, and her friends would be the first sixth-grade class to go there. The kids werewatching the building's progress, and they couldn't wait to get in.Jenny, on the other hand, was not at all excited about her “new” school. She had been to visit it an d couldn't get inbecause it was closed for the summer, but she had walked around and peeked in the windows, and she w as totallyunderwhelmed.The building was old and huge, not like the small, cozy school she was used to. It was a K-8 school, so lots of littlekids would be there too. Not like the cool middle school her friends were going to go to, which was for grades 6, 7, and 8 only.But as the first day of school grew near, Jenny still felt a little of that beginning-of-the-year ex citement. Her family wassupposed to move into their new house about a week before school opened. That way they'd have time t o “settle in,” Momsaid, before they had to deal with school.But the house wasn't ready on time, and when school opened, they still lived in the motel. So on the first day, whenJenny got to school and kids asked her where she lived, she actually had to tell people she lived in a motel. It didn't go overwell at all.“You live in a motel?”So went the first day of school. Jenny wondered what would happen on Day 2.&Copy; Hot Topics Hot Serials 2006

<B>Eagle in Education</B><I>Bringing Creative Learning Opportunities to Local Classrooms</I>CHAPTER EIGHT WILL BE PUBLISHED TUEDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011

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