Lucy and Linh Read Online Free PDF Page B

They’re already providing her with a full scholarship!”
    Even though he had insulted my mother’s sewing skills and implied she was stingy, Linh, I did not say anything to contradict my father. I was on his side, because he was on mine.



Dear Linh,
    On my first day, when I entered our homeroom, I had no idea where to sit, so I headed for the first empty seat I saw, next to a girl with very long hair braided into a plait and a pound-cake face flecked with freckles.
    “You’re the new girl, aren’t you?” she asked.
    “Yes—how did you know?”
    “All your clothes are new.”
    I looked down, embarrassed. Not a thread of my new uniform had been in the wash. My shirt had crease lines from being folded in the packet. Around the room, the other girls’ clothes had a lived-in, everyday look. Later I would see how they chucked their jackets on the backseats of buses, tied their sweaters around their waists, not caring if the sleeves stretched, and hiked up the hems of their summer skirts. No one wore the blue hair ribbons—I was the only one dumb enough to have taken that part of the uniform code seriously.
    The girl next to me was named Katie. “Don’t worry,” she told me, “you look great.”
    I didn’t detect any sarcasm. She was being genuinely kind, and at that moment I learned two things about Katie. By telling me that she noticed my clothes were new, she showed that she was honest, but she could also tell the occasional white lie if the circumstances called for it.
    After homeroom, we marched to the performing arts center for assembly. Years Seven and Eight sat level with the stage, while Years Nine and Ten sat in the raised seating areas. Looking down, I could see a moving blanket of blue and maroon. I had never seen anything so ordered before in real life, so…well, uniform. Even though we had a uniform at Christ Our Savior, we got away with wearing whatever socks we wanted as long as they were white, and whatever shirt we wanted as long as it was blue. Remember how some girls came in with all kinds of casual shirts, while others pulled their socks so high that they looked like tights, Linh?
    Here, every girl in the auditorium had her hair tied back if it was below shoulder length. Here, every girl wore a blazer. Here, every girl sat still, no matter how long she had to wait. If she couldn’t sit still, she was probably told to sit on her hands, as I saw many of the Year Sevens doing. I had been to assemblies before, but this was the model of an assembly. Suddenly I understood what it was to
assemble,
just as a few moments before I had truly understood
uniform.
    I heard the sound of bagpipes, and everyone began to stand. Then I saw a girl playing
actual
bagpipes march through the stained-glass double doors of the auditorium.
    Following her were two girls carrying long white flags emblazoned with the Laurinda motto—one in Latin (
Concordia Prorsum
) and the other in English (Forward in Harmony). The girls had more badges and pins on their lapels than a World War II veteran. Following them were four girls carrying red, blue, yellow and green flags. These, I presumed, were the prefects.
    Finally the staff of the college marched by, all decked out in black academic gowns. Some had sashes of green or orange, while others had tassels and other scholarly insignia. I recognized Mrs. Grey by her red hood.
    When they all had taken their seats onstage, Mrs. Grey stood up and looked around the auditorium. A few students were still quietly talking to each other. Mrs. Grey raised her right hand in the air, as if in parody of a bored student waiting to answer a question.
    Then something strange happened. Students in the middle row—Year Eights—also raised their right arms in the air. Then the Year Nines followed. Meanwhile, the teachers at each end of the aisles raised their right arms. The befuddled Year Sevens, with whom I could identify, slowly began to copy the motion. Soon everyone on the ground floor of