New School, Private School

Isabel Yip

Age 12

New School, Private School

I’ve never fainted, ever. But, of course, I had to get so nervous that I fainted. And to make things worse, it was on the first day of school at a new school. Now, I’m very socially confident, and I don’t care what people think of me, but when I was walking down the hallway, I just got so jittery and felt lightheaded. But to start my story I’d rather not start with that, it might give you the wrong impression about me.

I was so excited to start at a new school. My family just moved from Chicago to Indiana last week. Luckily, it was before school started because starting a week late at a new school is kind of weird. All the social groups have been set down, and no one’s really open to letting in a new member.

My family moved because my mom got a new job as head doctor at an amazing hospital here. I started school the very next day. It was a private school. Since this was the “wealthier” part of town there were only private schools.

My new school looked very, um, what’s the right word? Ah hah, intimidating. I don’t know how a school intimidates someone. It shouldn’t even be possible. I stood there at the iron gates that led to the courtyard in front of the very tall gray stone building that was my new school.

Since there were literally no public schools in this new town, I was going to a private school for the first time in my life. I’ve never ever gone to a private school. In all the movies I’ve watched, private schoolers have been snobby and stuck up. But I don’t like judging, and I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated.

So, I was just going to be friendly to everyone. That was my plan. Be nice to absolutely everyone. It’s not like it’s hard. I swallow, take a deep breath, and walk forward confidently.

As I enter the courtyard, I get stared at by the other students that were hanging out on the playground before class started. All of them were grouped together in bunches. It seemed as though they didn’t get a lot of new people here.

Everyone seemed to know each other, and they glared at me as I walked

past them. I gave them small smiles, but by the end of the courtyard, I stuck with an emotionless face.

I finally reached the steps up to the looming, dark, oak doors leading into the school. Wow, even the doors are intimidating. I was kind of afraid to touch them. What if private schools had electric handles to toughen up the kids? That’s ridiculous, Salana, I told myself and pushed through the doors. My breath was taken away. I had to admit, private schools know how to decorate.

Despite the school’s intimidating exterior, the inside was so lavish and fancy. It looked like they spent most of the school funding on the inside of the building and not the outside. I slowly walked into the main hall. Dark, polished wood lined the floor. Glass chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The lockers were three times the size of my last school’s lockers. The lockers even looked fancy as they were made out of polished oak wood. Gold plaques on each locker stated the student’s name, last name, and grade. I could sense a wood theme going on.

As I walked down the hall, kids that were chatting near lockers and sitting on benches stared at me. I felt jittery. I’m never jittery when people stare at me, but something was different with these private school kids. Why? Who knows.

I took another deep breath; it didn’t make my nerves go away, and instead it made my head feel light.

I kept walking. I had no idea where the main office was. For some reason, I was too scared to ask the kids where it was. Maybe I could ask a teacher. I scanned the hallways for a teacher that might help me. I found no teachers. I looked around on the walls for signs or maybe a map of the school. But again I found nothing. What was with this place? Did they want kids to get lost?

I barely noticed my breathing getting faster. My heart beat fast and loud in my ears. I had no idea why I was so nervous. I checked my watch. It was 8:10am, and school started at 8:25am. The time check did not help my jitters. I stopped in the middle of the hallway. I felt very nauseous and light headed. The hallway was swaying, and I was pretty sure that it wasn’t supposed to be. I heard some kids saying, “Is she alright?” and “Should we call an adult?” I collapsed to the ground, and the world turned black.

I woke with a start. My eyes seemed very heavy as I opened them. My mouth was very dry, and the room was suffocatingly hot, or maybe I was just hot. I sat up quickly and looked around. I was lying on a cot in the middle of a small room. The room had white walls with a simple small clock that was right across from me on the wall.

The floor was a white marble. I tried to think back to how I got here, but I

didn’t remember anything. A door to my right opened. The shuffling of feet jolted me from my deep thoughts. A woman, about thirty, with black hair that’s pulled into a tight bun walked in. She wore a white coat and held an iPad. I stared at her for a moment before asking, “What happened?”

She smiled kindly at me. “You collapsed in the hallway. You’re in the main office now,” she said.

That’s one way to get to the office. Collapse in the middle of the hallway. I climbed off the cot and looked over at the clock again. It read 8:30am. Great. I’m late to class. That means I’d been out for twenty minutes.

If I had fainted, I would have been out for maybe a minute but a whole twenty minutes? I passed out, which is worse than fainting. I looked back at the woman, she was checking the iPad. “Do you know why I passed out?”

She looked up at me, “We don’t know yet, but we’d like to keep you here until your temperature goes down,” she said.

My heart sank. I was probably going to miss my first class at a new school. “Do you want some water?” the woman asked.

I nodded. She left the room and returned shortly with a glass of water for me. I drank the whole glass, not even realizing how thirsty I was. I felt my cheek and found it burning hot. I pressed the cold glass to my cheek. What happened? It’s not like I have any allergies except red food dye and strawberries.

About half an hour later, the nurse came back into the room. “The head nurse says you can go now. Just come back to the office if you feel nauseous or dizzy.”

I nodded. She led me out of the room and into the main office. The main office looked like a luxury hotel lobby with its shining marble floors and a fancy desk where a secretary sits. The nurse walked over to the desk where the secretary is sitting. The two of them talked in hushed tones for a bit, and then the secretary gave the nurse a pink slip of paper.

The nurse turned back to me and handed me the slip of paper. I took it and read it. I could just make out the words on the paper. It was an excuse slip. It meant they excused me from class. I tucked it in my back pocket.

The nurse signaled for me to follow her. She led me through some glass sliding doors and out into a hallway.

When we walked out of the office, there was a boy leaning against the wall across from us. He seemed to be staring off into space right above my head. “Cameron,” the nurse snapped to get his attention. He looked down at us. “Take her to class please,” the nurse said.

The nurse promptly went back into the office. Cameron has brown hair

and hazel eyes, and he is about half a head taller than me. He looks like a troublemaker, but I quickly shoved that thought away since I did not want to judge these people. Cameron walked up to me and held out his hand in a mocking way. He smiled, but it was a dry smile. “I’m Cameron.”

I smiled back and shook his hand. “I’m Salana.”

Before Cameron could speak again, a speaker blared through the hallways. “Salana Justice, Cameron Diaz is your guide until you get used to the school.”

I don’t know why, but it annoyed me that they announced it to the whole school instead of just telling me in private. Or even better, before school started. “So I’m your guide since I have the same schedule as you,” Cameron said.

“OK.”

When we got to class, the teacher had me introduce myself. I faced the class. Most of them look bored or tapped annoyingly on their desks. “Um, hi, I’m Salana. I just moved here from Chicago,” I said.

“That’s great, um, you can pick a seat now,” the teacher said, her eyes not leaving her clipboard.

I didn’t really see the point of picking my seat since there’s only one seat left, but the teacher didn’t seem to notice that. She intently stared at her clipboard.

Pointing out a teacher’s mistake is definitely a do-not-do-on-your-firstday-of-school-or-ever thing, so I said, “Um, I’ll sit there.” I pointed to the only seat left, which was in the middle of the room right next to Cameron.

“Great, you can sit down now,” the teacher said.

I looked over at her, and she was not even looking at me. I walked through the rows and dropped down into my seat.

The rest of the morning was uneventful. It was probably one of the very few mornings I was thinking negatively and not finding a bright side. By lunch time, I already had three hours of homework. What is up with the mass homework? It was the first day of school for crying out loud.

Three classes of introducing myself, and the teachers telling me to pick a seat when there was only one left. Turns out that students are assigned their seats in class a month before school starts.

I stopped by my locker to grab my lunch. My locker was so hard to find. I was late to class two times because of that. I’d never been late. Well, first time for everything, right? I was really hoping to avoid being tardy on my first day.

I found Cameron leaning next to my locker. Again, he looked like he’s staring into space. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes and turn around before he could see me, but I forced myself to keep walking.

I had only known Cameron for three hours, but he had proved in those

three hours that he was the most annoying person on the planet. Think happy thoughts, I told myself as I drew nearer. Cameron didn’t notice me until I was standing right next to him, turning my lock on my locker. “Oh, hi,” he said in a kind of sarcastic way.

I opened my locker without looking at him. “What are you doing here?” I asked, no longer able to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

“Being your guide means I have ‘Buddy duties’,” he said, making air quotes.

“You mean like eating lunch with me,” I asked, grabbing my lunch box.

“Exactly.”

I closed my locker and looked at him with a glare. “You don’t have to eat lunch with me. I’m sure you have some annoying friends to sit with, so goodbye and I’ll see you after lunch,” I said and walked away.

Cameron caught up with me. “Why are you acting so cold all of a sudden?”

“And why do you have to eat lunch with me?”

“Well, you see this is sort of my punishment for vandalizing the gym,” said Cameron.

“You did what?”

“Yeah, I just drew the school’s mascot in spray paint at one in the morning. Not to mention, I did technically break into the school after it closed.”

I stopped and stared at him. “So . . . if you don’t eat lunch with me, you’ll get expelled?” I asked hopefully.

“No, I’ll get suspended and trust me, even if I did lie and say that I ate lunch with you when I didn’t, the principal has spies everywhere,” he said, eyeing the door of a classroom.

“So you have to be my guide as punishment for vandalizing the gym?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And how is that a punishment?” I asked.

“I sort of, maybe, expressed how much I hated being a guide, and the principal decided it was a fitting punishment,” he said quickly.

“Why did you tell her that? It’s your own fault for giving her the idea.”

“I get really chatty when I’m nervous, so it sort of just slipped out,” he said.

I realized we just got way off topic. I started walking again. “I’m not going to eat lunch with you,” I said.

“Like I want to eat lunch with you either,” said Cameron.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I demanded.

“I’m just saying, you seem very annoying,” Cameron said.

“Really? Because I got the same impression from you,” I snapped.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Before we could start screaming at each other, a voice cut through. “Cameron? Salana?”

We both turned to the voice behind us. The principal was walking up to us. She was wearing a black suit with black heels, her black hair pulled up in a tight bun, and her eyes were like steel. She put on a smile with her perfect, blindingly white teeth showing. “Are you two heading to lunch together?”

Cameron opened his mouth to say something, but before he could say something stupid and embarrass me, I elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow.”

“Yes, we are,” I said, plastering a fake smile on my face.

“Very good, and Salana, if you need anything, you can always stop by my office,” she said.

“Thank you, I will,” I said.

She smiled and walked past us. As soon as she was out of earshot, Cameron asked, “Why did you elbow me?”

“I had a feeling you were going to say something stupid,” I said.

We didn’t really have a choice but to eat lunch together, so we headed to the cafeteria in silence. I noticed that every student in the hallway that we passed either fist bumps Cameron, high fives him, or says hi. Everyone seemed to know him.

We stopped at an open door that says “Cafeteria” above it. We walked through it. The cafeteria was huge. It had a high ceiling, and circular tables were placed around the room.

On one side was a kitchen, and I could smell the scent of fries coming from it. I could see exactly two tables open—one in the middle of the room and one in the corner in the back. Cameron started walking toward the one in the center of the room. “No way,” I said and pulled him to the one in the back.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m not sitting in the middle of the room,” I said.

“Why not?”

“It . . . it’s none of your business.”

“OK, Sal.”

“Don’t call me Sal,” I snapped.

We sat in awkward silence for the next few minutes. “So I heard you collapsed in the middle of the hallway earlier,” Cameron said.

I looked up at him. “How do you know that?” I asked.

“News travels really fast,” he said.

I sighed. “Do you know why you fainted?” he asked.

“I passed out; I didn’t faint. If I fainted, I would have been out for a couple of seconds, but I was out for twenty minutes, so I passed out,” I said.

“OK, Ms. Know-it-all, I don’t need the history of fainting.”

Cameron and I didn’t talk for the rest of the lunch period.

At the end of the day, I lost Cameron in the crowds of kids and speed walked out of school grounds. I only slowed down when I reached the street where my house is.

I slowed to a slow walk as I walked down the street. I exhaled. I felt like I’d been holding my breath all day. When I got to my house and opened the door, I saw my eight year old brother, Issac, jumping up and down on the couch.

Normally, I would be happy to see him, but I just felt more tired and moody. Was this what being a moody teenager is like? If it is, I was not loving it. Well, my birthday was three months ago, so it was bound to happen some time. He spotted me and ran over to me. “Salana, Salana, Salana, SALANA,” Issac screamed and tackled me with a hug.

“Hi, Issac,” I said.

“Do you want to play with me?” he asked.

“Sorry Issac, I have five hours of homework,” I said.

“Bummer, I don’t have any homework,” he said.

“Of course you don’t, you’re in second grade. Homework practically doesn’t exist there,” I said, ruffling his hair.

“Will you play with me later?” he asked.

“I’ll play with you when I’m done with my homework,” I said, patting him on the head.

Issac has curly brown hair like me, except my hair is super straight. And his bright black eyes are the image of mine. He’s up to my shoulder in height. Issac ran back to the couch and went back to jumping around on it. I sighed and walked up the stairs. I walked into my room, which was still being unpacked. There were bunches of boxes that were labeled with my stuff. I fell face first onto my bed and groaned at the weight in my backpack.

I sat up and pulled open the shades to my window in front of my desk. I jumped back in surprise at what I saw. Cameron was sitting at a desk in the window across from me.

When I got over my shock, a kind of disturbance and irritation set in. I walked forward and pulled my window straight up. I stuck my head out the window. Cameron didn’t even look up. I waved my hand around to get his attention.

Cameron looked up and confusion crossed his face. He stood up and leaned over his desk to pull up his window. Once he got his window open,

I screamed “You’re my neighbor?!”

“Don’t blame this on me. I didn’t know we were neighbors,” he snapped.

All I could do was stare at him hard before I pulled myself back inside and slammed my window shut.

That night, I stayed awake staring at the ceiling. All of the events of the day swirled around in my head. I barely managed to finish all my homework in time to play with Issac for a round of Uno. It took me (as I predicted) four hours to do my homework. If homework was like this every day, I didn’t know if I could keep up.

I still couldn’t believe that Cameron was my neighbor. Ugh, that guy was so annoying.

I had a strange feeling that something was wrong. The feeling had started when I finished my game of Uno with Issac.

I heard the creak of a floorboard in the hallway. I frowned and sat up. I looked over at my clock and saw it read 2:45am. I pulled back my blanket and stood up.

As I walked to my door, I caught sight of myself in my mirror. I was wearing a dark blue t-shirt that said “Don’t disturb me, I’m asleep” and matching blue leggings. My brown hair was all messy. I straightened it up a little and opened my door a crack. I looked out into the dark hallway just as the door across from my room opened. I watched as Issac walked out of his room and down the hall. I walked out into the hallway and after him.

I wanted to stop him as he walked down the stairs. He walked in a straight manner; he was not slouching but had a straight back. He was placing his foot one after the other as he walked. He silently walked down the stairs. He didn’t turn on any lights and didn’t even have a flashlight with him. I crept after him.

Issac is terrified of the dark so why wouldn’t he have turned on any lights? The strange feeling that something is wrong grew stronger as I followed him down the stairs and into the foyer.

For some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to stop him; I sensed a powerful and dangerous force. Issac walked toward the front door and unlocked and opened it without a sound. The door swung open and I saw the faint patter of rain.

Issac walked into the rain without a coat or anything. I quickly grabbed my yellow raincoat and slipped on my matching rain boots. When I ran out of the house, I couldn’t see Issac anywhere. I pulled my hood over my head as the rain hit me hard. I ran down the front stairs of the porch and splashed hard on a puddle at the end of the stairs.

The muddy water splashed up and hit my pants. The rain poured down harder. I whipped around looking around the yard for Issac. I wiped the rain out of my eyes as I splashed around the front yard. He couldn’t have gone far in the minute I was putting on my rain gear. “Issac,” I screamed.

I looked through the darkness. “Issac!”

I ran around the front yard. Where was he? I didn’t hear the door to the neighbor’s house open. I splashed around the front yard. The yard lit up with lightning. A loud crack of lightning echoed. It was deafening. I jumped so hard I lost balance and fell down into a puddle. I blinked the spots out of my eyes.

Thunder boomed across the yard. It went dark again. The yard lit up again, and Issac stood over me. I yelped and scrambled back. Issac’s eyes were an electric blue, and he stood rigidly. “I-Isaac?” I stammered.

Issac spoke, but it sounded like a vibration and really low. I stared at him. “Young flame, your power is new to you, yes?” Issac said.

“What are you talking about?”

Issac rolled his eyes. “I’m taking your brother now. His body will be able to sustain me for a while, so I can serve my master rightfully,” he said, checking his nails.

I stared with my mouth wide open at him. He laughed and turned to walk away. I sat in shock. Was I dreaming? Issac’s silhouette was disappearing fast in the dark. Was I hallucinating? The rain got harder. No, no matter what was happening, if it was dreaming or hallucinating, I was saving my little brother.

I scrambled up and ran after Issac. I slipped and slid on the muddy ground as I ran after him. He seemed to disappear in and out of the rain. I could hardly keep track of him in the rain. I didn’t pay attention to where Issac was going. I ran faster after him.

Just when I thought I was getting really close, Issac disappeared completely. I stopped running and caught my breath looking around. To my right, I saw the shadow of something. I stumbled toward it.

As I got closer, it got bigger. I squinted through the rain at it. It was a gazebo. It was pouring then. I ran toward it. I sprinted up the steps. Once I was in, I pulled my hood off. “Thank you,” I heard.

I turned around and saw Issac. I took a step back. The ground of the gazebo lit up in an orange light. Issac smiled. Slowly, the tiles of the gazebo started fading. As soon as there was a hole big enough, Issac jumped through. “ISSAC,” I screamed and ran forward.

I looked down the hole into the darkness. Suddenly, the tiles under my

feet disappeared. I was weightless for a second. I didn’t even have time to scream, but I was able to catch the edge of a tile. I dangled by one hand over the dark abyss. I screamed.

My hand was slipping from the rain. My hand was about to fall off. My hand slipped. I screamed louder. Suddenly, someone caught my hand. I opened my eyes again. I looked up. Cameron leaned over the abyss holding my hand. I squinted at him. “What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I’m your neighbor, and I’m a light sleeper. Do you seriously think that I wouldn’t hear you screaming?” Cameron asked.

“I have to go get my brother,” I said, looking back down into the dark pit.

“Salana, are you seriously going to jump into a weird abyss?” Cameron asked.

“For my brother? Any time,” I said.

“Why don’t we just call 911?”

“NO,” I shouted louder than I meant to. “Don’t do that, there is a strong dark power in my brother right now and calling 911 won’t do anything good. Now, let me go, so I can go get my brother.”

“I’m not just going to drop you into a weird dark pit and walk off,” Cameron said.

“Why not? You barely know me, and you don’t seem to like me at all. I think you’d be happy to drop me into a dark pit and walk off,” I said.

“You know what, I should. You elbowed me in the ribs,” Cameron snapped.

“Fine, I’m going to get my brother anyway.”

Cameron didn’t know what to say to that. Before he could think too long about it, I dug my nails into his arm. He yelped and let my hand go. I couldn’t help but scream as I fell through the cold air. “SALANA,” Cameron screamed.

The gray hole at the top was getting smaller very fast. I could see Cameron’s terrified face as I fell lower. Suddenly, warm air surrounded me, and everything turned black.

Warm air hit my face. My eyes fluttered open. Bright light hit my eyes. I squinted as my eyes adjusted to the brightness. Air whistled around me as I took in my surroundings. It took a moment for me to realize I was falling through open air.

Panic set in fast. I could see clouds fly past me and the bright blue sky above me. I whipped around. I flipped over and saw dark blue waters hurtling toward my face. I screamed. I didn’t even have time to brace myself as I hit the water hard.

A huge splash echoed as I was engulfed in water. The water was so cold. My air gets knocked out of me as bubbles swirled around me in the dark

waters. I couldn’t see anything but my flailing limbs. I kicked hard, and my face broke above the waves.

Luckily for me, the water was calm. I flailed around in the water. Wait, I know how to swim, why am I freaking out? I thought to myself. I regained my swimming confidence and started treading water. I looked around. About five hundred feet away, I could see an island. Two big mountains were in the back of the island, and a beach spread out across the whole front of the island. Behind me and to my left and right was all sea. The sun looked like it was rising, casting morning light onto the waters and island. Where was I? I was pretty sure that there were no oceans and islands in Indiana.

I could feel my muscles getting tight. I knew I couldn’t keep treading water for long. I looked around for a rock or something. I spotted a rock about fifty feet away. I started swimming toward it. It was very flat and jagged. It was not very big but could fit about two people.

I reached it and pulled myself up onto it. Though the air was warm, I was cold as I stood up on the rock. I caught sight of what I was wearing. I was still wearing my yellow rain jacket along with my dark blue pajamas. One of my boots was missing. I was drenching wet from my little face plant into the sea.

I took off my jacket and squeezed out the water off the side of the rock. The sun was rising fast and it was getting very humid. I squeezed out my hair as well. Farther away, I saw my yellow boot pop to the surface of the water. I knelt down and waited until it floated past me before I grabbed it. I dumped out the water and put it back on.

Once my jacket was dry, I wiped my face and tried to dry my shirt and pants. After I was done and mostly dry, I tied my jacket around my waist. The sun was high in the sky then and beating down with horrible heat. It was hard to tell how long I’d been here. I remembered falling down the gazebo’s floor, but it had been nighttime. And how did I end up here? Issac had also jumped through, or whatever possessed him had. But I didn’t see him anywhere.

Someone screaming jolted me from my wondering. I looked around trying to locate the screaming. Right where I had landed in the sea, another figure landed with a huge splash. Who was that? I squinted, trying to see them clearly. Their head popped up from the water as they regained their consciousness. Oh, hey it’s Cameron . . . wait . . . Cameron?

I was relieved that another person was here, and even better a person I knew, even if it was Cameron. I waved my hand around in the air to get his attention. He spotted me and swam over to my rock. “Thank God you’re here,” I said.

He looked at me confused. “That’s a line I thought I would never hear you say,” he said.

“Whatever but you jumped down the hole too?” I asked.

He nodded. I didn’t bother to ask why because we needed to figure out why we’re here. “Where are we?” Cameron asked.

“I don’t know, but Issac jumped down the hole too, so he’s got to be here too,” I said, looking around.

“Who’s Issac?”

“My little brother.”

“Oh.”

We both sat in silence for a second. “Hey, can you help me up?” Cameron asked.

“Yeah.”

I helped Cameron onto the rock. I pulled him up and when I looked up again, we were nose to nose. We both flushed red, and I let go of his hand as we both looked away. The awkwardness was interrupted as a force landed on the rock with us, throwing us both into the ocean again.

I kicked to the surface of the water again, coughing. I blinked the water out of my eyes and focused on the rock again. A short woman was standing on the rock looking around. She had rose gold skin that glinted in the sunlight. Her light purple hair was cut in a choppy pixie style. She was wearing matcha baggy cargo pants and a simple white T-shirt that was hanging off of one of her shoulders. I spat out salty water from my mouth and swam over to the rock. “Um, hello?” I asked as I reached the rock.

Her pearly white eyes found me. “Oh, hi,” she squeaked.

“Um, yeah, hi, so who are you?” I asked.

“I’m Ida, and I’m here to assist you on your trial,” she said happily.

I was about to ask what trial she’s talking about when suddenly I remembered Cameron. I turned back to the ocean to find him but saw still waters. I knew for a fact that he had been thrown into the water too. But couldn’t he swim? He was thrown into the water, which meant since I couldn’t see him, he had gone under.

Panicked, I forgot about Ida and dove down into the water. Through the dark currents, I spotted a dark shadow. I kicked toward it. As I get closer, I can see clearly it’s Cameron. I wrapped my arms around him and kicked toward the surface.

When I broke to the surface, Ida was snapping selfies with a sparkly pink phone. “Ida,” I shouted.

She looked over at me and yelped, “Oh my.”

I was having a hard time keeping both of us afloat. Cameron was like a limp rag doll next to me. Ida cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. She let out a loud bird call. I could feel irritation rising. How was that supposed to help us?

Suddenly, something gripped the back of my shirt and lifted me out of the water. Something grabbed Cameron too and lifted him out with me. I looked to Ida and saw her grab onto the talons of a falcon as it flew toward the island. I looked up and saw a falcon carrying me. There was one carrying Cameron too.

I got a good look at the island from the air. There were bigger than normal palm trees and light blue water. A warm breeze swirled around us as we flew to the main island. I wondered where we were. Will we ever get home? Was Cameron Ok? Who knows what the future will bring but I was sticking with Ida because she seemed to know what she was doing.