Summary: Lila answers the call.

🔹Table of Contents

I live fifteen minutes away from school by car.

Imagine walking.

My mom couldn’t take me to school because the family car was out of order, and I can’t afford to miss any more days of school after I had to go to the doctor because of that incident with the lawnmower. So I had no other choice but to walk. By the time I got to school it was the middle of second period.

“Lila, where’ve you been?” asked Jamie as I set my backpack on the floor and dropped the pile of papers on my desk.

“I missed the bus.” I began flipping through them.

“Oh.” I could tell she was trying to hold back her questions especially since she wasn’t saying anything, but she couldn’t hold them in for too long. After three minutes of watching me, she came out with a shy, “Uh, Lila…”

“Uh hmm…”

“What are all those papers for?”

“I picked them up when I ran into a girl in a blue uniform.”

“You saw another one of them today?” she squeaked.

“Yeah,” I said.

Then I told her the whole episode of how I crashed into the Omnigirl, and Jamie stared at me like I had just told her that I was abducted by aliens, and they stole my brain.

When I was done, Jamie was like, “That is weird. What are those papers about?”

“It looks like nothing but schoolwork,” I said, reshuffling them so that they were in a neat pile.

“I’m not going to look through them anymore. I don’t like being nosy. I’ll just throw them in the trash.”

But as I stood up to throw them away, Jamie cried, “No, not yet! I want to see.”

I could not believe it. Jamie, who is such a fighter for personal privacy—she argues all the time about the authority the school has to run searches and the Patriot Act—is now begging to stick her nose into something that is not her business. So not right.

“Jamie, I thought you were above the crime of being nosy.”

“I am—but this is different. I have to see!”

I started to hand them to her, but then I pulled back.

“Well, I don’t know. To make your own rules and then break them isn’t good to do. It could be the beginning of a disturbing pattern.”

“Just give me the stupid papers!”

“Okay. But now you have to throw them away.”

I handed the papers to her, and she devoured them like—well…an animal. She read through all of them, front and back, making comments as she went along.

“Calculus? Trig? I would love to have those classes…Latin Three? They have Latin Three at their school! We only have Latin One! Ugh, I hate that school.”

It’s amazing what people can get excited over, especially Jamie. Total brainiac.

For the next two weeks I didn’t see any more girls in blue. It was like they disappeared off the face of the Earth or something. Everything in my life went on as usual—for a little while.

While I was at my locker picking out the books I needed for my next class, Jamie talked to me about her classes—what teachers she liked, and what teachers she couldn’t stand—stuff like that. Then she stopped for a second, her face totally paralyzed.

“What’s wrong?”

“Look at that man over there,” she whispered.

I closed my locker and looked. It was a man in a heavy overcoat.

“It’s sort of chilly outside,” I said, trying to make an excuse for him.

“Whatever!” exclaimed Jamie. “He must be crazy wearing an overcoat like that. August is barely over.”

“Well, maybe his blood is really thin.”

“Maybe he’s a lunatic. Is he a new teacher?” Jamie leaned to get a better look as he walked down the hallway.

“Let’s go,” I said, tapping on my watch to remind her. “I don’t want to be late to class. Mr. Sanders is threatening me with detention if I’m late again.”

While I was sitting peacefully in algebra class doing my work, a runner from the front office came into the classroom. She walked up to Mr. Sanders and gave him a yellow slip of paper. I watched as his froggy eyes ran over it.

Then he got up from his desk and began to walk up the aisles. I felt dread as he passed Terrell’s desk and Jamie’s which are next to mine. He walked right up to me and slapped the yellow paper face down on my desk.

Right then I had a sinking feeling. This pass was not for going home early.

As I walked to the principal’s office a clear and horrible picture played in my head. I saw myself walking into the office and sitting in front of the principal’s huge oak desk.

He would say it in a calm and unfeeling voice. It wouldn’t be that hard for him. He has probably given students the same message of doom many times before. My head aches and my heart goes crazy as he tells me that I have failed, and I have to look forward to another year of being a sophomore. I plead and beg for another chance, but he laughs at me.

I’m thrown out, and the door is slammed shut behind me. I get on my knees and beat on the door with tears streaming from my eyes and down my face as I cry for another chance…

I went up to the lady at the front desk.

“How do I get to the principal’s office?” I asked.

“Go down that hallway, and it’s the last door to the right.”

“Thanks.”

I walked down the hallway until I came to that last door on the right.

“Principal Johnson” was printed in big bold letters on the door. I slowly turned the knob and opened it.

Inside were Principal Johnson and the man in the overcoat that I had seen hours before. Principal Johnson left from behind his desk and came up to me.

“So are you Lila Collins?” he asked.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Well, it is a great pleasure to meet you,” he said, shaking my hand. “Come and have a seat.”

As I sat down next to the man in the overcoat, I thought something was wrong. He’s too happy. I’m sure that will change soon.

Principle Johnson sat behind his desk and said, “Lila, I would like for you to meet someone.” He stretched out his hand in the direction of the man in the overcoat.

“This is Dr. Sterling, the headmaster of Omni High School.”

“Nice to meet you Miss Lila Collins,” he said as he extended his hand out to me. I gaped as I shook it. The headmaster of Omni High wants to meet me? Why?

“Wait a minute,” I said, glancing back at Principal Johnson. “What does he have to do with this?”

Mr. Johnson’s face twisted with a look of disappointment. “Did someone already tell you why you are here?”

“I failed the test, didn’t I?” I blurted out, not waiting for an explanation. “I knew I failed it!”

Principal Johnson and Dr. Sterling exchanged glances, like they couldn’t believe what I had just said. Then they broke out laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, putting on a dead serious frown. “I don’t see anything funny about this.”

“You did not fail the test,” said Principal Johnson with a huge smile.

“In fact,” said Dr. Sterling, “you got a perfect score.”

“A perfect score?” The words felt funny coming out of my mouth. A perfect score!

Good thing I was sitting down. For a while I didn’t say anything. I just moved my lips to make the shape of the words, but I couldn’t get any sound out. Incredible. It was too good to be true.

“You’ve got to be kidding!” I screeched. “Me? Getting a perfect score? It’s impossible. I can see my friend Jamie getting a perfect score, but me? I’m an idiot! Dr. Sterling, this must be some type of a mix up.”

“Well, let’s see,” he said, opening up his overcoat and pulling a large manila envelope out of one of the interior pockets.

“In this envelope is your actual test,” he said. He opened it and took out a familiar answer sheet. He took a pair of reading glasses out of another pocket and set them on his nose. Then he began to read.

“Tell me if this sounds like your paper. The name on the top is ‘Lila Collins’ grade ‘10,’ Address is ‘1550 Lakeside St.’ birthday ‘June 14th.’”

“That’s me,” I said, stunned.

“You definitely underestimate yourself.” He put the test back into the manila envelope and took off his glasses.

“Miss Collins, the reason I am here is to formally invite you to come attend classes at Omni High.”

“But I thought your school was only for smart girls…”

“This test shows me that you are smart. Not only that, but also I’ve been able to get some of your work from other teachers, and I have seen that you are capable of creative and highly innovative ideas.”

A little shyness hit me, especially when my mind replayed the slight failure of my last project. I may be creative, but I’m definitely not a creative genius.

“It would be a great honor to have you come to my school,” Dr. Sterling finished.

“This is so great, but I don’t know. My family doesn’t have enough money to pay for classes there.”

“Lila,” said Principal Johnson warmly, “I took your financial situation into consideration. I have been able to get a voucher from the government so if you are interested, you can go for free.”

I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say. Omni was such an awesome school and me, regular Lila Collins, was being asked to go there. Think of all the opportunities. It would be awesome, but there was one problem.

“This is great and all,” I said to Dr. Sterling, “but if I go to another school, I’m going to have to leave all my friends. I’m not sure if I can do that.”

“I understand your feelings,” he said, twiddling his thumbs, “but these are just one of those tough decisions you’re going to have to make in life.”

I bit on my bottom lip in thought.

“But here are some papers about the school, and on that blue sheet is my phone number. If you decide to come, give me a call before Monday, and I will give you more details.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you for coming down here to speak to Lila,” said Principal Johnson standing up and shaking Dr. Sterling’s hand. “And thank you Lila for coming here and giving Dr. Sterling your time.” He gave my hand another hardy shake.

“And Miss Collins,” said Dr. Sterling, looking back at me as he exited the principal’s office. “I hope to see you again in the future.”

On the walk back to class, I leafed through the papers that Dr. Sterling had given me. Everything felt like a dream. For the first time in a long time everything was going right.

It was a rush looking through the list of classes offered at that school—art, drama, dance, photography—I wanted them all. Now I will no longer be a world away from the girls that wear the sky blue uniforms because when I go to that school I will be one of them. I will be an Omnigirl.

What about my friends? What about the people I have known for all of my school life? They won’t be gone forever. I still could visit. Besides, going to a new school means more opportunities for making new friends. Going to Omni wouldn’t be that bad. It might actually be fun.

Already in my mind I had said goodbye to everyone. I hadn’t done anything really interesting for a while, so I was definitely up for something new.When I came back to class, my friends were dying to know what happened.

“Did you get in trouble?” asked Terrell.

“Did you fail?” Jamie whispered loudly.

“No and no,” I proudly replied. “You guys won’t believe what just happened.”

“What?” they went together.

“I, Lila Angela Collins, have been asked to attend school at Omni.”

“Huh? They must have made some mistake,” Terrell said, dropping his pencil on his desk.

“Yeah. The probability of anyone like us getting in that school is less than zero,” said Jamie, sounding like she was really concerned or something.

It’s nice to see that my friends have sooooo much confidence in me.

“I am not kidding. When they first asked me I thought they had the wrong person too, but I was the girl they’re looking for.”

“Why?” asked Terrell.

“I got a perfect score on that standardized test.”

“You WHAT!” Jamie shouted. Everyone in the class turned around and stared at her.

“You got a perfect score? How? Is that even possible?”

“I guess it is because I got one.”

Right at that moment I felt a complete reversal of roles. So is this what it feels like to be smart? Jamie is always the one telling me about her good grades, and I was always left wondering how she did it. Every time I get straight C’s, she gets straight A’s. When I win the award of being the most improved, she wins the award of being best of all. I never could beat her, but finally I had out done her. Now she was looking in from the other side of the fence. Finally I had done something better than her.

I heard her grumble a little bit; probably wishing she was in my sneakers. But know what? She could have at least pretended to be happy for me—just a little bit…

Anyways, Terrell had a more important question.

“So are you going to leave?”

I paused. All the way on the walk to class I was thinking about how cool it would be to go to that school—the rhyme is an accident. Really. But when he asked me that question though, the thought of saying ‘no’ crossed my mind, but I shoved that idea out of my head.

“Am I going? The best school around here has invited me to go there for free. Of course I’m going.”

“But Lila, I heard that is a hard school. Do you think you can make it there?” asked Jamie.

I could tell she was jealous when she asked that question. I could just read her hater mind. Why wouldn’t she be jealous of me? Even though I usually don’t get better grades than she does, I’m more fun to be around than she is. I’m more exciting, more interesting. Not only that I got a higher grade on a test she thought that she did so well on. I’m good at many different things. Why was she questioning my ability?

“Of course I can make it!” I went off. “I’m not as dumb as you think I am. I passed the test. I aced it. I guess that means I know something that you don’t!”

“Well, Lila,” said Jamie, her mouth shrinking, “I wouldn’t care if you go since you have such an ugly attitude!”

“Excuse me? Ugly attitude? Girl, there is only one ugly thing in this room, and that’s you.”

I guess I said that kind of loud because then the class went, “Ooooh.”

“Oh yeah!” said Jamie, throwing down her pen and standing up, also knocking over a bottle of white-out, spilling it on her work.

I stood up too and shouted in her face, “Yeah!”

“Girls, what’s going on back there?” asked the teacher.

We didn’t pay him any attention.

“Lila, you don’t know what you got into by challenging me,”said Jamie, doing that wiggly attitude thing with her head. So stupid.

“You bet I do.”

“Girls, calm down!”

“Well, apparently you don’t or you wouldn’t have stood up in the first place.”

“Lila, Jamie not in the…”

“Girl, you better sit down,” I said, pushing up my sleeves and crowding the teacher out of our argument. “Before I make you.”

“Girls, girls, girls!” yelled Mr. Sanders with his bug-eyes about to eject themselves out of his head from anger. “You two sit down and be quiet before I send both of you to the detention hall!”

We both sat down quickly. I played with my fingers, embarrassed.

“If I ever see a scene like that again, you two won’t be back in this classroom for a long time!”

“Don’t worry about that, Mr. Sanders,” said Jamie, slinging her backpack across her shoulder. “Because I’m not sitting over here anymore.”

The class and I watched as she dramatically walked over to the other side of the classroom, dropped her stuff down next to an empty desk, and sat down in it. No one breathed.

Mr. Sanders made a resigned clap with his hands and ordered everyone to get back to work. From that point, all that could be heard were pencils writing and a few whispers here and there.

“That would have been a great fight,” Terrell whispered to me.

“Shut up.”

When I got home my mom was there as usual, watching her soaps. I knew how disastrous it could be if I disturbed my mom while she was watching a soap opera. I had been grounded for doing that quite a few times, but I felt that today I had to tell her what happened, and it was much more important than Bobby cheating with Jasmine behind Kristi’s back when he tried to kill her. That plot is like, so overdone.

My mom sat in the corner of the sofa with a pillow clasped to her chest and a box of tissues at her side. Silently, I sat down beside her. I sat there until commercial break came on. I started talking before she had a chance to pick up the remote and turn to another soap. If I had waited a second later, she probably would never have heard what I had to say.

“Mom, today I’ve been asked to go to the private school on Main Street,” I poured out all at once.

“What?” She turned her head away from the TV and towards me.

“I said that I’ve been asked to go to the private school on Main Street. Mom, I’ve been accepted to go to Omni High School.”

My mom was so shocked that she turned the TV off.

“You mean the Omni School for Girls? The school where eighty-five percent of the students go to Harvard?”

“Actually it’s ninety,” I said.

“Are you lying to me?”

I smiled and shook my head.

“Oh my baby, I knew you would make it someday!”

My mother gave me a crushing hug.

“Wait until your dad finds out. He’ll be so proud. He’s coming home this evening.”

He’s coming home? I hadn’t seen my dad in the last two days. He was always too busy working. Finally he was going to be home. Okay, I know that two days really isn’t that long, but I love my dad so much that two days without him feels like forever. It’s like we have this connection with each other, and he understands me better than almost anyone else. I gave my mom a strong hug back.

“Don’t worry about how much it’s going to cost,” she said. “We will come up with a way to pay for you to go there.

“Mom, there’s even better news. The government is going to pay for me to go there so you guys won’t have to pay anything.”

“Oh baby, that’s wonderful!” she cried, hugging me tighter. Then she held me back and looked at me. “You know what? Tonight we’ve got to celebrate. I’m going to order pizza for dinner, how’s that?”

“That’s great.”

She went to the phone in the kitchen and began dialing in numbers. I hadn’t seen my mom so happy since the day I won an award at the school art festival. It felt good to know that she was proud of me. Sometimes I wonder if she ever notices me at all.

If I came home and told her that I had failed instead, she would have probably given me a dull, “Sorry to hear that, honey,” and continue with “Days of Our Lives.” I guess she doesn’t expect much from me. She should.

While my mom was discussing on the phone what was to go on the pizza, the doorbell rang. I ran to the door and opened it. My heart leaped. It was my dad.

“Dad!” I yelled, giving him a hug.

“Hey there little girl,” he said as I hugged him.

“I’m so not little, Dad.”

“Since when?” he said with a laugh. “You’re always to me.”

“Great to have you back, Dad.”

My mom hung up the phone and ran to the door.

“Samantha, how are you doing?” My dad let me go and gave my mom a hug and a kiss.

“Everything’s going fine,” she said. “Did Lila tell you the great news?”

“What news?” he asked, looking back at me.

“I’m going to be going to Omni High School.”

“That’s great!” he exclaimed. He took off his shoes and came inside.

“I know, isn’t it?” my mom bubbled. “I ordered a pizza to celebrate.”

“Your mother ordered a pizza,” he said looking at me. “That’s how she celebrates things. Do you know I celebrate things?”

“Oh no,” I said with a smile. “Dad, don’t you dare.”

“Oh yeah?”

He chased me all around the house. I ran as fast as I could until I ran out of breath. I knew I couldn’t out run him, and eventually he caught me.

Even though I am almost as big as he is, he managed to pick me up and carry me in some weird wrestling hold on his back.

“Put me down,” I screamed. “Put me down!”

He dropped me to the floor and began tickling me. I laughed so hard that my insides began to hurt.

Fortunately, I was saved when the pizza delivery man rang the doorbell. I could smell the fresh pizza when my mom opened the box.

“Time to eat.”

It was great seeing the smiling faces of my mom and dad at the table at the same time. It was almost as if my dad never spent most of his time working so we could afford to eat at all, and my mom wasn’t addicted to daytime dramas and ignored me. For once, everything seemed normal, and the pizza just made it all better.

That night, before I went to bed, I gave Dr. Sterling a call.

“Hello?” answered a deep voice on the opposite end of the receiver.

“Hello, this is Lila Collins.”

“Oh, hello Miss Collins!”

“Hello, Dr. Sterling. I’d just like you to know that I would love to attend classes at your school.”

“Wonderful, wonderful!” he said. “I want you to come by my office after school tomorrow.”

I could do that. Omni isn’t too far away from Bridgman, but the problem was getting back home.

“But Dr. Sterling, I wouldn’t be able to get back to my house. I would miss the bus, and my mom’s car is broken down. My dad takes the other car to work, and we never have a clue when he’s going to bring it back.”

“No problem,” he said. “School here doesn’t get out until four o’clock, so you can ride on one of the buses here to get home.”

“Okay.”

“So, do you know what classes you want to take?”

“I’ve thought about it, but I haven’t made any real decisions.”

“Well, when I see you tomorrow, I want you to know what classes you are going to take. My goal is to have you in school by Monday. Make sure you get all your math classes, English classes, etcetera, but I also want you to get classes that you like. Also when you come tomorrow, you’re going to take a little test.”

“A test?” I whined.

“Don’t worry about it. It won’t affect your classes in any way. It is just to see how you would react in different circumstances. Most students take it with their entrance exam, but the test you just took will serve as one since the statewide test is formatted after the one that girls have to take to enter this school. You don’t have to take another one. Any questions Miss Collins?”

“Actually, I have two. First—uh… Isn’t it kind of unusual that you’re over an all girls’ school? I thought it would be run by something like a woman…”

I heard his deep laugh from the other end, and then he said, “My wife used to be over it, but when she died, it was left to me.”

“Oh—sorry about that.”

“It’s alright. What’s your other question?”

“Do I actually start school on Monday?”

“Yes, you do. I even have a uniform waiting for you in my office. You should know what classes you have the day you start. Is that all?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Very well then. I’ll see you tomorrow, Miss Collins.”

“Later, Dr. Sterling.”

I quietly hung up the phone.

That was it. I was officially no longer in Bridgman High School. Tomorrow will be my last day. Now I belong to Omni High. I felt nervous, scared, and excited, all at the same time.

As I sat there on my bed reviewing what happened, I began to wonder, am I ready for this?

Why did that question even cross my mind?

Of course I am. I was born to be an Omnigirl.

🔹Table of Contents

Starlight Library Omnigirl Symbol Key Excerpt:

The Argument with Jamie: Jamie is a symbol of what Lila thinks she needs to be to be accepted, liked, and seen. Less cosmic creativity and more follow the rules productivity and achievement. However, Dr. Sterling comes along and makes it clear that he sees Lila exactly as she is, and she goes for it, and in doing so she expresses her bitterness towards the societal expectations (Jamie), and how they fail to make her feel worthy.

Lila is looking for self-worth, and Omni High School, the school where girls can be all of themselves, seems to hold the key. From a purely symbolic viewpoint, this is where Lila goes to start regathering the lost pieces of herself.