prologue
Jina stood on the front porch of her small house, the straps of a pink backpack resting on her shoulders and a lunchbox in her nervous hands. She could hear the bus down the street, and turned to her father.

"I don't want to go to school, Apa." She whined.

"You have to. You have to be smart so you can get a good job." Her father said, kneeling so he would be at her height. "Don't worry, it will be fun." He reassured her in his proper English as the bus pulled up. "You have fun." He hugged her and gently pushed her towards the bus. She stepped on, casting one last worried look at her father.

All the seats had at least one person sitting in it. The children moved towards the aisle, not letting her sit next to them. "Find a seat!" the bus driver barked at her. She looked around, hoping that some kind soul would offer her a seat.

"You can sit here." A voice said. A boy with the lightest blonde hair she had ever seen was looking up at her. She smiled and sat down next to him.

"Thank you." She said in a small voice as the bus jolted to life once again.

"What's your name?" the boy asked.

"Jina. Yours?"

"Zac."

Jina looked at the kids around her. Blonde. Redhead. Brunette. No one else had the stick-straight black hair that she had. No one else had the round eyes that she had. She wondered if she belonged here. She could be going to a private school in a town nearby, but her parents couldn't afford to send her there. Her parents had moved to Oklahoma from Korea just before she was born, and neither had great jobs. Her mother cleaned houses, and her father owned a small convenience store, the only job he could find. They supported her the best they could, but they simply couldn't afford to send her to private school, even though that was what she would have preferred.

They arrived at school, and as Jina walked into her homeroom class, she noticed other kids staring at her. She wondered what was so strange about her that made everyone stare. She took a seat in her classroom, where the teacher, a stout woman with thick glasses, stood in front of them, holding a clipboard.

"Everyone get up. I have a seating chart made." The woman said firmly. All the students stood up and moved to the sides of the classroom at her command. "When I call your name, raise your hand and I'll show you where you'll be sitting. Abbott, Elizabeth!" she called. A taller girl with blonde hair and green eyes raised her hand, and the teacher pointed to a desk in the front row. More names were called, but Jina didn't take notice until the loud woman called, "Hanson, Zachary!"

The boy Jina had spoken with on the bus raised his hand, and made his way to the seat in the back that the teacher had pointed to.

"Kang, Jina!" was, conveniently enough, the next name she called, mispronouncing her last name, drawing out the 'a' sound as if she was saying the word 'clang'. Jina raised her hand meekly, aware of the many curious eyes on her, and shuffled to the seat next to Zac.

"Hey, we're sitting together!" Zac smiled at her.

She didn't have the heart to return the smile.

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