Author(s): Susie Morgenstern

Middle Reader | Second Hand

It's official. Margot holds the letter in her hands. She was admitted to sixth form at the Parc des Grands Pins college. Finally she will be a high school student, a grown up! First she must prepare. You must buy a correspondence book, bring ID photos, and bring photocopies of vaccination certificates. Finally, she must decide how to dress for this first day! Her older sister is emphatic: jeans, and especially no satchel! The first day arrives. Everyone has a satchel, and many girls are dressed in skirts! Despite this disappointment, Margot finds herself duly integrated into class and, as she is full of good will and dreams of being popular, she volunteers to be a provisional class representative. Margot is conscientious, a good student, full of good intentions. She's going to become a class representative, and she wants to be in charge. She wants her rowdy and rather lame class to become an exemplary class! So she organizes, she plans … But nothing goes as planned, and the effort often backfires. So she tempers her expectations. A trip to Rome for the whole sixth form strengthens friendships. Then a providential teachers' strike brings a great day to Margot's sixth form! A day where all together they live as they wish.