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Steph snorted. “Uhh, no?” she said.

Bianca rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I hate you,” she said, passive-aggressive and half-jesting.

Steph mimicked the tone. “The feeling’s mutual.”

For the next few minutes, Whitney, Steph, and Giselle told Bianca what they really thought of her, but they did it jokingly so that Bianca couldn’t get angry.

“Bianca, you suck at life. Your project sucks just like you,” said Steph.

“Steph, you are so ugly,” Bianca shot back.

“Haha, not as ugly as you and that project,” Giselle said.

“Giselle, I hate you,” Bianca said.

“Bianca, you think you own the world when you don’t,” Whitney said.

Bianca didn’t say anything else the rest of the period.

JOY, CALIFORNIA | THE NEW GIRL

In PE, some boys were fooling around, refusing to listen to the teacher. Visibly upset, the teacher sat at a table bordering the basketball court, muttering to himself. “These kids are so immature. They don’t respect anyone, they don’t respect me. I don’t know why I waste my time . . .”

Joy scrawled a note on a piece of notebook paper: “There’ll always be a negative aspect,” she wrote. “Just think positively and know that there’s always a better outcome, and at the end of the day know that you’re valued. Joy.” She climbed down from the bleachers and handed him the note. “Here,” she said, and walked away.

The teacher read the note and smiled. Joy could see that he cared about the students and generally liked his job. She thought he needed to be reminded that some of his students cared about him.

Friday was Ariana’s last day at Citygrove. She had decided to drop out of school and move in with her mother, where they would work together at Kmart. In between classes that day, Joy saw her on the sidewalk. “Hey, Ariana, I got you something!”

“Really?! What?”

“I got you this monkey.” She handed Ariana a furry blue monkey that she had persuaded her stepfather to buy.

“Oh my gosh! You’re the first person to ever give me anything!” Ariana said, hugging the monkey. “I love you, I love you, I love you so much!”

Joy laughed and showed her the stuffed animal’s tag, on which Joy had written her email address and the message, “You can be whatever you want. You can achieve anything in life.”

“Hey look, if anything, send me an email,” Joy told her. “I want to hear from you, so here’s my email address. Take care of yourself, and listen to what I said.”

“I love you,” Ariana said. Her eyes welled up. “You’re so nice! You’re the nicest person I’ve ever met! Thank you, thank you so much!”

“Anytime. No biggie,” Joy said. As she went into her classroom, she glanced back and saw Ariana watching her, squeezing the monkey tightly.

A few days later, as Joy’s English class watched a movie, Xavier teased Keisha. Joy noticed that Keisha, who sat next to her in the front row, looked upset. “Are you okay?” Joy asked. “Don’t pay attention to him. he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Keisha dismissed her. “I’m fine. It’s nothing,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s nothing. You look like you’re going to cry.”

Keisha shot her a look that said “Go away.”

Joy tried to speak sternly but compassionately. “I’m not as bad as you think,” she said. Keisha’s eyes widened.

Joy watched the movie for a few more minutes, then scribbled a message onto a piece of notebook paper: “To Keisha: Sometimes things aren’t supposed to be easy, whatever it is just look past it and try to have a clear perspective. Just think positively. Have a good week! :)” She folded the paper and handed it to Keisha, along with an apple lollipop she had bought at a fund-raiser earlier that day.

Surprised, Keisha read the note. Soon, she passed a note to Joy: “That’s so sweet, thanks a lot, this really helped me. I’m sorry for acting like a bitch. PS are u sure you don’t want ur sucker?”

Joy wrote back: “It’s okay, we all have our days, you’re a smart girl just work towards what you want, and yeah, keep it. I was thinking you’d need it.”

They resumed watching the movie. Keisha wasn’t cold