Hermione

She’s a junior. Petite, fairly quiet; she usually doesn’t have friends with her in class, so she just focuses on her work. And on answering the teacher’s questions right.

A note from your faithful observer:
I call her Hermione for three reasons.
1. She dresses a bit like Movie Hermione;
2. She raises her hand a bit like Book Hermione; and
3. I’m a dork.

When she answers questions, they are often word-for-word from the textbook or her notes, but unlike the original Hermione, this Hermione tends to respond in a sort of monotone voice. Unless something about the topic really captures her interest. In which case she often shares an opinion or a short narrative story about it.

Most of the time, though, as focused as she is on her work, class seems to bore her. She often rests her head on her hand, and closes her eyes, but doesn’t sleep. Doesn’t even daydream. Occasionally she’ll mutter a response to the teacher’s question, without opening her eyes.

Her backpack is huge, overstuffed with books and binders. I don’t know how many she has, but even with the hugeness and bulginess of her backpack, she has to lug around two in her arms. Her Pre-Calc book, which is battered and falling apart, and her SAT Prep book, which is probably the biggest SAT Prep book on campus.

She’s small and thin, and doesn’t really have any curves yet. She has straight chin-length hair that’s parted straight down the middle. No bangs; nothing fancy at all, she doesn’t do anything with it, and she doesn’t wear makeup. With her small and simple appearance, she could easily look like a little kid, but she doesn’t, really. The way she dresses, with coats and hats and scarves; the serious look on her face almost all the time; and, oddly enough, most of all, her fingernails. It’s a small thing that makes a big difference—They’re not painted, but they are long and clean and well-cared for. They make her look very grown-up, more than you’d think.

Maybe her small size and lack of curves still bother her a bit, though. She snacks a lot in class. Maybe hoping to gain some weight.

She has a wide variety of snacks, and they’re rarely the same every day. She eats them in a very particular way: She gets out one snack, eats a few bites of it, wraps it up, puts it away, and gets out another. I don’t know if she does this to make them all last longer, to keep things interesting, or maybe because she just can’t decide which snack she wants.

And there are an awful lot of them to choose from—Goldfish crackers. Small lollipops. Popcorn. Graham crackers. Bananas. Green peppers. Pop Tarts. Tortilla slices, with nutella sandwiched between. She saves the wrappers from her snacks, whenever she can. She tapes lollipop wrappers to the cover of her binder, or writes and doodles on her empty goldfish bag.

One thing she almost always has is a Ziploc bag of dry cereal. The type of cereal varies from day to day—Cheerios, regular or honey nut. Mini Wheats. Cocoa Puffs. Lucky Charms. When she eats her Lucky Charms, she picks out all the marshmallows and sets them aside, saving them for last—and when she’s eaten all the cereal bits, she takes the marshmallows and downs them all in a single handful.