Emmy in the Key of Code

California Dreaming      I’d never visited California before we moved here       but I’d heard about it       in songs.      Mom even made a playlist       and she and Dad sang along       the whole drive over from Wisconsin       but even after three days straight of          Katy Perry          the Beach Boys          the Mamas & the Papas       I still didn’t believe it.       Why would people here be different       than anywhere else?      But now that I’m here       on the first day of sixth grade at my new school       the hallway is full of kids       tapping on cell phones that probably cost more       than an entire month’s rent       in our new house.      Plus       everyone looks like they just jumped off the cover       of a magazine.       Hipster glasses       jeans where the only holes       were put there on purpose       and everyone pulling out a reusable container       full of weird grains       that must be their lunch.      I tug down my Packers hoodie       because it’s colder here       than the Beach Boys promised       and this way no one can see       that I look nothing like       the cover of       a magazine.      I wish San Francisco       would go back       to just being       a song.Pretending      As I walk down the hallway       I head-hum my favorite walking song.       Beethoven’s Minuet in G.          dum dee dum dee dum dee dum dee dum      I move andante       matching my steps to the beat          left, and right, and left, and right, and left      so I can pretend       I’m not at all sore       from climbing up the hill in front of the school.          left, and right, and left, and right, and left      I can pretend I’ve been hiking it my whole life.          left, and right, and left, and right, and left       I can pretend I don’t smell like Wisconsin       and that I wore the right clothes to school today       and that I’m going to make tons of friends       and have an amazing year          left, and right, and left, and right, and left       just like everyone else.Locker Number 538      Finally I reach my locker          12 clockwise          32 counterclockwise          8 clockwise         Stuck.Attempted Duet No. 1      “Hi, I’m new here. My name is–”         “That’s my locker.”