Classmates at Reservoir High School sometimes call Dalyn Jones and Anthea Fields the 鈥淜atrina chicks.鈥� Left homeless by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, both teenagers migrated from the New Orleans area to Maryland in September. They met for the first time here when they showed up on the same day to register for 9th grade.
鈥淲hen I first met her I was like, 鈥業 don鈥檛 want to talk to her,鈥� 鈥� Anthea recalls. In the weeks that followed, though, the two became inseparable, sharing a bond that few of their peers will ever understand.
鈥淲e talk about Katrina almost every day,鈥� says Anthea, 15, who lived on the east side of New Orleans until floodwaters ravaged the Gulf Coast city. She and her family were trapped for days as the water rose outside their apartment window.
They were eventually evacuated by boat and deposited on a nearby interstate. From there, a helicopter flew them to another highway, where they sustained themselves on sips of warm water and waited 17 hours for a bus to Houston鈥檚 Astrodome.
The family headed here after a friend showed up with plane tickets to fly them to waiting relatives.
鈥淚 have nightmares every day,鈥� Anthea says.
Fourteen-year-old Dalyn had been living with her grandmother just across the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish. Her family left town ahead of the storm and drove to Atlanta.
When it became clear there was no going back, Dalyn flew here to stay with an aunt and finish the school year. Her grandmother moved to a motel near her nursing-home job in Kentwood, La.
To Dalyn, though, it鈥檚 all d茅j脿 vu. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan blew the roof off her grandmother鈥檚 house. The two had just returned to the refurbished home this past July鈥攁 month before Katrina would finish it off.
Unfamiliar Territory
Anthea and Dalyn say it helps to have someone else with whom to negotiate the unfamiliar terrain of Reservoir High. With 1,375 students, the suburban school is newer and bigger than those they left behind.
Although it鈥檚 more racially diverse than most schools in Maryland鈥檚 49,000-student Howard County district, Reservoir High has a bigger proportion of white students than the girls鈥� previous schools. Twenty-three percent of the enrollment is African-American, like Anthea and Dalyn, and more than half is white.
鈥淎t my old school, we had like two white people, and they acted like us people,鈥� says Anthea, who attended the 750-student L.E. Rabouin Magnet Career High School in New Orleans.
With just 450 students, Dalyn鈥檚 former school, Boothville-Venice High School, served students from prekindergarten through 12th grade. It was more diverse than Anthea鈥檚 school but, to Dalyn, the racial boundaries were more fluid than at Reservoir High.
鈥淥ur community was kind of close-knit, and the races all intermingled,鈥� says Dalyn鈥檚 aunt, Denita Jones, a Boothville graduate.
鈥榊ou Can鈥檛 Go Back to Nothing鈥�
Much else is new, too: annual state exams, girls wearing pajamas to school, tightly structured physical education classes, and no uniforms. Anthea loved her old uniform.
鈥淏efore I left the house, I remember that I thought, I gotta bring my uniform,鈥� she says, recalling the day she fled the floodwaters.
Anthea says she finds her coursework here easy; Dalyn is struggling in English and math.
鈥淲e were still on basic stuff like multiplication and subtraction and, up here, they was doing equations like 3x plus y, and I鈥檓 like, 鈥榃hat is this?鈥� 鈥� Dalyn says.
Diane McCarthy, the girls鈥� guidance counselor at Reservoir High, says the school is gearing up to provide tutoring for students like Dalyn who need extra help. Both girls also take remedial reading classes.
When the pair arrived, 糖心动漫vlog gave them school supplies and store gift cards, says McCarthy. They also opened the school store so the girls could take their pick of clothes bearing Reservoir 鈥淕ator鈥� insignia.
McCarthy still meets weekly with both girls, together and separately.
鈥淲e have a lot of kids who suffer from trauma and crises,鈥� she says, 鈥渁nd we do our best to be sensitive.鈥�
Even so, Dalyn and Anthea miss the friends they left behind, the food, and the distinctive New Orleans culture. In Louisiana, Dalyn had made the junior-varsity cheerleading squad. Anthea participated in the dance team and track and field. Here, they鈥檙e reluctant to try out for those activities.
鈥淚t鈥檚 like people you don鈥檛 really know are watching you,鈥� Dalyn says, 鈥渁nd the dance team鈥攖he style of dance is way different.鈥�
She hopes to return home when her grandmother鈥檚 house is rebuilt.
Anthea is less sure what she鈥檒l do when the school year ends. Though she鈥檇 like to go home, she says, 鈥測ou can鈥檛 go back to nothing.鈥�
