NATCHEZ &8212; Alethea Stewart doesn&8217;t mind sleeping on the couch every night in her new home. She&8217;s made new friends, found a new hobby on the track and has found a niche at her new school.

From all indications, life is getting about as close to normal as it could get for the Hurricane Katrina evacuee.

&8220;It&8217;s been all right &8212; I&8217;ve got my family down here,&8221; said the Natchez High freshman, who up until Aug. 29 was enrolled at Warren Easton and toying with the idea of going out for track in the spring. &8220;I was going to come and run cross country, but I didn&8217;t have my physical in time. (Life) has settled down now. I didn&8217;t know anything (at first).&8221;

That&8217;s the same for Elise King, a junior who is also a Hurricane Katrina evacuee from New Orleans and is out for track at Natchez High. Both will get their first taste of it Saturday when NHS opens its indoor season.

Neither have run track before.

You think they&8217;re going to be nervous Saturday?

&8220;Yeah, I&8217;m nervous,&8221; said King, a junior with eight years of volleyball under her belt while attending Edna Karr High School. &8220;I&8217;m nervous now. I&8217;m nervous at practice. I needed something to keep me active.&8221;

Both will go in the hurdles and the relays Saturday and see how things go, head coach Larry Wesley said. King has the build of a hurdler with long legs, but track &8212; much like soccer &8212; is one of those sports where kids sometimes don&8217;t know they can excel at it until they give it a try.

That&8217;s what Wesley is hoping for at least. Through practices this week, so far, so good.

&8220;(King) was with volleyball, and she wanted something to do,&8221; Wesley said. &8220;I asked her, &8216;Do you know what you&8217;re doing?&8217; She said, &8216;I can handle it.&8217; Both haven&8217;t missed a practice yet. They&8217;re enjoying it.&8221;

For both, it&8217;s the continuation of what they&8217;re trying to assemble into a normal life in Natchez after leaving their homes after the hurricane. While most evacuee students have returned home &8212; including one last month who Wesley penciled in on the track team &8212; King and Stewart remain at NHS and will stay for the remainder of the school year.

King and her family got out of their upper Ninth Ward home before the storm hit back. She&8217;s staying with her mom in Natchez, but siblings are scattered &8212; a sister is in Slidell and a brother is in Dallas with family.

&8220;I live in the upper Ninth Ward &8212; not the lower Ninth Ward,&8221; King said. &8220;I haven&8217;t been back (home), but my mom has. There are a lot of kids here, but it&8217;s OK. Everybody is nice. (Life) has settled down, but after May &8212; that&8217;s when it starts. I don&8217;t know what I&8217;m doing after May. We have to go home for our house.&8221;

Then there&8217;s Stewart, the New Orleans East native who was toying with the idea of coming out for track at her old school after doing track in middle school and dance in high school. She arrived in Natchez with her mom and four brothers, and the six of them moved in with her aunt in a house in Natchez.

The boys, she said, got a room in the three-bedroom, one-bathroom house.

&8220;I sleep on the couch. They&8217;ve got the room,&8221; she said. &8220;I wanted to be in the living room.&8221;

The two were welcomed to a track program that&8217;s been on top of the world in high school track each of the last four years. The Lady Bulldogs are starting their quest for a fifth straight Class 5A state championship on the track, and the two newcomers from New Orleans heard a thing or two about it.

And the kids who live here found out quickly King and Stewart weren&8217;t as bad as some folks made New Orleans people out to be.

&8220;Most of the kids at the school have been real pleasant,&8221; Wesley said. &8220;It&8217;s been great. Elise is going to be good in track. She doesn&8217;t know it, but I know it. She&8217;s already beginning to show it. She&8217;s a lot better than she thinks. When she told me she played volleyball, I went talking to her. She&8217;s going to be a jumper.

&8220;Alethea is a hurdler also, but she&8217;s more of a sprinter. She has good, quick feet.&8221;

The two will add to the program this spring when outdoor starts, but Saturday will be the first indication of what they can do along with the rest of the team. The Lady Bulldogs will have Candace Frye in sprints but will have others out with basketball, while the boys will have newcomers this season as well after losing key athletes from a season ago.