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Chapter 1: New Day of School
Phew!
It was so hot! Not that the weather was hot, it was just that I was so afraid and nervous to go to school that I was sweating profusely. I was sitting on the porch of my house waiting for my mom to drive the car out of the garage.
It was only seven in the morning, which was pretty early for me. Why do schools start so early, anyways? As I got in the car, I tried to picture what my new school would look like. Yep, new school, you heard it. I originally lived in Chicago, and moved to LA around a month ago during summer vacation, due to my dad's job. We now lived in Silver Lake, where I would be attending my new school called "Casteral Elementary School." After waiting for a whole month, I could finally return to school and meet some new friends. All my old friends were still in Chicago. I missed them so much.
Well, voilà, there was my origin story. That was a chapter of my life, and now, I was going to start a new, fresh chapter. I was so nexcited (nervous + excited)! One thing I was looking forward to trying out was the school cafeteria, which I heard was absolutely delicious! What could I say? I was a diligent foodie who'd done her research.
My new homeroom teacher was Ms. Hayes. She only taught English and social studies. The rest of the subjects were for the other teachers.
When my parents brought my brother, Nate, and me to visit the new school, the principal showed us a picture of Ms. Hayes. She had the kind of "teacher face" you'd see in children's books about school life.
During summer vacation, I didn't really go outside and play dodgeball in my front yard. I was usually cooped inside reading as opposed to playing outside. In the stories that I read, there were some really mean bullies who pretended to be the main character's friends before betraying the main character.
I wanted none of that to happen to me. All I wanted was to be a normal, average girl with many friends at school, and have nothing to do with meanies.
I probably already had some of the qualities I needed to transform into the kind of person I wanted in school, but I was still really anxious about starting a new school in an unfamiliar environment. Still, I guessed I was ALMOST ready to go to school!
I really liked our school uniforms because they were my favorite colors: blue and white. (I liked pink and purple when I was younger, but I was ten now, so I was too old to like these colors. They're too childish and naïve, you know, kids in my last school weren't really fond of them.)
When I got out of the car, I saw a girl that was wearing all black—a black hoodie, a black skirt, and a pair of black shoes. I was surprised to see that she didn't have a backpack slung over her shoulder. Shouldn't students always be carrying a backpack?
Out of curiosity, I asked her, "Why aren't you wearing your uniform?"
She responded unnecessarily rudely, "Mind your own business, DORK!"
I was taken aback. I was just asking, why was she so rude?
Anyways, I wasn't gonna let this girl I encountered earlier ruin my first day of school. Well, if I was lucky enough, she wouldn't be in the same class as me.
But I found something funny about her. She dressed exactly like how one of my old classmates in kindergarten did! That was strange! I mean, even the brand of her hoodie (Barisa by the way) was the same! Barisa tops always have a coffee bean logo on their left side, close to the wearer's chest. And that mean girl wore a black Barisa hoodie, similar to that classmate of mine in kindergarten, who also wore that exact same hoodie for every single day. The only difference between those two hoodies was the size.
Nevertheless, this was likely a mere coincidence, so I didn't give it much thought. In spite of this unpleasant run-in with the weird girl, I was determined to make my school life smooth-sailing.
"I, Samantha Park Lawrence, hereby declare that I will get along with everyone and make many friends." I said aloud to myself.
The first period was homeroom.
Ms. Hayes walked in and handed out our books.
"Now kids, here are your textbooks and workbooks for English class. Next, these are your Social Studies textbooks and folders. I will be in charge of teaching you English and Social Studies this year," Ms. Hayes explained.
"Um, how about our materials for science, math, Chinese, music, and all the other stuff?" Asked Grant Holler, whose name I got from his name tag.
"Oh, yes. The other teachers will hand them out to you. I know, this year's different," Ms. Hayes answered.
Many of the girls in school adored Grant, but I had no clue why. I guessed it was because he could play basketball very well and was good at math. Well, at least, that was what I overheard from the other girls.
Then, another person raised her hand. This time it was Jessica Camin. I heard that she had a great personality and got fabulous grades in all the subjects. In fact, she was in our school's top five in terms of results!
"Um, Ms. Hayes? Where are our schedules? I'm so desperate to check them right now." Jessica said.
"Oh, right. Thank you for reminding me, Jessica. I'll give them to you right away," Ms. Hayes answered.
After she passed out the schedules, another person raised his hand. It was Joshua Lecut, a boy who was known for his sharp brains and very smug facial expressions. Some girls admired him too. As for him, I guessed it was because he was a pro at nearly all the sports and that his grades were really high.
"Yes, Joshua?" Ms. Hayes asked.
"Who's that new girl?" He questioned, pointing his index finger at me.
"Oh, right! Sorry, Samantha," she said and addressing the class, continued, "Children, this is our new student, Samantha Lawrence." Ms. Hayes then turned to me and asked, "Samantha, can you stand up and introduce yourself?"
"Okay, I guess. Um, hi everyone! It's nice to meet you guys! I've been looking forward to meeting you and I think I'm very lucky to be here. Thank you," I introduced myself.
"Welcome!" A girl named Erica Carter exclaimed.
"Thanks," I said.
The last person who raised her hand was Matilda Welson. A girl whom I wanted to be friends with, after seeing a picture of her on the "Honor Wall." She was quite pretty, and smart, but apparently could be a little bit bossy. That was what people said anyways. But hey, bossy people were usually just opinionated and they often turned out to be quite protective of their friends. And that was exactly what I needed, a protective friend.
Suddenly, a girl raised her hand. It was that rude girl from earlier! I was surprised. Then Ms. Hayes called on her.
"Yes, Gemma?" She said, with a hint of annoyance.
Wait a minute, Gemma… She was my classmate when I was in kindergarten! I recalled that she was incredibly rude towards me! And I used to be bullied by her! How did I not recognize her?
After realizing that that rude person I encountered earlier was the very same bully of my childhood, I tried to ignore her, but that didn't work out so well. Ignoring her turned out to be more difficult than I imagined. She was so huge and was literally a black thing in the middle of the classroom, sucking up all my happiness! I was finally at a new school, yet here I was, classmates with Gemma Hoffman! Again… I couldn't believe my rotten luck.
She interjected, "Like, are there any dress codes?"
"Yes, we wear the school uniform on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. And you can wear your own clothes on Thursday and Friday," Ms. Hayes answered, "Gemma, have you forgotten? We've talked about this last semester! Good gracious!"
I always wondered. Why did she prefer to wear all black instead of the school uniform? I guessed she was trying to show how counterculture she was, or maybe thought it was cool, or she simply hated our uniform. She was probably the type of person who thinks that the colors of the rainbows reminded her of a pixie fairy barfing on a unicorn cupcake. (Well, if a pixie fairy REALLY did barf on a unicorn cupcake, I would try my best to take a picture and honor that moment. Of course, that was just hypothetical.)
When I got home, my parents asked how my first day of school was.
"Well, it was all going okay UNTIL I recognized Gemma Hoffman. I can't believe she's my classmate again!" I cried.
I saw my brother shudder. He heard about her from me because I complained about her all the time when I was in kindergarten. Even he was afraid of Gemma!
"That Gemma Hoffman?" My mom asked.
Just as she was trying to recall things about Gemma, I interrupted her.
"Yes, it's her alright! The horrors!"
"Okay, then. Be careful. Don't mess with her." My dad exclaimed, "Try to get along with everyone else, and ignore her."
I guessed my dad was right. I could just ignore her and do the things I want! What difference did it make now that she was here?
When I was eating my dinner, Nate suddenly asked me a question.
"Do you think she—Gemma—would target you again? Like when you were in kindergarten?"
I started to recall how Gemma bullied me and laughed at me.
"I think she was just jealous. I'm pretty and have good grades and can draw, sing, dance, and so on," I responded smartly.
"Don't act all smug," said my brother, "After all, you have a bad habit."
"Of doing what exactly?" I asked.
"You eat veeeery slowly!" My brother laughed.
"Well, I'm not as slow as you!" I protested. "Whatever. Just forget it."
"Yeah, yeah. Blah, blah," murmured my brother.
After I finished my dinner, I started to write my homework. We hadn't received much homework on the first day of school, so I was almost finished.
While I was writing, I thought about this:
Being with Gemma every day in the foreseeable future still didn't feel right. I mean, I still didn't know if she would bully me or do something hurtful to me. But I couldn't just avoid her completely during the school year, right?
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