My First Day of Middle School
Michelle knew, in her heart of hearts, that she really didn't need to worry at all. But that didn't help at all. Michelle took a deep breath to calm herself. You're not even at school yet, and you're freaking big time! she told herself. Michelle was all ready for school -- except that her nerves were doing the boogie dance.
Okay, for the tenth time, you can check to see if you have everything you need in your backpack. Binder and binder paper?
"Michelle! You ready for school?" Mrs. Sheng asked.
No, Michelle thought. "Yes!" she replied in a fake, cheery voice. Michelle grabbed her backpack and ran downstairs. She had already eaten her breakfast, and was afraid she might throw up from over-reacting about the first day of sixth grade. "Here's your lunch!" Mrs. Sheng said, handing a paper bag to Michelle.
"Thanks!" she stuffed the bag in her backpack. "Let's go, Mom!"
Mrs. Sheng laughed. "I remember when it was my first day of middle school. I was just as excited and as nervous as you!"
"Yeah?" Michelle asked, curious.
"Adults were children once, you know," Mrs. Sheng said, smiling.
As soon as Michelle got out of the car, she walked quickly to her homeroom, wondering if anybody she knew was in her homeroom. Michelle opened the door and walked in. There were name tags on the tables. Michelle looked for hers, and she saw her name. She sat down. "Hi Mariah!" Michelle greeted her friend from elementary school.
"Hi Michelle," Mariah replied.
Just then, Mary Ann Cheng, another old friend, walked into homeroom. Michelle realized that Mary Ann's seat was next to her! "Hey Michelle!" Mary Ann said, obviously glad to be sitting next to a person she knew.
"Hi!" There was only one person at their table that hadn't arrived yet. Erin Lewis, Michelle read on the name tag. She looked up as a pretty girl with brown almond shaped eyes, and shoulder-length black hair walked into the classroom. Could that be Erin? Michelle wondered. It wasn't.
A boy walked into the classroom with another boy Michelle hated. EW! It's Tom! Ugh! And Calvin. Yuck! Michelle wrinkled her nose.
A pretty girl with wavy red hair tied up in a ponytail, freckles, and light green eyes walked toward their table. She sat down next to Mariah. Erin! Michelle realized. "Hi," Mariah said to Erin.
"Hi," Erin replied. Mariah mouthed, I know her. She was in my summer school, to Michelle.
Well, so far, sixth grade isn't so bad after all, Michelle thought. In fact, it could get better -- right?
"Welcome, sixth graders, to Sierramont Middle School. And welcome back, seventh and eighth graders, to another great year! Today is Monday, September. . . ." Michelle stopped listening to the morning announcements for a second, and thought about how she was actually in middle school, where dances took place, where you had lots of teachers, different classes, where you could choose what you wanted for lunch. . . . Michelle shook her head, and started listening to the morning announcements again.
"Today's schedule is A, B, C, D, E, F. Sign ups for clubs will be handed out in your homeroom. Drop by the Student Store. Buy your PE clothes at Lab 3 any day this week after school. T-shirt and shorts are twenty-five dollars, sweat pants are thirteen dollars, sweaters with hoods are fifteen dollars, sweaters without hoods are thirteen dollars. Today's word of the day is implementation. I-m-p-l-e-m-e-n-t-a-t-i-o-n. . . ."
Michelle had the same teacher for periods A (Social Studies) and B (Language Arts) -- Ms. Hogan. Ms. Hogan was a big help to the sixth graders in her class. She explained some of the rules. She explained how you went to first lunch or second lunch according to your E period teachers. Ms. Hogan also explained about the rotation of schedules. Michelle thought Ms. Hogan was a cool teacher. She liked her a lot.
The only bad thing about being in Ms. Hogan's class, was that she arranged their seating in alphabetical order. And that meant that Michelle was sitting next to Tom Sheng. Even worse, when Ms. Hogan asked them to take out their schedules, Michelle found that Tom had all the same classes as her, at the same times too! She wanted to barf.
After B period, was break. Michelle compared schedules with her friends. Not one of her friends had all of the same classes as her. In fact, none of her friends were in Pre-Algebra with Michelle. Which meant the only person Michelle would know in Pre-Algebra would be. . . .Dork Boy!
For C period (Science), Michelle had Mrs. Green. She was pretty, with red hair and blue eyes. Mrs. Green started off by saying, "If you're only late five minutes during this first week, I won't mark you tardy. After that, I will. Now, I probably won't be the nicest teacher you ever had, but, if you choose to behave, I'll be nicer. If you choose, I can be the meanest teacher you ever had. It's up to you." Michelle agreed with what Mrs. Green said.
Mrs. Green told them what she expected of them and the punishments if her expectations weren't reached. "If I catch you chewing gum in class the first time, I'll only tell you to spit it out. The second time, detention. The third time, go to the office. . . .so don't chew gum. Is that clear?"
"Yes," the whole class answered, though Michelle suspected some didn't mean it.
For D period, Michelle had PE. They saw a slide on the expectations of the PE teachers. The teachers talked about lockers, buying PE clothes, what they were going to do in the year, etc.
"You'll get your lockers next week. Also, you won't have to dress out until next week, because you buy your PE clothes this week," Mr. Martinez, Michelle's PE teacher said. Michelle fought the urge to yawn inside the gym. She looked around.
Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders were scattered across the gym. Backpacks were everywhere. Michelle noticed some eighth graders chatting away, ignoring Mr. Miller. She saw two eighth graders looking into their compact mirrors, carefully applying make-up onto their faces. Michelle noticed a sixth-grader girl, paying close attention to Mr. Martinez. Michelle felt guilty. She should've been listening to him too. Michelle concentrated on paying attention to Mr. Martinez now.
Lunch was after PE, because for E period, Michelle had Pre-Algebra with Ms. Miller. Ms. Miller had first lunch, which meant that Michelle would go to the first lunch to eat. To her pleasant surprise, her best friends, Amy Chang, Cindy Shaw, and Jenny Wu, all had first lunch too. Amy, Cindy, and Jenny, all were in sixth grade math, not in Pre-Algebra, which was more difficult than seventh grade math. Only "smart" kids were in it. Sometimes Michelle wished she wasn't smart. Now was one of those times. Michelle wanted to be in sixth grade math with her friends. She definitely DIDN'T want to be in Pre-Algebra -- especially if Tom was going to be there.
In E period, Michelle felt absolutely miserable. She was sitting at a table with seventh graders. Seventh and eighth graders could also be in Pre-Algebra. But if you were an eighth grader and in Pre-Algebra, that meant that you needed some help in math. Michelle knew nobody at her table. She was sitting next to a girl named Catherine. Across was Anthony. And next to Anthony was Jennifer. (She knew all this because of the sitting chart drawn on the board that showed them where their seats were.)
Sitting with seventh graders made Michelle painfully shy -- not to mention nervous. Not that the seventh graders noticed -- they totally ignored her. At least she had a distraction. Ms. Miller was explaining the rules in her classroom, and what they were going to learn about that year. After what seemed like an hour, class was finally over.
F period was Symphonic Band. Mr. Larson, the teacher, explained the rules quickly, and handed out music books. Then, he took role. Everyone could sit anywhere everyone wanted in their sections. As you might've guessed, Michelle's section was the flute section. Michelle sat next to her friend Christine, who just started playing flute this summer. Michelle had already played flute for two years.
"Okay, class. Settle down. Let's play number two in the book, B flat Major Scale. Slowly. One, two, three, four, and begin," Mr. Larson said. The class played the scale. It sounds okay. Not good and not bad. But it definitely needs some work, Michelle thought. Only a few people in the class were good at playing their instrument. Michelle was one of them.
Mr. Larson frowned. "Okay, but it needs some work," he said. "Can anyone show the class how they should try to play it?" he asked. Christine raised Michelle's hand. Michelle glared at her. A few other people raised their hands too. Mr. Larson glanced down at his role sheet and said, "Okay. Michelle, go ahead."
Michelle took a deep breath. She was nervous, but raised the flute to her lips and played. Not perfectly, but not bad! Michelle put her flute down, feeling good inside. She had managed to play OK under pressure! The rest of the class sped by, and Michelle was in a good mood when school was over.
I guess middle school isn't so tough! I actually got through the whole day! I may have not made any new friends yet, but hey, it's only the first day. Michelle couldn't wait until the next day. In fact, she couldn't remember why she was so nervous in the first place. Middle school was fun!
When Mrs. Sheng picked her up in the blue Sedan, Michelle started blabbing about her almost-perfect day. Mrs. Sheng smiled the whole time. "Well, I'm glad you now have a different attitude about middle school! You're lucky! My first day wasn't as good as that!"