I.E.S Catral – Take One
The ring of a bell, my time was up.
The flurry of children rushed past me. Some excited, some unhappy; school was of course an annoyance for some and to others a god send.
To me it was terrifying.
I had stood for hours that morning in the freezing cold with my younger brother waiting for class to start. Trying to ignore our twisting stomachs we had tried to point out anyone who looked English; it hadn't gone very well, we couldn't even spot one and I began to fear that we might be the only ones in this foreign land.
Getting up from the bench, I shuffled towards my classroom leaving my sibling to enter his own.
I felt myself fall into a void as I was surrounded by the Spanish chatter. I felt their eyes all on me judgingly as I slide into the room silently wishing that I could just run away, cry and hide.
"Are you English?"
Her voice made me jump but my face instantly broke out in a smile as I turned to face my savior.
"Yeah, I am", I replied taking her all in.
Blonde, bubbly, tall and hyper; she was Ellie.
"Then come sit with me, I'll help you out", she pulled me down next to her at the front of the class, down to the side so we could lean against the wall for comfort, "There's a few more English in here as well you know".
I gave her a confused look, I had not noticed any in the crowd so far and usually to me depicting English from the Spanish was an easy task.
"Two aren't here right now; they're in England for a week and over in that corner with his head down, that's Big Ben. I'm Ellie by the way".
The relief of finding someone to talk to was overwhelming and I let out a small laugh, "I'm Becca".
It was then another boy walked in through the door. I immediately knew he was English by the Nike shoes, gelled hair and trackies.
"Oi, you!" Ellie beckoned him over before the teacher could and he sat behind us looking like he was going to pass out at any second. At least I knew then that I wasn't the only one to feel the strain and embarrassment of being new here.
"This is Becca and I'm Ellie!" I couldn't help but laugh a little more, Ellie was just so friendly.
"Tommy", he introduced in a voice barely audible.
"I'm new here too", I told him as the teacher began to drawn our timetable on the blackboard. He seemed a little relieved and slumped into his chair a big more making Ellie laugh for some unknown reason.
Glad to have found new friends I began to pester Ellie in a friendly way about what life was like here. She didn't mind though and explained everything to me and Tommy.
It seemed school here wasn't going to be as bad as I first thought.