The Missing First Class
"Tina! Sweetie! Come and eat your breakfast before it gets cold! You're gonna need your strength for your big day!" Linda called.
Tina stood in front of the mirror in her room. It was her very first day of high school. Nothing should be too different, she would be with pretty much the same kids that she had been with her whole life, there would just be a few more people there. And there wasn't anything that they did differently over the summer. Today should have felt the same as every other first day that she had experienced.
"Alright Tina. You can do this. You're mature and sophisticated now. You can handle anything," she told herself before she left the room, hoping that she might begin to believe it.
"And here's our little high school girl!" Linda announced as the eldest Belcher child entered the kitchen.
"Traitor!" Gene accused from his spot at the table. "You said you'd never leave us!"
"Awe!" Linda squealed from the counter as she turned and saw Tina. "Look at you! Our little high schooler! How does it feel to be one of the big kids now?"
Tina just groaned as she went and took her seat at the table. "I don't wanna go," she stated before laying her head on the table.
"Come on Tina, it won't be that bad," Bob told her, trying his best to sound encouraging. Although he knew first hand just how rough high school could be.
"We could all just ditch. Would that make you feel better?" Louise offered, getting excited.
"No one's ditching school," Bob flatly argued.
Louise stood up and motioned to her sister who was still sitting with her head down on the table as she groaned. "But dad! Look at her! We're trying to help our sister!" She pleaded.
"No Louise," he stated.
"Family comes first!" Gene demanded as he banged his fists on the table.
"Oh my God," he said.
"It won't be bad Tina. You'll finally be joining all those high school boys you've been wanting to talk to," Linda stated as she came over and took her spot at the table.
"I guess," she replied, her voice muffled.
"Come on. What's bothering you?" Linda asked, genuinely concerned. She had thought that Tina would be excited for today more than anything.
Tina lifted her head and sat back in her chair. Mainly it was just going to a new place that she didn't like. That and Jimmy Jr. was away at camp most of the summer. Part of her was afraid that he had found some girlfriend or changed in a huge way.
"What if Jimmy Jr. has a girlfriend? Or what if he's changed? And what if I embarrass myself on the very first day? The first impression is the longest lasting one," she answered.
"He doesn't have a girlfriend," Gene assured her.
"How can you be so sure?" She asked, looking to him.
Gene smiled, after taking a bite of his pancakes. "Oh I'm sure."
Tina slouched down in her chair as she sighed. "I guess you're right," she responded. "Maybe today won't be so bad after all."
"That's the spirit!" Linda said.
oooooo
The halls were busy as Tina tried to make her way through the crowd of kids. She had to get to her first class, and she wasn't even sure of where she was going. She could barely even see the numbers on the doors. All she was really sure of was that she had to get to room 226 in a few minutes.
"Excuse me! Pardon me!" She called out with no one really listening to her as she shoved her way towards the staircase.
All she had to do was get down to the second floor and go a few doors down from the stairs. Logically that was where the room had to be.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, the bell rang and the halls instantly cleared. She ran to where the room should be, but it wasn't there. The numbers went from 224 to 228.
"No!" She exclaimed.
"What's going on over here?" Zeke inquired as he and Jimmy Jr. joined her.
She quickly turned to them, panicking. "My room doesn't exist! 226 isn't here!" She explained.
"Hey! That's where we need to be! Guess we don't have to go anymore!" Zeke responded, turning to leave.
"Maybe we should ask someone." Jimmy Jr. suggested, looking between the two doors.
"Good idea! Come on!" Tina started as she walked between the two, managing to grab Jimmy Jr.'s hand and start leading him.
"Now hold on a second," Zeke said, turning to face them. "This classroom doesn't even exist! What good is it gonna do to ask someone where it is?"
"Oh yeah, good point," Tina replied, stopping in her tracks.
As soon as she stopped, Jimmy Jr. stopped right along with her. It took him a second, but looking down, he saw that she was in fact, holding his hand.
"Uh, Tina?" He questioned, lifting their hands.
She looked down to their hands in mock surprise. "I didn't know you wanted to my hand! Just make sure you don't take it with you when you leave," she said, adding a small, awkward laugh at the end.
Jimmy Jr. was about to say something to Tina, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed Zeke starting to run up the stairs. "Wait! Where are you going?" He called out to him as he turned and ran to catch up with him.
Tina stood there, noticing that he didn't drag her with him. "Thank you for not stealing it," she said, staring down at her hand. It was then that she realized they were both already gone and she ran to go join them.
She rushed up the stairs and turned the corner to see the two staring at what looked like another regular old class room. And once got there, she found out that that was all it was.
"What exactly are we looking at? I got here late," Tina inquired.
"According to my cousin, this is where all the dissections happen," Zeke explained.
"Gross," Jimmy Jr. commented.
Tina heard him disapprove and took her chance to swoop in and start something. "I agree, gross," she started and then looked to him. "Hey, maybe you and I could go off to a different part of the building while Zeke checks out this room?"
"It's open!" Zeke announced as pushed the door open to reveal the dark, uninhabited room.
All three kids stood out there for a moment, just gazing in at the rows of tables. It looked like a standard science class, all except for the fact that there were bags out on the tables. It was set up for a dissection that would happen later today.
"What's that smell?" Jimmy Jr. asked, growing disgusted.
"Death," Tina replied.
Zeke was the first one to wander into the classroom, looking around at everything. The other two closely followed.
"Hey look! I found the knives and scissors!" Tina announced, stopping by the sink where the tools were all laid out on napkins.
"Are they old and rusty?" Zeke questioned, standing before one of the bags, wondering whether or not he should start poking at it.
"They look pretty clean to me," she answered.
She picked up one of the scalpels, and in the reflection she saw Jimmy Jr. pulling out his phone to text someone. "And just like that, it was dirty," she mentioned to herself, continuing to watch as he performed the simple task.
"What are you kids doing in here?" The man bark as he stood in the doorway.
Tina dropped the scalpel immediately, causing it to fall to the ground. "Nothing!" She instinctively yelled as she began to panic once more this morning. She leaned down to pick up the utensil, she caught onto the napkin holding all of the tweezers and accidentally pulled it, causing them to all fall to the ground with a loud crash.
She just stood straight up and nervously laughed, bracing herself to be yelled at while Zeke and Jimmy Jr. watched her.
oooooo
"I can't believe I got detention on the first day," Tina moaned as the three walked out of the principal's office.
"It won't be so bad. At least the three of us all go together," Jimmy Jr. mentioned.
Tina stopped for a second, Zeke's complaining about how they shouldn't be punished for a missing room becoming nothing but background noise to her. A goofy smile forming on her face.
"The three of us. That includes me. He's happy I'll be there too," she said quietly to herself.
