Chapter 1: First Day, Last Year (Pt. 1)

September 2, 2014

*beep beep beep beep*

I slowly opened my eyes, only to shut them immediately. The sun is way too bright today, I thought to myself. I slowly opened my eyes again to see my clock say 6:30. I groan as I hit the dismiss button and drowsily get out of bed. I walked over to my closet and took out my tan pants ,blue peter pan blouse, and grey sweater, and threw them on my bed. I walked over to my mirror and took a look at myself. It's my first day of eighth grade. I'm extremely excited, but I'm also a little scared. Not because of the whole "first day of school" scenario, but because of the fact that this is my last year at the school that I have spent most of my middle school years. I started Calvary Christian Academy (more commonly known as CCA) when I was in the sixth grade, and now here I am.

I walked out of my bedroom and down the hall to the bathroom. No one was using it yet, so I bolted for it and locked the door behind me. I quickly took a shower and brushed my teeth. It didn't seem real to me yet, that I was finally in the eighth grade. I put my bathrobe on and slipped my feet into my slippers and walked back to my bedroom. I looked at the clock again.

7:00.

Why do I have to wake up so early?

I quickly put my uniform on and pulled a comb through my long, curly pink hair. I style my hair into my two pigtails that I have been wearing since I was in elementary school. I take one last look at myself in the mirror. Good enough, I say to myself. I look at the top of my head. Those stupid strands of hair that won't seem to lay down are standing up like they always do. I spray my hair with some hairspray and attempt to brush them down, only for them to pop back up again. I sigh in defeat, and decide to let my hair be for today. I got to my desk and pack all of my stuff for the first day of school. I run down in my head what I need to have in my backpack.

Notebook, check. Pencil case, check. Pens, check. Pencils, check. Binders, check. Composition notebooks, check. Loose-leaf paper, check. Folders, check. Spiral notebooks, check. Agenda book, check. Highlighters, check. Post-it notes, check. Index cards, check. Book covers, check. Bible, check. Dictionary & Thesaurus, check. Spanish-English dictionary, check. Geometry kit, check. Calculator, check. Sketchbook, check. Colored pencils, check.

I zipped up my backpack and slung it over my shoulder. I grabbed a small purse from my closet and put my phone, earbuds, wallet, and cosmetics bag (even though I don't wear makeup and it doesn't really have makeup in it, it just has some lotion, tissues, gum, and a bunch of other random stuff in it) into my purse.

I walk out of my room, closing the door behind me. I smell bacon and eggs cooking downstairs.

I wonder if Taiga and Ryuji are up, I think to myself.

I walk down the stairs and set my backpack and purse down by the front door, and then walk into the kitchen. Taiga is sitting at the table going through the mail as Ryuji cooks breakfast.

"Good morning, Feldt," Taiga says to me with a smile. Ryuki looks up from his cooking and waves to me.

"Good morning, Taiga. Good morning, Ryuji," I say to them as I sit down at the table.

"You know you can call us mom and dad, right?" Ryuji says to me as he goes back to his cooking.

"Oh sorry," I say to them, "I'm still not use to this life yet."

"I understand," Ryuji says back to me, "but this life is better compared to where you were a year ago."

"I know," I respond back to him, thumbing through the pages of the Style section in the newspaper.

Taiga and Ryuji are my foster parents. They adopted me when I was in the sixth grade. I use to live with Palutena, who fostered me and a few other girls that I had grown pretty close to. I miss the girls and Palutena. They weren't like the other foster homes I had been in. They were nice. Being with them felt like I had an actual family. Then Ryuji and Taiga came, and offered to take me in. I was very happy to have a new family, but I would really miss my old family.

I was torn from my thoughts when I heard someone call my name.

"Hmm?" I responded back.

"I was trying to ask you, are you excited for your first day of eighth grade?" Mom asked me.

"Oh, yeah. I'm super excited," I tried to respond with as much enthusiasm as possible.

Ryuji- Er, I mean, Dad, walks over to the table and sets a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast in front of me.

"Eat up," he tells me, "scholars need to have a lot of energy for their first day of school."

"Okay!" I say as I prepare myself to dig into my breakfast.

"Ahem," Mom clears her throat at me.

"What?"

"We pray before we eat."

"Oh, right."

Mom, Dad, and I hold each others hands and say a quick prayer before we begin eating.

I continue to look through the Style section of the newspaper, when an interesting article catches my eye.

"Hey mom," I ask.

She looks up at me from her plate.

"Have you seen this article? It's talking about that incident that happened during the spring," I say, pointing to the article.

"Let me see," Mom asks as she takes the paper from me.

She reads the article out loud,

"A representative of the DWMA says that the kishin's madness has affected people all over the world. However, the situation has been resolved, and their students and faculty are working to resolve the matter."

"So they resolved the problem?" I asked my mom.

"Seems so," she responded back to me. "It's nothing you need to worry about, Feldt. Just focus on getting into a good high school."

"Ok," I respond back, finishing up the last bit of my breakfast.

"By the way, your friends Ella, Miriam, and Alice said that they can give you a ride to school today," Dad tells me.

I jump up from the table and run to the front door, scrambling to get my shoes on.

"Don't forget your tissues for your teacher!" Mom yells to me from the kitchen.

"I got them," I tell her as I pick up all of my stuff as I start to head out the door.

"Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad! Have a nice day!" I yell to them.

"You, too!" I hear them yell back.

Truth be told, my new home is only two blocks away from my old home. I ran the two blocks to their house. I see Palutena trying to get the other girls into the car. She notices me running towards the car.

"Hi, Feldt!" she greets me with a smile. "Would you like to ride with us today?"

I nod my head with excitement.

"Hop in," she says as she opens the car door.

Before I could even open the door, I'm pushed to the ground and greeted by an all too familiar voice.

"FFFFFEEEELLLLLLDDDDDTTTTTTT!" I hear my best friend, Christina, yell as she tackles me to the ground in the biggest hug ever.

"Hey, Chris," I respond back to her, hugging her even tighter.

"Ready for eighth grade?" she asks me, her excitement clearly showing on her face.

"Yep!" I reply back. This time, with genuine enthusiasm.

Ella, Miriam, and Alice run towards me and grabbed me into a huge hug.

"You ready for school?" Alice asked me.

"This year is going to be so much fun!" Ella chimed in.

"2K15, GET HYPE!" Miriam yelled in excitement.

We all got in the car and headed towards CCA, singing along to the songs that played on the radio.

"By the way, did you hear? There's a new boy in our class!" Alice said, grabbing everyone's attention, including Palutena's.

"Do you know what his name is?" Chris asked.

"Nope!" Alice replied back.

We all stared blankly at Alice for a few minutes.

"Seriously? You got us all worked up, only to say that you don't know his name?" I asked her.

"Sorry, but I only figured that out at back to school night," Alice replied.

"By the way, why weren't you there? Everyone was there except for you," Ella said.

"Sorry, but I heard he was going to be there," I replied, slowly sinking into my car seat.

"Who the new kid?" Miriam asked.

"Or Tamaki?" Christina added.

"You all know who I'm talking about," I mumbled.

"Feldt, Tamaki was told not to come back by Mr. Perry and Mr. Owens," Ella said.

"But that doesn't stop him from hanging around," I replied.

"Okay, chill," Miriam interjected. "Tamaki isn't going to be here this year, so there's no need to worry. Let's all just have a great year!"

"Okay," I replied back to her. It amazes me how fast Miriam can change the tone of a conversation.

We pulled up to the middle school entrance of our school (we call it I.M.P.A.C.T.), and got out the car.

"Bye, Palutena," we all said to her before walking into the school building.

"Bye, girls. Have a nice day!" she said back to us.

Me and Chris were the last to enter the building, but something shiny in the corner of my eye caught my attention.