The First Day of School
Bella's POV
RING!!!!!
Ahh, the first day of school again. But not just any first day – today, Wednesday, September 3, 2009 is my first day of high school – sort of. I had summer school for six weeks, and in that time I've gotten to know the layout of the school a bit. For planning on coming to this school and this science magnet for my whole life, it seemed pretty sad that I didn't know my way about until three weeks ago.
"C'mon Bella!" Tyler Crowley called. As it turned out, he was the only one of my friends who was in the same homeroom as me. "Time to go!"
"That's right… We only have TEN MINUTES to walk all the way DOWN STAIRS…." I'm not a fan of being late, especially not on the first day of school, but honestly, ten minutes to go 20 steps isn't going to make me late. Tyler was way too excited that I was in his homeroom.
"Have a nice day, Bella."
"Thanks. You too, Angela."
Angela, my best friend so far, is only in Biology with me – but that's enough. We can always talk during nutrition and lunch. She is so nice and really smart. She loves chemistry. I love astronomy. We have already planned on growing up and working together on an astro-chemistry project. We spent the morning talking about the last two weeks of summer vacation.
Eric and Lauren had joined us, though they talked amongst themselves more than with us. They were my friends from middle school. We were a group of four, split into two groups of two. But it was nice having the whole gang.
As far as friends go, I've been hanging out with my friends from middle school – plus three new people. However, I never really knew them, so it's been like starting all over. But I guess that's a good thing. After how lame I was in middle school, it's refreshing to have a new chance to be somebody – somebody amazing.
So this is it. This is Forks High School in all its plainness. Today we all go to homeroom first to get our schedules. Mr. Riedinger, my homeroom teacher, is also the Physics teacher. My schedule: first period humanities with Ms. McMahon, second period NJROTC with Senior Chief Miranda, third period French year two with Madame DeFrance, fourth period English with Mr. Scull, fifth period algebra year two with Ms. Kolpas, and sixth period biology with Ms. Arnold.
Oh joy….
Of course I don't have to see all these teachers every day. Forks is on "block schedule" which means all the odd classes one day and the even classes the next. It switches off, so I only see each teacher two-three times a week. But not today. The first week we go to all our classes as the new school year begins.
Humanities seems very easy. Throughout the year we will be studying a bunch of aspects of humanity including religion, woman's roles, and creationism stories – basically everything I'm interested. Little did I know this teacher would end up loving me in just a few days, and I would be getting an A on every assignment – without putting much effort in. Humanities was going to be the best class.
NJROTC is run by the older students. It stands for Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps. I'm not planning on going into the Navy – or any national guard for that matter – but my mom, who happened to be a teacher at Forks, insisted I join NJROTC in replace of physical education. She said the students were really nice people. Unfortunately, I didn't think so that first day. The class sucked. I couldn't even get through roll call because everything is done a little bit differently than other classes. But mom really wanted to go to military ball, so I decided I'd give it two days to get better before I quit.
French was a very cozy class. The room was squished and slightly disorganized, but the teacher was nice. It would be very challenging for me because I did not do much speaking in my previous year of French, but at least I had the advantage in grammar. I was one of three ninth graders in that class.
English was scary – almost worse than NJROTC – but at least I could get through roll call. The teacher was nice, but seemed very strict. It would require a lot of work to get an A in this class – more work than I was used to. Many of my eighth grade classes were like Humanities – easy peasy lemon squeasy.
Algebra was also frightening, but for a different reason. My friends from middle school were in the class, as well as several people from NJROTC – 10th graders of course – but the teacher was freaky. She was overexcited. The class wasn't especially difficult (I come from a math family. Both my parents are math teachers.) but it was unusual. I wasn't used to such an animated teacher.
Biology was boring as hell. The teacher was monotonous and the entire idea of re-learning what I already knew just made me want to fall asleep. At least I had my friends from middle school in that class too.
RING!!!!!
Finally, after the first of many long days, I could go home.
One person had stood out to me in the last seven hours. Of course I was busy talking to my friends, but that one boy – Cullen – was outstanding. He had several friends, and seemed smart. He was only in two of my classes – NJROTC and algebra year two. He looked like he was some sort of Asian. He wasn't especially handsome, but enough for me – looks didn't matter anyway. I was overly plain myself. He wore glasses, and an NJROTC sweatshirt and sweatpants. He was about my height, five feet, six inches, but nothing mattered more than his personality. He always smiled – the cutest smile I'd ever seen, and he had such a nice voice and the most musical laughter. I would definitely have to get to know him better.
Could I truly be in love? Already?
AN: So… tell me what you think.
This story is based on my life… just like "Cutting." Except this is a bit more recent. I'm living it, here, right now, today.
I will be updating as time permits. I'm hoping at least once a week.
~Jamillia
