Gilbert was helping his parents unpack the boxes they had from their old home in Germany. His mom told the three males of the house where everything went while she unpacked the smaller and more fragile things. He then went to unpack his room before he helped his brother.
"West, do you need any help with your room?" he asked standing in the doorway.
"No, I don't. Stop calling me that. I am a person, not a direction," Ludwig replied. Gilbert pouted but agreed to leave his little brother alone for now.
"Boys, come down here now. We need to talk," their mother yelled up the stairs.
"As you know, you will be going to a new school tomorrow. The people here in America are much different. They speak differently, they have different-"
"Yes. We know just get on with it," Ludwig interrupted his father.
"I was just telling you that might want to try to make new friends at school."
Gilbert nodded to his father and got up from his sprawled out position on the sofa. He went back to his room to write in his journal before he went to sleep. Writing in his journal helped his collect his thoughts for the day without spacing out too much. He was really worried about his next day at school. Would the kids hate him, or would they accept him as a friend?
Gilbert woke up feeling very exhausted the next morning. 'It's been a week since we arrived here, and I'm still not ready for this' he thought. He flopped out of bed to take a shower and get ready for his first day in an American school. The school was down the street, so the boys could walk on days that it wasn't raining.
"Are you boys ready for the first day of seventh and fifth grade?" their mother asked excitedly. They decided to leave before their mother began to rave about school life when she was younger.
"Ludwig, what do you think the other kids are like?"
Ludwig just shrugged his shoulders and continued walking. The school couldn't be that bad. It was just a bunch of kids running around. They entered the large school building and went their separate ways. Gilbert continued searching the large school for his classroom until he found it 10 minutes later.
He was still early for his class despite getting lost. He opened the huge door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him. He was hoping that the teacher wouldn't be upset because he was in class early. He looked around the room and saw all of the equations that lined the walls.
He sat at a random desk and waited as the rest of the class flooded into the room. The teacher walked into the room after the last student walked in. The students continued to talk even though the teacher stood at the front of the room trying to calm down his students. Gilbert finally decided to help the teacher.
"Everyone be quiet!" he yelled. The class stared up at him, and his face blushed a deep red. The teacher looked at him gratefully and Gilbert slumped down in his seat. 'How can these children be so rude?'
"Hello, class. I am Mr. Jackson," the tall man wrote his name on the board and turned back to his class. "I am here to teach you about the beautiful art of math. I am your homeroom teacher, so you will come here every morning. You will start at this end of the room and begin introducing yourselves."
The children stood up one by one and told their names, where they were from, and things they like. When it got to Gilbert, he stood up mumbled everything that he had to, and sat down trying to stop his blush. He hated having all the attention. After he stated everything, he heard a few people start whispering about him.
Mr. Jackson passed out math worksheets to make everyone be quiet. He told the class that the worksheets would just see where they were in the class. A few minutes later, the bell rang for the classes to change. They only went to two classes because it was a short day.
Gilbert opened his locker to get his things for his next class. This was really tiring, so he couldn't imagine what the rest of the year would be like. He tried to grab his books out of his locker when he felt a sharp yank on the back of his shirt. He was pushed to the floor.
"I guess the little nazi isn't so strong after all," said one of the eighth graders. Gilbert hated being called a nazi. He didn't think what they did was okay, but everyone else thinks that he does.
"Alfred, leave him alone. He hasn't done anything wrong to you or anyone else," a girl said.
"Mr. Jones, you should leave him alone before I call your parents and give you another detention," a teacher walking in the hallway said. " All of you better get to your next class before you get in trouble on the first day." At this, all of the students, including Gilbert, ran.
His next class went by fairly uneventful. The teacher had already started teaching, so Gilbert went through the class not knowing what was going on. No one bothered him about what happened before class, so he was fine. The school dismissed at twelve o'clock.
While he gathered his things, most people ignored him or called him insults. It wasn't that bad, so he just decided to keep it from his parents. He didn't need his father to come to the school and mortify him.
He met his little brother in front of the school. Ludwig was being pulled by a smaller boy with brown hair. With them was the girl that tried to defend him earlier that day. "Gilbert! I made a new friend today!" Ludwig called from the top of the stairs. The boy dragged the two children to see his older brother.
"This is Feli, and this is Eliza," Ludwig pointed out. "Some of the kids were messing with me and they helped me."
"Sorry about earlier. I should have gotten a teacher as soon as I saw a crowd of people. If it's okay, can we still be friends?" Eliza said sheepishly.
"I'd love to, but don't you think that I'm a nazi that's planning to take over the world?" Gilbert replied sarcastically.
"Why would I? You haven't said a rude thing to anyone all day, so I think you are perfectly fine." Gilbert walked Eliza and Feli home before taking Ludwig back to their own home.
"How was your day?" their mother asked from the sofa.
"I think it was perfect," Gilbert said as he closed the door to his room.