A New School Year Begins
It was on Tuesday September 7, 2004, that classes officially started for the 2004-05 school year at Springfield High School. You would probably expect it to be a dark day for both the students enrolled there and the teachers employed there. But this was not exactly the case. In fact, although there was an somewhat of an aura of dissapointment hanging overhead, surprisingly many were actually ready to start the new school year. The school ended up losing the seniors from the 2003-04 school year, but ended up re-gaining the numbers lost with the newly enrolled freshmen. One of these freshmen students was a 13 year old boy by the name of Harold (aka Harry) Jay Simpson. He entered a year ahead of schedule because after 5th grade, he was promoted to 7th grade because of his straight A averages. And of course, the new senior students were last year's junior student. One of these seniors was a 15 year old girl by the name of Margaret (aka Maggie) Patricia Simpson. She was two years ahead of schedule academically because after 6th grade she was promoted to the 8th grade because of her straight A-plus averages, and after 9th grade she was promoted to the 11th grade, again becuase of her straight A-plus averages. One thing was for sure, both of them would enter their own new worlds that they had never experienced before.
This brand new school year would prove to be a quite a challenge for both Harry and Maggie. After all, he was unfamiliar with the high school world in general, and she, although in general familiar with the high school world, was unfamiliar with the world of the seniors. And another thing, they were both younger than most of the rest of the students in their respective grades, 9th and 12th. Now since Harry had skipped a grade he was younger than all but 4 or 5 of the freshmen students. And since Maggie had skipped two grades she was not only younger than all of the seniors, but also all of the juniors, most of the sophomores and even some of the freshmen. But neither one of them were going to let any kind of criticism they might encounter about their younger age get them down. School had restarted and since they had physically, emotionally, and mentally prepared themselves for this day for nearly a month now, they were ready to take on the challenge of another long school year.
Unofficially, school starts when the students first get off the bus and walk through the school entrance in the morning. And that's exactly how it happened this morning. One by one, the students walked onto the sidewalk and walked into the building. Then Harry, wearing a blue suit and matching hat and donning a backpack which he knew would be much heavier later, walked out onto the sidewalk. Then Maggie, wearing a pink dress and matching high heeled shoes stepped out and she too walked onto the sidewalk. But she obviously had some trouble walking in them and she tripped on the last step and would have hit the sidewalk, but her brother managed to catch her. He said to her as he lifted her back up, "Sis, you really shouldn't be wearing those things. You could break your leg if you fall." As she repositioned the pink ribbon in her hair, she responded, "I know, but since I'm younger and obviously, smaller than the rest of the seniors, I need to make some sort of impression." He answered, "Yeah, sure.", as he fixed the red tie under his shirt collar. "Well, come on, let's get this over with.", he added. She looked at him and said, "You're really not a fan of school, are you?" He responded, "It's not that I don't like school, it's just...I don't like school.". With that they walked into the building keeping their guards up just in case of unforseen obstacles, such as the school bullies looking to start the new school year with a bang, or an overzealous teacher trying to shove college-like work down your throat before school even started. It was for these reasons that Harry always dreaded the first day back to school, and this time in particular, to put it lightly, he was simply not looking forward to it at all, but he knew that he could not avoid it, no matter how much he wanted to. By way of contrast, Maggie always looked forward to the first day back, and unlike her little brother, she would embrace it and always show up, if her health permitted. In fact, the only first day of school she missed was her first day (or the first few days) of 9th grade back in 2002, and that was only because she had caught a really bad flu virus and was running a temperature of 103 degrees, forcing her to remain house confined. Needless to say, she wasn't too happy about that.
The first thing on the agenda for any student of the school was an assembly to discuss what was to be expected of the students for this year. The speech was pretty much the same this year as was every year before this one and probably would be for every year after this one. The principal and the other members of the school board talked about the basic rules and guidelines (like what happens if you set the school on fire or attack somebody, which would eventually happen before the end of 2004), and upcoming school events, such as the Springfield Holiday Concert which was, as always, scheduled the Saturday before Christmas, this year it would take place on December 18th, as well as the upcoming class elections. After that, the students went to their homerooms to obtain their class schedules, and after they got their schedules they would start heading to their first class of the year. Harry's homeroom was room 130 on the first floor, and Maggie's homeroom was room 246 on the second floor. They went up to their respective rooms and got their schedules. Like everyone else, Harry and Maggie both ran off to their first class at around 9:20. Because the assembly took a little longer than they had planned, classes would be shorter today. The first class for Harry was biology in room 136 just a few yards down the hall from his homeroom. Meanwhile, the first class for Maggie was chemistry in room 330, on the third floor. The first period would run until 10:40, after which it was on to second period. Their second classes would be Architectural Design in room 224 and Introductory Art in room 316, respectively. This period would run until 12:00, then it would transition to the lunch period, which would last until 1:30. The schedule went like this (1st: 2nd floor, 2nd: 1st floor, 3rd: 4th floor, 4th: 3rd floor). During this time, Harry was in Algebra in room 408 and Maggie was in Geometry in room 424, both on the top floor. So they were assigned to go to the cafeteria at 12:45 p.m. The bell rang at exactly that time and a mass of humanity spilled out from the fourth floor classrooms and began the long, perilous task of heading down. Some of the guys literally slid down the railings trying to make the trip a little faster. And even some of the gals took the steps two at a time to get there faster. After this short period ended, they slowly made their way back to the classrooms. At 1:30 came the arrival of fourth period. This period, Harry and Maggie had the same class, this one English in room 140. They met each other in the hall. Harry looked at Maggie and asked, "So how's your day going so far". She responded, "Oh, it's been wonderful. I always enjoy the first day back. And you?". He stated as they walked in, "Well sis, let's just say that I've had better days.". This class would last until the end of the school day at 2:45. As the dismissal bell rang, Harry jumped up on the desk gave out a war-whoop that was so loud that Maggie almost fainted from the shock and made all the other students jump. He apologized, stating, "Sorry folks, but I'm just relieved that school is over. Thank God." She pulled him down on the floor because he was still standing on the desk. As they walked out, she held on to his arm, because she was still having trouble walking, but he didn't mind, he was just glad that the first day was over, and he realized that this first day back wasn't so bad after all.