I

It was the Gavin's first day of high school. He honestly didn't know what to expect. He didn't know if he should act cool, or not…

"But then again what is cool?" he thought to himself.

He was extremely confused and anxious. He had come to summer orientation, as was mandatory of all the freshmen, and he had seen a couple of good people he thought he could befriend, but the truth was he was basically alone. He had heard from others that high school was nothing like middle school, but he honestly did not know what to expect.

Gavin had gotten accepted into Engineering and Science High School (E&S for short). He really just went to the school on a whim. His original plan was to go to Science Leadership Academy, but they waitlisted him and eventually declined him entirely. His 8th grade teacher had graduated from E&S and she convinced him to go. There was nothing he could lose, it wasn't like the school was bad. It was, afterall, a magnet high school, special admission, first in Los Angeles, second in California. In addition to not really caring for the school, he didn't know what exactly it was he was going to do after high school. He understood he was still young, but even a slight idea was better than nothing at all. He wasn't really the best student, he considered himself average and didn't really care much about it. As long as he didn't bring home a plethora of C's and absolutely no D's and F's his parents left him alone.

Gavin walked into the school, it was 07:30 and the school was already buzzing full of students, most looked like they were in their 20's others like they were in their 10's. Ms. Patterson, who was a woman of considerable size, not only in terms of weight but in voice as well, had announced in the cafeteria that all of the freshmen were to look on the windows that surrounded the cafeteria for their "Book number". Gavin didn't know exactly what a book number was but it must've been important. He walked over to the crystal windows and scanned looking for his number.

"Is it in alphabetical order?" he mumbled to himself

"Yeah."

He was surprised that anyone had heard him.

"Thanks." he repeated, turning to face the boy who had answered him.

"Name's Hayden." the boy said, extending his hand to shake Gavin's

"Gavin." he retorted

" So what book number are you Gavin?"

"I'm um… One sec… Oh 401. How about you?"

"Same. Guess we're in the same advisory. It says Ms. Ling. Room 114"

"Cool." Gavin said.

The bell rung and both boys continued talking about how they got into E&S. Hayden was pretty familiar with the school, his older brother had graduated last year and he had come plenty of times with his mothers for Student-Teacher conferences. Room 114 was in the first floor, not too far from the cafeteria actually. Gavin followed Hayden who walked through these big glass doors that were one exit out of the cafeteria. They made a left going through another set of big glass doors, these had already been opened and were being held so by a big pole that had a sign above it. Gavin didn't really read it, he was paying more attention to Hayden and where they were going. They continued straight and Ms. Ling's room was right there, next to another room, sort of buried into the wall, but it was visible, if you had taken the route they did. When they walked in they noticed the seats were in files. Hayden motioned to Gavin and they sat towards the back of the classroom, on the right hand side (if you're facing the classroom).

Ms. Ling was a small oriental woman, she was very petite but gave off a very strict and formal aura. When the second bell rung she waited a little longer for the stragglers to come through the doors and began speaking.

"Good morning!" she announced enthusiastically and went on to explain everything about how they would have assemblies to be informed about all of the things that were being planned either for their class as a whole or in the school in general. Ms. Ling also explained the 3 strike rule. The rule was essentially that when you receive your report card, the way in which your eligibility for extracurricular activities was measured was in how many strikes you received. A strike can be given for a 3 in behaviour, out of a scale of 1-3. 3 being unsatisfactory, 2 being satisfactory, and 1 being excellent. A strike can also be given for an F in any class. Any combination of an F and a 3 which results in 3 or more strikes results in complete ineligibility for any extra-curricular activities in the following quarter. There were no exceptions and Ms. Ling made sure to get across how imperative it was for the freshmen to keep their grades and behaviour well so that they would not miss anything in the upcoming quarters. She finished the shpeal with saying. " I know that to many of you high school is a new experience, but I promise, the staff is here for your benefit. If you have any problems do not be afraid to appeal to any of us. My best advice for you guys as entering freshmen is to have fun and make sure you balance school and social life." She paused for a second and walked over to her desk. She continued, " With that being said. I have your rosters. This is your schedule for the year. I'll call you guys up one by one. Please forgive me in advance if I mispronounce your name. I will learn it eventually, I promise."

Hayden got called up first. He walked up, took the roster from Ms. Ling's hand and looked down and smiled. It made Gavin curious as to what class could he have possibly wanted so badly that he smiled so hard when he received it. Hayden walked back to his seat next to Gavin, not taking his eyes off of his roster, examining it closely. He sat down, still with his eyes glued to the paper.

"Why were you smiling so hard?" Gavin asked, increasingly curious.

"I got gym 1-2 dude!"

Gavin was puzzled. What was 1-2 gym? He opened his mouth to ask exactly that but was cut off by Ms. Ling calling his name. He got up, a little nervous, he didn't know why, to be frank. He reached the front of the class, smiled at Ms. Ling and took the paper from her hand. He began walking back to his seat looking at the paper. The first thing he noticed was that the roster looked computed. It wasn't at all how he had expected it, it wasn't visually appealing. Nor was it in a basic list form. He was scanning through it and saw gym twice on the list. It was the first two things on the list. Hey! He had gym 1-2 as well!

He walked over to Hayden, he was excited, even if it was a little bit. He actually liked Hayden and he was happy he had made a friend on his first day and even more excited that he didn't have to spend first and second with strangers. When he sat down Hayden asked him what his roster looked like and Gavin told him how they had gym together. Hayden began explaining to Gavin how they only had gym for half of the year, the second half of the year they would have another course, it was the school's way of expediting the credits. You took the class for 96 minutes a day for the first two quarters and you received the credit.

The bell rung and they went off to gym. Turned out that they also had 5th lunch together. and 8th period as well. Gavin was confident that his high school wasn't as bad as he had expected. He got all of the syllabi and materials he would need for all of his classes so he took them home and went shopping with his mom. But before the day was over, he was sure to get Hayden's number. He really enjoyed his company. Hayden was actually a really cool p