Quinn's First Day at McKinley Elementary.
"Mom… where's the lunchbox?" I yelled from the kitchen.
"Umm… it's right next to the car keys" mom answered in a hurry.
"Yeah, but WHERE?" I scream louder, searching for my sparkly Barbie keychain, that's what always caught my eye when mom referred to 'the keys'.
Suddenly, my mother, in all her blond beauty, appeared in from of me. With one, swift, move her gracious arms grabbed the keys and handed me my pink lunchbox from a counter that was too high for me to reach.
She ran out of kitchen, kissing my dad goodbye and I realized that I had to go with her.
My heartbeat was crazy that day. I was never the girl who shrugged at academic events, starting my very own first school year was frightening and exciting, and at six, I was ready for every adventure.
God, I hope I don't sound too much like Rachel.
Before exciting the house I took a little last look at it.
"When I'll be back, I'll be a first-grader" I whispered, with a big, fat smile on my face and I closed the door behind me.
Mom motioned me to enter in the car. I quietly made my way to our silver Mercedes Benz SUV, holding on to my lunchbox like my life depended on it.
I remember the car ride, a mix of anxiousness and thrill with Smashmouth's All-Star as my soundtrack. I asked mom to raise the volume of the radio and I started dancing (better say moving my arms around) at the rhythm of the song not to piss on myself. It was like I was high or something.
After 10 painful minutes, mom pulled up in front of the school gate.
McKinley Elementary was just so big. It consisted of three large buildings and a huge internal field, famous for being the one that host Ohio's highly praised flower convention Tulipaloosa.
I quickly kissed my mother goodbye, and I watched as she left. In front of me, tons of disoriented children were wandering around.
I was pretty smart for a first-grader, so I did the most sensed thing to do when I struggled with something: I searched for an adult figure.
Luckily, I found a woman with a warm smile, curly brown hair and ridiculously high wasted mamma-jeans.
"Sorry, are you my teacher?" I kindly asked. Yeah I know, wasn't I the smart kid? Hey, I was six after all.
The woman looked down at me sympathetically, she put a hand through my blond pigtails and said "No I'm sorry honey, but you can go to that lady over there" she pointed towards a woman with an auburn ponytail and a hard expression on her face, she looked annoyed.
"She's my son's teacher, I'm sure she'll help you find your way" continued the brunette lady, looking at me.
"Thank you very much, ma'am" I said, with the most six-year-old-innocent-smile face I could get.
"No problem, sweetie" she said reassuringly.
I headed towards the hard-looking lady. Little did I know that the woman I head just spoken with was going to save me from a homeless life 10 years later.
I recognized her son as soon as I saw him. Long, dirty blond-ish, split in the middle hair, and dark brown eyes. He was one, tall boy.
When I reached the woman though, she suddenly left, too quickly for me to follow her. The tall kid started talking to me, then.
"Were you looking for Mrs. Collins? She's kinda moody" he said. I simply nodded and observed him, he seemed so friendly, so warm just like his mom… they had the same beautiful smile. He offered me his hand.
"I'm Finn" he said with a smile, I took his hand and shook it shyly.
"Quinn" I said lightly smiling.
"Nice to meet you Quinn" he continued. I nodded again, after a while we just stood there, looking at each other, awkward silence filled the air.
"So..?" I asked, I thought he was going to tell me where Mrs. Collins went.
"So…" he replied. Dumber than I thought, he must have forgotten already.
"Mrs. Collins?" I try to recall.
"Oh… yeah… sorry, I got a little distracted" Finn hasn't changed much.
I looked at were his sight led, but the only thing I saw was an 'Emerald Dreams' van.
"She probably just went to talk to the principal or something" he said, shrugging.
"Wait… so you don't know where she went?" I asked. Finn was one confusing kid.
"Who says I did?" he asked.
Another few more seconds of awkward silence and something came up in his mind again.
He mumbled a few words and left. I was a little naïve though. I mean I thought that if a kid could tell me that a teacher was moody, he probably knew where she was going.
Behind me, I felt a hand touching my right shoulder. I turned around, ready to defend myself in case a stranger was attacking.
"You must be Quinn… Fabray" it was Mrs. Collins. Something in her reminded me of a ninja: running quickly, sneaking up from behind and the harsh face.
I couldn't help but smile at my own thoughts and let out a little laugh.
"I'll take that as a yes" she said, looking at her plastic clipboard.
"Follow my class" she said, turning around already. She was even wearing black! Mrs. Collins was definitely an Asian warrior. For some reason I couldn't wait to tell everyone about my discovery… especially Finn.
The bell rang and I followed my teacher's silhouette inside, finding my new friend along the way.
"Hey Quinn!" he greeted me with enthusiasm.
"You know… I think Mrs. Collins is a ninja" I said. I was never a random girl, but I wanted to demonstrate to him that I wasn't as boring as he probably thought I was.
"No way, I thought that too!" he smiled. I felt myself blushing and grinning timidly.
"But now that I look at her more she kinda reminds me of Severus Snape" he continued.
Woah, my older sister read me the Harry Potter books, I never thought he would know them.
This was going to be one, fun year.
