Labor Day officially marked the end of summer and the beginning of another school year.
Though Jess felt a certain degree of excitement to be back, having things such as cross country as well as track & field to look forward to, it was still so sweltering hot that shuffling through the hallways between classes made him feel like he was crawling through a desert. It was so bad that, if given the chance, he would have preferred to work outside on his parents' farm all day than slowly wither away inside a stuffy building with no air conditioning.
He didn't even know how it was legal to allow three-hundred something students and their teachers to suffocate inside a hot building for nine hours a day. And no, being told that the weather would cool down in about a month wasn't enough to placate him enough to suffer with it because fall never came soon enough.
After the first bell of the day rang and they sat through the morning announcements, Jess' teacher stood up and came to stand in front of the classroom.
"Hello, good morning, and welcome to your first day of senior year! My name is Ms. Steinberg and I will be your homeroom teacher as well as your English teacher."
At first glance, Jess felt he liked his homeroom teacher.
She appeared young enough that she was still capable of keeping up with current ideas and didn't appear to look down on her students for their interests, which was unlike the other, much older teachers in the school who despised anything that "kids these days" enjoyed.
She also appeared stern enough to know how to control her classroom so that nobody ever stepped out of line and transformed the classroom into a circus. She definitely had years of teaching under her belt but still walked with a skip to her step like she hadn't become completely disillusioned by the unlikeable aspects of her job.
The syllabus was passed out and his teacher went over the rules of her classroom, the novels they were going to be reading and, of course, all of the assignments they could expect week to week in between several major projects throughout the year. The transparency was nice, and allowed Jess to mentally prepare himself for each assignment and plan ahead because he worked at the hardware store on weekends and needed to be able to manage his time well.
"Now, let's start with an ice breaker! I want everyone to take out a piece of paper and answer the questions I've written out on the board. When you're done, give me a thumbs up."
Ms. Steinberg then directed their attention to the board, where she had already written a list of items she wanted everyone to answer.
Ice-breaker activity
Let's start the year off by making a new friend!
I want you to write five facts about yourself.
Do not write your names on your paper!
Ideas to help you write:
- Something special about you (hobby, favorite food, favorite animal, favorite vacation destination, etc.)
- Where you see yourself in 10 years
- Your dream job
Jess pondered the questions for a few moments before scribbling down the following responses on his sheet of paper:
1. Art is my favorite subject.
2. I would like to have a dog... if I could afford it.
YOU ARE READING
Bridge to Terabithia 2: A Second Chance
FanfictionAs a senior in high school, Jess Aarons is preparing to graduate and move on to the next stage in life: college. However, he realizes that not everything is as it seems when someone from his past comes back into his life and flips his whole world up...
