Differences Make Us Beautiful

The First Day

As the light blue car drove up to the front of the elementary school, the little 8-year-old goat in the backseat was a bit hesitant to go inside. Today was his first day at this new school, and he didn't really know what lies ahead of him. He watched as the front of the building got closer and closer. He never really liked the unknown.

It was a pretty large school. It was only one story tall, but it stretched wide across this whole vicinity. It was enough for the little one to become pretty intimidated from sight alone. There was a driveway that paralleled the front doors, and it had an awning hanging above the walkway, so during bad weather, the children being dropped off or picked up wouldn't get wet from rain. 

The car came to a stop, and his mother, Grace DaGoata, turned in her seat to look at the young boy, who was still staring out the window. On the outside, he seemed pretty calm, but he was internally pretty frightened.

"Alright, hun. You get on in there, I'll be here to pick you up this afternoon, ok?" she said.

The little goat nodded shyly and opened his door. They exchanged "I love you's" and he walked inside the front of the school.

He didn't know how to navigate this brand new building. But from where he stood, he saw the principal's office and he knew that would be the best place to go. He walked in the office and up to the front desk. It seemed like a pretty welcoming little office space. There were plants everywhere, a couple couches against a wall that looked pretty comfortable. One of the secretaries noticed him and walked over.

"Can I help you, young man?" she said.

"Um, I-I'm new, and ... I don't know where my class is." he said back.

The skinny llama at the desk nodded her head. "Who is your teacher?" she asked.

The goat showed the sheet of paper with his teacher on it, and the secretary walked around and took his paw in hers. "Come on, I'll take you there."

The two walked down a long hallway lined with classrooms. To the right, each room assigned to an even number, and to the left, were the odd numbers. They walked passed a set of bathrooms, so he took a mental note of where those were located, just in case. They made their way to the room labeled "125". Inside, there were a few students already there. It was the first day for everyone, but he had just moved from another town, so everything was still so unfamiliar.

The llama knocked on the open door, and the teacher looked over to wave them inside. Rami looked around and nobody seemed to be paying any attention to them. The walked up to the teacher, who was a panda bear who seemed a bit small for her size.

"I have a student here for you. I believe he is a new one." she pat the goat on the back gently.

The panda bear's face lit up. "Ohhh, I was expecting you! So happy to have you with us." she thanked the secretary, who then walked off, back to her office. "You're going to have so much fun here, I just know it!"

The shy goat giggled under his breath, and nodded.

"You can sit wherever you'd like, I don't like to do assigned seating unless it is absolutely necessary." the teacher said.

He looked around, and noticed a few empty desks in the back right corner of the room from where he was looking. He would rather be safe than not, so he wanted to be as far away from the other students as he can be. He took off his backpack, hooked it to the back of his chair, and sat down.

After about 15 minutes, the bell rang. The class was small, probably about 9 kids other than himself. The desk in front of him was taken by a little brown deer. The desk to his right was thankfully still empty.

The panda bear stood up and wrote her name on the board in marker. "Mrs. Mel" she turned around and introduced herself to the class. After that, she turned to her desk, and pulled out a clipboard.

"I will now take attendance. When I call your name, please speak loudly and raise your hand so I can see your cute little faces." She started reading off the list of names. After a few, she finally got to his.

"Ray-me DaGoata?" she stuttered.

Rami sighed. He raised his hand "Um, i-it's Raw-me."

He saw other kids start looking at him. He felt his face getting warm. He didn't want to gain the attention of everyone. He stared at the chair of the desk in front of him, trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

"Oh! I'm so sorry. I will write that in to make sure I say it right next time." she scribbled on the clipboard and continued calling names.

Rami was used to people mis-pronouncing his name. It was pretty different, but he liked it. He liked not having a common name. Though, that's probably the only thing about him where he thought that being different was a good thing.

Everything about him seemed different. He was a Nubian Goat, so his ears were long and floppy, hanging loosely to both sides of his head. His main fur color was a boring tan, or as some like to say, khaki, like the pants. The bottom ends of his ears were a light brown, with a thick, maroon-ish-purple stripe around the middle. He had a light brown splotch around his left eye. Those eyes, on the other hand, were the brightest shade of blue you've ever seen.

On both sides of his torso, there were dots of various sizes in the same maroon as on his ears. And his feet and fingers were the same light brown as everywhere else, and at the end of each finger was a pointed claw the same shade of dark brown as his still-growing horns.

He never felt like the other kids. He was always different. He was picked on a bit at his other school for looking the way he does, even though he can't really control it. He didn't ask to be born with these ugly patterns all over him. Yet, they still called him names.

He was never able to make friends. Nobody wanted to be seen with him in fear that they would get wrapped up in his problems. Some teachers tried to step in, but nothing ever helped. He always feels alone, like nobody really wants him around.

Hopefully moving to this new school will be different than his previous experiences. He did have a bit of hope, cause so far, everyone seemed to be pretty friendly around him.

Then again, so far he's only met those where being friendly was a requirement.