First Grade Adventures

Day 1: First Contact

The first day of school is always an exciting or at least an eventful day for the students, their care givers, and all the staff and volunteers at Dodgers Elementary School. At 7:45 am sharp the students came pouring into the old building. Some by themselves, and others with a parent or another adult figure in their lives (mostly the kindergartners).

Life had returned to Ms. Spinner's first grade classroom once again after a long summer in hibernation. The fresh-faced children of Ms. Spinner's class went into the room one by one finding their seats. One such face was Morgana, a bright child with strong opinions, a curious mind, and a pension for mischief.

Making their way to her seat she realized that her table was the only one with five chairs instead of the usual four. That didn't mean much to her, but they did appreciate having their seat facing directly towards the board instead of sideways like all the other kids' seats tucked in around the round tables. Looking at the name tags of their table-mates she recognized a few who were in different kindergarten classes than she had been in the previous school year. The other two were new names she didn't remember from last year.

Eighty percent of the class Morgana could name on sight, and a handful she knew the faces just not their names that went along with them. The mystery kids whose seats were to her left made up that last small percentage. 

Like most other six-year-olds first impressions make quite a lasting impact on whether a kid could potentially be friend material for Morgana. So, when two unfamiliar boys walked through the door two impressions were made. One was loud, much too animated for Morgana's taste, and the look of someone who thought they were the best thing in the whole universe. The other was quiet in comparison (although that isn't saying much). They also had an aura of mystery around them, as well as a magnetic pull that made the rest of the class who had already found their seats turn their heads with interest. This one took their seat next to Morgana, and when they pulled out a notebook and pencil case, she noticed their backpack for the first time. It was covered in fish, kelp, and to her surprise and delight had a cartoon of a fangtooth fish on it.

As Morgana tried to figure out how to tell this new student how much she liked his backpack, as it had one of her favorite species of deep-sea fish on it, without scaring them off, a bell rang overhead cutting off this train of thought.

"Welcome to First Grade! My name is Ms. Spinner, and I will be your teacher for this year! I hope everyone is ready to have a fantastic, fun, and fabulous year in class 24601!" said Ms. Spinner as she faced the room full of excited six-year-olds.

"Now I want you to go around your tables and share your name and your favorite food. When everyone is done one person from the group will introduce the entire table to the class," said Ms. Spinner.

The floodgates were opened as introductions were being made.

"I'm Jennifer and my favorite food is watermelon!"
"My name is Allyssa, and my favorite food is mochi ice cream."

"The name's Dave Dodgers as in Hero America, he's my dad. But I go by Ducky."

It was at this point Morgana gave up on trying to find anything to like about this new boy and gave into her initial feelings of dislike.

"and my favorite food is the super mega meatball sub made by my Uncle Morgan. It's the best thing in the world!"

"My name is Morgana,"

a void hung over the table as the group waited for her to finish.

"Oh! And my favorite food is... hmm... chicken, just chicken. It's the best."

She faces the person to the left, Hawk, who was sitting between her and Ducky.

"Call me Hawk, and my favorite thing to eat are the entrails of my enemies,"

Ducky elbows him with a look

"What are entrails?" says Jennifer

"Entrails are your guts, vital/internal organs, that sort of thing. One of my moms is a doctor and the other is Forensic Pathologist, meaning she studies murdered corpses, so I hear about this type of thing at home ALL the time." Interjected Morgana with a maniacal look in her eyes. "Aaaaaaaaaanyway, if no one else is going to introduce us, I will."

"HEY! Wait! I want to be the speaker! Who made you the boss of the table?" shouted Ducky.

"Obviously Ms. Spinner did when she made me the head of the table."

"The table is a circle! No one is the head of anything!"

"But I'm facing the board head on, and I'm in the middle. That makes me the team leader and therefore I get to stand up"

"No Way!"
"Yes Way!"

"Nu'hun"

"Ya'hun"

"No"

"Yes"

"The school is named after my dad so that makes me head of the school which is better than head of the table! So, HA! Jokes on you! I win!"

"That's not fair," protested Morgana.

Just as Morgana and Ducky drew breath to continue their bickering Ms. Spinner calls the class to attention.

"Ok class, why don't we go around the room now and have one person from each table introduce their group to the class. Why don't we start with group one?" said Ms. Spinner. "Hawk why don't you tell the class about your group?"