It Started in the Classroom

Chapter 1

    I always hate the first day of school. I always want to go back to school, though, so feeling the anxiety and nerves is super annoying. I tap my foot on the concert impatiently. I could just play hooky and stay home, but I had already promised my friends I would go to school today. Maybe tomorrow, though. My record wasn't the best, if I'm honest. Even though I missed a handful of days or came in late or left early, my GPA was still good. And I was caught up in all my classes. I planned smartly when I would skip, unlike Henry Bowen who now has to repeat tenth grade because he missed too many days. Loser. There were more people who skipped more, so it's not like I'm the only one who just doesn't show up to school. I like to have fun while I'm still young, okay? No one understands that the bike and skate park wasn't crowded during the day or how the stores were easier to steal stuff from. But I haven't stolen anything for several months. And my fingers were hungry for something to take. I had little magnet fingers, I couldn't help it.

    I waited outside and the cool morning air made my exposed legs shiver. There was a group of eleven other students waiting around me. Yes, I counted. We were all wearing the school uniform, either a white, light gray, maroon, blue or beige color/button shirt with either a black skirt or a pair of black pants (depending if you were a girl or a boy). Some of them were talking amongst themselves, catching up from each other's summers. I'm not in the talking mood, though. I have earbuds in, playing music at the loudest volume my ears will handle. I just want to go to school already. You know when you hype yourself up but the longer you wait, the more nervous you get? Yeah, that's what I'm feeling waiting for the damn bus. I felt someone behind me move towards me and I turned around before they could get my attention. I recognize him as PD, someone that I've gone to school for for the last couple of years. He has dyed his hair a bright pink over the summer and it has faded slightly. I look down at my IPhone and pushed pause on my Pandora song- I honestly don't know what I am listening to- and took my earbuds out.

    "Hey Annamarie," PD greets me with one of his award winning smiles. "How was your summer?"

    I shrug my shoulders. It wasn't too bad, but I wasn't allowed to go out with friends too much. I did get a kitten, though. Instead I said, "it was really good! What about you?"

    "It was alright," PD smiled again. "I went to the beach a couple times and went to my mountain house for a week."

    'Man, this guy smiled a lot.' I thought, resisting the urge to roll my eyes. 'Little rich boy has to go back to the real world. He could probably pay for someone to go to school for him. Wouldn't that be something?' Can the bus come already? "That sounds fun," I say, trying to sound cheerful but it came out sounding bored.

    "Yeah, it was," he said, not getting the hint to stop talking to me.

    Before I could ask him to go away, I hear the puff of the bus coming around the corner. It was the yellow bus that everyone hated to ride to school but fun to ride for field trips. I wish I could drive to school but nope! Here I am, standing on the corner of the street with other random people. I saw that everyone seemed to stop talking as the bus rounded the corner. The school bus slowed down to a stop in front of the stop sign and after a sound of struggle from the engine, the doors slowly opened. PD got on the bus first, followed by the three other students that were waiting in front of me. I jumped into the line behind a random girl who must've been a freshman because I didn't recognize her and made sure my phone and earbuds were still in my skirt pocket. I lightly touched my pocket and felt relief as I felt the side of the phone and the wire of my earbuds. I walked up the three steps into the bus, smelling the school bus smell; hormones and despair. I love it. I like seeing people in funny situations. And the first day of school is the perfect day for that. As I scan the aisles, I see tons of familiar faces. Some old classmates and new ones were greeting each other and making room for new arrivals.