first day of school

first day at school

I remember walking through the poorly painted green gates, my eyes immediately capturing the green paint that peeled its way from the swinging gate as if it was desperately trying to escape. Walking onto the playground I grabbed onto my mother, my hands clinging to her jacket. My fingers feeling the strange, itchy material it was made out of. At that age I could never figure out why she would choose to wear it. She wasn’t a particularly material woman, but even I knew that jacket was below her standard. Honestly I think she did too. My ears rung, bursting at the sound of children screaming. The first time I saw the older kids running around the playground, they seemed like giants. Giants that could step right over me, never even seeing me in their way. One of them tripped and fell, his hand skidding across the hard surface, the skin peeling away as he went. The playground was familiar to them. I had no idea just how long they’d been here, or how long I would be here. Was this my life now? Would I ever get to go home? I wasn’t sure if I could live without my PlayStation.

The smell hit my nose like a bullet speeding through its unknowing target. The thick, sweet smell of chocolate. My young eyes flicked over to see a rather rotund boy demolishing an obscenely large bar of chocolate, like a drug addict getting their fill. He didn’t even stop to savor it. Hell, he barely even came up for a gasp of air. I could almost taste it myself, the milky texture mixed with the sweet taste. My ears demanded my attention as the same numbers kept filling them. 1. Then 2. My eyes took control as they forced me to stare away from the chocolate and at the group of older girls leaping over the rope, holding each others hands as they flew over the swinging rope. What was this place? What was going on and why did they all seem so happy to be here? Why was the large boy so happy that he could barely breathe? Why where the girls so happy about their peers trying to assault them with a rope so sharp looking that I could imagine it taking their heads clean off?

*Ding ding ding* all my senses where brought to attention by the unmistakable sound of a bell. Was it time for the boxing? That’s the only thing I could think of. If it was, I think it’s safe to say my chances where slim to none. Then I saw her. The woman in black. Her black dress covering almost her entire body except her wrinkled face and her hands that held the bell that beckoned the children towards it. Like sheep, they followed their shepherd inside the building as my own mother pushed me forward. I walked inside, unsure of why. My hands tying themselves around the velvet strap of my bookbag. I wasn’t exactly ready, but then again what was there to be ready for. The lessons? I’d heard all about lessons. I pictured them in my minds eye as tall, slimy creatures that feasted on the unknowing children. They where surely no worse than the tree monster that hung outside my window every night. Or the jet black ghost that followed me everywhere the sun went and copied my every move. Whatever it was I could handle it. I was prepared to handle this strange place called school.