The (Not so amazing) adventures of Max

Seventh Entry: The First Day Madness

Tuesday, August 8

Well, it finally happened. Today was the big day. I woke up to the sound of my alarm blaring at full volume, which felt more like a warning siren than a friendly wake-up call. I barely had time to scarf down some toast before Mom was in my face, snapping even more pictures and making me promise to "smile big" when I saw her later. Sam, being Sam, managed to spill cereal all over himself in the chaos and yelled that I did it, which earned me an eye-roll from Dad.

Anyway, I made it to school in one piece, which honestly felt like a victory. The first thing I noticed was how big everything looked—the halls, the classrooms, even the seniors, who seemed to be at least 7 feet tall. My heart was thumping like a drum, and I felt like every step echoed louder than it should. I managed to find my homeroom (Room 104B) without tripping over my own feet, so...score one for me.

That's when the homeroom teacher handed out our schedules. My eyes zoomed in, checking each class with the speed of a kid looking for the last cookie in the jar. And then I saw it. Third period: English – Mr. Dreadmore. My stomach did a full gymnastics routine at that point. Dreadmore's the teacher everyone warns you about. The stories say he's so strict that if you breathe wrong, he'll give you detention. I could almost hear Leo's voice in my head saying, "Good luck, dude. You're gonna need it." Great. First day and I'm already dreading third period.

The rest of the morning was a blur. Ben and Alex waved at me from across the cafeteria when I tried to navigate lunch, which involved standing in line for what felt like an hour only to get a slice of pizza that looked sadder than Sam when he loses at Mario Kart. Leo tried to be cool by pretending he wasn't nervous, but I could see the sweat on his forehead from a mile away.

By the time I survived my first two periods, my mind was already racing about third period with Dreadmore. I was convinced that if I so much as blinked wrong, I'd end up writing essays for the next month. But hey, at least I didn't trip and fall today, so there's that.

Day one down. Only about a hundred and eighty more to go.

High school...I'm not sure if I'm surviving it yet or just barely hanging on.