Contest Entry for Lenovo Back to School Contest (Living in Chicago)

The Arriving

          I stayed awake just day dreaming and wondering. When the alarm clock rang, I closed my eyes and acted like I was asleep the entire time. My sister, Alyssa, leaned up and clicked the button to turn off the annoying sound. She rubbed her eyes and yawned really big. Then, she got up from off the recliner and started pushing on me to "wake me up". I rolled over and acted sleepy and annoyed.

          She said, "Wake up! It's the first day of school." Usually, she would be excited, but she sounded upset this time. Then, she shoved on my brother, Cameron . He would not wake up, so she just pulled the blanket off of him. He gets very cold very easily, so that got him up quickly. 

         I got off of the couch, that my brother and I were sleeping on, and walked to the bathroom. I grabbed my toothbrush and reached for the toothpaste. I looked at it, and of course, it was empty. I tried my hardest to squeeze out as much as I could, but it was useless. I used the restroom and then walked to the closet. I got 1/2 of the closet, and the other half went to my sister. I looked up at the hanger rack and realized that only had 6 shirts. Two of them were ugly. Three of them didn't fit right, and the other one was decent, I guess. I was a plain red shirt. I looked at the bottom of the closet and looked at my 4 jeans. One of them was way too small. One of them was way too big, and the others were baggy and had giant holes on them with stains. I grabbed one of the baggy ones and walked to the bathroom. I changed into my clothes and then started walking to the door. I picked up my shoes that I got from two Christmas's ago. They were old, black tennis shoes that looked like I found them in the garbage. I picked them up and started walking to the couch. Of course, my brother was still just sitting there on the couch, undressed.

         "Cameron, get dresses. We only have...," I looked at the digital clock. "Oh my gosh! Hurry up Cameron! We have 5 minutes to be ready at the bus stop waiting." He got up and grabbed his clothes and got dressed. I woke up mom and told her that we would be leaving soon. 

        I walked back over to the couch and sat down. I put on my shoes and tied them as quick as possible. I was rushing to get everything ready and get my brother ready. My sister was still in the bathroom brushing her hair. 

          5 minutes passed, and I yelled for everyone to run to the bus stop. I grabbed my backpack and waited for them. "By mom!" I yelled, and all three of us started running down the stairs. We ran as fast as we could without falling. When we arrived at the 1st floor, I looked out the side window and saw that the bus was already there. 

         "Guys, run!!!" my sister yelled. We all darted for the door and ran down the street. The bus started moving and we just kept running. 

          "Wait!" my brother yelled at the bus. Luckily, the bus stopped at a stop sign and so we caught up to it just in time. The bus driver opened the door and we all got on huffing and puffing. When I glanced up at the front of the bus, all I heard was kids screaming and acting crazy, and all I saw were a bunch of kids throwing paper at each other and talking to each other. 

          There were so many African American kids. Honestly, I did not see any white kids. I started walking forward and I was just glancing at all of the groups of kids. I was trying to decide where I wanted to sit, and then I got to the back of the bus. There were kids that were older (about my age), but they all just looked at me and my siblings like we didn't fit in. I'm not racist, but I felt like they were judging me because I was white. I sat down and didn't say anything. I felt like their eyes were right on me, so I didn't want to look up and make eye contact. I turned to the inside of the seat and looked at my sister. She looked back at me and gave me a smile that said, "It'll be okay."

          I wanted to cry. I have really bad anxiety, and I knew that everyone was staring at me. I started losing my breath the more I thought about it, and then I started having a panic attack. My sister told me to switch sides and sit on the inside. I moved over and opened my backpack. I took out my inhaler and inhaled its air. My sister was watching me and looked at me.