For The Love of Robin

First Day Jitters

        I made two lefts, three rights and walked past four doors before coming to the fifth one. I entered and was greeted by a female teacher. Her room was decorated like my 3rd grade classroom.
'She's one of those'. I thought bitterly.

       "Welcome to sixth grade! I'm Mrs. Sonny." She cheered enthusiastically, "What's your name doll face?" I flinched. I blinked a few times before deciding I really didn't like her.
"Johnson. Dolores Johnson." I said, trying not to grit my teeth or get angry. She nodded and made a note on the attendance sheet. She gave me a crooked smile and tucked her short red hair behind her freckled ear.

       "Well since you're the first one here you can sit anywhere. I don't believe in seating charts. They cluster up kids, forcing them to sit with people they may not reach there full potential with." I nodded my head and sat down in front of the whiteboard. I took out my history notebook and began writing down the bellwork. After finishing I double checked my schedule.

Schedule
HR/1st: AP History w/ Mrs. Sonny
2nd: Criminal Psychology w/ Miss. Fisher
3rd: Comp. Science Honors w/ Mr. Sanders
4th: Lunch
5th: Language Arts Honors w/ Mrs. Rutt
6th: Law Studies w/ Mr. Simon
7th: P.E. w/ Coach Booth
8th: Pre-Algebra Honors w/ Mrs. Anderson

     The bell signaling the end of first period rang and just like I was the first one in I was the first one out. I walked quickly to Criminal Psychology: in case you couldn't tell by my schedule I wanted to be anything that involved putting criminals behind bars. I walked in through the green door and smiled. This classroom was organized (not decorated) like a high school classroom.

        "Good morning Miss. Fisher." I greeted warmly. She simply glanced over her red half-moon glasses and then looked back down to her paper work. Ouch.

        She started off her class by explaining that there would be no: gum chewing, pens, eating, drinking, talking, humming, whistling, playing, laughing, singing, coughing, sleeping, phones, cheating, or No. 2 pencils. By the end of class we had to write an essay on the most probable crimes a 14 year old boy would commit in the state of Alabama that was due Friday.

     Walking into third period made me want to vomit. There was a half-way dissected frog on Mr. Sander's desk, a glass display box of real butterflies hanging on the SMART board, a lamp made of stag antlers and laid underneath her desk was a grizzly bear rug. I squirmed uncomfortably in my seat the whole class, not hearing her explain any of her classroom norms. Who would do this to animals?

     When I reached the cafeteria I let out a groan. There were way too many kids. Some in the lunch line, some sitting at tables and the rest were just running around. I rolled my eyes and got into one of the lines.
"Hey gorgeous." I found myself looking up at an unfamiliar face. I simply ignored him. He quickly became impatient me.
"What do I have to do to get you to talk to me?" He pouted.
"Get me to the front of this line." I smirked, crossing my arms in front of my chest.

       "Done!" He grabbed my wrist and took me to the front of the line, sliding in front of a bulky looking guy wearing a football jersey.
"Hey." He grunted, "You can't get in front of me like that." He cracked his knuckles. The boy next to me still hasn't released my hand. He turned around and faced the neckless jock. He ran a hand through his brown hair and smiled innocently.

        "But you see, my lovely girlfriend here is hungry and I hate making the love of my life wait." He let go of me and motioned a hand towards me. The giant boy looked me up and down once before allowing us to skip.
"Alright then, thanks." I smiled thankfully. I walked after the boy who grabbed my wrist once again.

         "So what's your name gorgeous?"
"Dolly. And thank you."
"That's funny cause you actually look like a Barbie doll. I'm Zack by the way. And your welcome." Zack led me to a table and we sat down. I took my salad off of the cardboard tray and began to eat it.
"No dressing?" He inquired with disbelief.
"Why add the extra calories?" He muttered something along the lines of 'health nut' to me.
I then began eating the rest of my food- strawberries and starfruit. A couple minutes went by with him tapping on the table with his pen and shaking his leg.

        "You said you would talk to me if I got you to the front of the line." Zack told me. I nodded in agreement. I shrugged my shoulders as if to ask what he wanted to talk about. I swallowed my mouthful of salad.
"So... Do you have a boyfriend?" He placed his chin on his fist and his elbow on the table as I shook my head, "Anyone caught your eye?" I nodded hesitantly. I mean I didn't necessarily want to date Dick, but he did catch my attention.

          "Yeah. But I mean it's my first day of school."
"Are you an 8th grader?" He asked with curiously. I shook my head.
"No. Sixth?" I corrected. He opened his mouth to say something else but a familiar voice caught my attention.
"Hey Dolly." I turned around and saw Dick standing in front of me. I gave him a smile and motioned for him to sit down. He took the seat next to me and gave a little wave to Zack who was glaring jealous daggers.

         "Hello circus freak." I gave Zack an evil glare at his comment.
"Is this your boyfriend?" Dick asked me with a sneer, ignoring Zack. I shook my head as Zack gave me the is-it-him look- which I didn't respond to.
"C'mon Dolly. I wanna show you something." He stood up and stuck his hand out. I took it and before I knew it I was getting dragged outside, leaving my unfinished lunch and giving Zack an apologetic look.

     I sat outside on a wall on the patio behind the school, the wind blowing my golden curls all over my face (good thing my hair wasn't too long). I took a black hair tie out of my bag and put my hair up. He looked at me and grinned.
"What?" I asked worriedly, "Do I have something on my face?" I began to wipe my rosy cheeks but he shook his head.
'Wish I could tell what he was thinking'. I thought, I mean I technically could but I knew better. We sat there without a word for a few minutes.

         "You know your friend was right?" He broke the unwanted silence. I knitted my eyebrows together and gave him a confused look.
"Claire? What was she right about?"
"There is a new movie coming out and..."
"Let me stop you right there Mr. Confident. Don't get me wrong, you are super cute, but that and your name is the only thing I know about you. We just met this morning. And we are sixth graders, we can grasp hold of middle school before we try to conquer dating." I explained sadly. He passed a hand over his strongly gelled hair, which laid all the flyaways back down, and sighed. But then he smirked.

          "So... Your saying if you got to know me better you would go out with me?" He asked as if he had just won the lottery.

         "If you ended up not being a total douche then yeah." I giggled and he stood up. I looked at him with a questioning look.
"Dolly Johnson," He took my hand between both of his, "will you do me the honor of coming to the movies with me on a 'friend date'?"
"Yeah. How bout Saturday? We can still go to the movies." I offered.
"Come on. The bell is gonna ring soon." He said as he pulled me up a twirled me around.

     We never went on the date...

     I don't remember how the rest of my classes went...

    But I knew it wasn't until I got home that I started having a bad day...