Say It Louder

The First Day

 Olivia:
   I closed my eyes and breathed in as my bus pulled up. It was my first day of high school. I didn't know what to expect. All I knew, based off my knowledge from books and movies, is everything you did in high school defined you. Even things like where you sat on the bus. The very front seat was an automatic no. That was the seat the bus driver eventually put the trouble kids in. That meant if you sat there, you would have to move a few weeks into school, while everyone else was situated. Then there was the back seat. Was the back seat still even cool? I was pretty sure that's where all the seniors sat. At least, as far as I knew. The middle of the bus was pretty much sophomore and junior territory. A freshman sitting there would look like you were trying too hard, which is basically social suicide. The only safe seats were the third and fourth rows. If I didn't get those, I would be lost.

   The bus doors opened. I was probably the sixth person in the mob of the twenty other highschoolers surrounding me. I went to step forward and eventually became swallowed by all twenty people and was the last one to get on the bus. Great, I thought. One of my best friends, Sara, was also at my stop, but I hadn't laid out the plan for a perfect seat to her. I walked on staring. To my relief, there was Sara sitting in the three seater in the third row with an open seat next to her. As I slid in, Sara smiled. "I'm so excited. This is gonna be the best year ever." Apprehensive, I replied, "Hopefully." It was awkwardly quiet on the bus, so the two of us didn't feel comfortable talking as much as we used to in middle school. We got off the bus and headed to their first class, so we had plenty of time to find the room.

   Finding my room was much easier than I anticipated and fell bored as I waited in my assigned seat watching influxes of popular kids fill in. Just my luck, I thought. Popular kids were always annoying to me. There was a kingdom. It's all from their name, too. Almost every popular kid had a popular, older, sibling. Barely any of them created their own reputation. And the ones who weren't inducted to the populars  from past family, were chosen by the family members, because they were cute or pretty. It was a rigged system that made high school torture for the other half of the student body. I hated it.

    In my first three classes I just went over rules, rules, and more rules. It was beyond boring. It was finally last period, and I was going to the class she was looking forward to most-- public speaking. No one ever wants to take that class, but I loved speaking in front of people. I always had. I walked in and it was a small class of about fifteen kids. I found my friend who I forced into taking that class, and sat next to her. The class filed in and I barely recognized anyone.

    "Hello," a short man in the front of the room started. "Welcome to Public Speaking. I am Mr. Greol. I want to start off with making everyone in this class comfortable with each other. We will go around and you must say your name, grade, and reason for taking this class. Jenna, you start." A girl in a purple dress stood up and smiled. "Hi. I'm Jenna. I am a senior. I took this class because it was a required class when I was a freshman, but I ended up actually really liking the class and Mr.G." She smiled again and sat back down. About nine people went and then it was my friend's turn. She stood. "Hey. I'm Taylor. I am in 9th grade. Or freshman. I don't know what you people call it. And I am here because Olivia, the nice girl sitting next to me, forced me into it because she somehow enjoys talking in front of people." She smiled. "It's not that bad, actually," Mr. Greol said. He motioned at Olivia, "Your turn." I stood up and adjusted my shirt. "Hey. I'm Olivia. I'm a freshman and I took  this class, because like Taylor said, I enjoy public speaking." I sat down.

   The next few people went but my attention was quickly diverted to a cute, taller boy, sitting a few seats down from me. He then stood up. "Hey. I'm Adam. I'm a senior." Dangit, I thought. He continued, "I took this class because someway or another, Mr. G always manages to convince me to take it." He chuckled and sat back down. I spent the rest of the class staring at the brown haired boy named Adam.