The Happy Side of Things

Kindergarten, the Silly Times

Someone nudges my shoulder and I roll over playfully. "Are you ready to make friends?"my mother whispers into my ear with a hug. I nod and jump out of bed. I had picked out my clothes the day before. It was going to be quite hot today, but in Katy Tx this wasn't news. I dress quickly and rush to the kitchen to find chocolate chip pancakes in my view. Me and my sister,Alaina, dig in. We talk to each other playfully and explain how nervous we are. All too soon it is time to leave. My mom grabs the keys and her purse and we parade out of the garage towards the black ford expedition.
"Mama what is our school called again? And what is my teacher's name again?" I start asking questions to fill the silence, but I'd already memorized the answers and treated them as treasures. I was going to Diane Winborn Elementary School, and my teacher's name was Mrs. Sanders. Of course,my mom didn't know that.
As we pull into the school parking lot my mom pulls close to a beautiful tree and drags us toward it.
"I'm documenting your life!! Your aunt doesn't remember hardly anything from her childhood!! Now smile nice and pretty!" My mom always was one for pictures, we'd sometimes goof around with her, but we didn't want to be late. She took the picture and we both scramble to see it.
But then my mom's eyes get watery and a single tear breaks free from her careful grasp. Me and my sister exchange glances and ask what is wrong, but mom just smiles and moves us towards the doors. We shake hands with a lady that tells us her name is Mrs.Kelly, and that she is our principal. We introduce ourselves and get pointed in the direction of the kindergarten hallway. We walk down the hallway all the way to the end and meet my teacher. We had previously met her about a week before so I felt like me and her were friends. She shuffles us into the room and says to sit where our names are and that my mom will help us. But I already new what my name looked like, and I could read some. So I found my seat all by myself. My sister didn't sit next me and I felt lost without her. We'd been together since birth and nothing could ever separate us. Me and her will always have the same (exactly) DNA. After all we were identical twins.
I glance to my right and see a boy, with dirty blond hair and pale skin. He waves back,"My name is Mason, I'm five. What's your name?" "I'm Breanna and I'm five and a half." I had to emphasize the and a half , for I was at that age. I look to my left, an asian girl with beautiful black-brown hair and tan skin. "What's your name? My name is Breanna." She shyly waves and speaks clearly,"I'm Katy Advincula, and I'm five and a half too!" A pale boy sitting across from me is crying as he begs his mom to stay and tries to pull her his way. She signaled the teacher, kissed his forehead and left.
"Good morning class! I'm Mrs. Sanders if you have forgotten. Today we will be meeting all of our new friends in this class!"
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  Later that week my teacher introduced "nap time" and she did it by reading us this book and she used the counting in the book to time our naps. She did a lot of things like that. We would sing "Do Your Ears Hang Low" every morning and we would sing with her. We all loved Mrs. Sanders.
  The first bully we ever faced was the boy named Mason. He would be mean to everyone, but to me and my sister he was nicer after we confronted him for it. I remember Valentine's Day that year. My sister was sick and couldn't come, but I promised her that I'd get her valentines and bring them to her. You weren't allowed to bring special gifts unless the entire class got them. But Mason gave me and my sister little kiss bears and a box of Hershey's kisses,I treated her bear as if it were my own, and never dared to open her box of kisses. I said thank you and continued my day without giving his meaning of the gift a second thought .My mom laughed as I explained what happened. When she asked why he gave them to me, I said I didn't know,but that nobody else got one.
That year we celebrated the 100th day of school and went over monkey bars and how we weren't allowed on them. We had many fun events that I mostly have no memory of at all.
Near the end of the year a girl named Mya joined our class. She was shy at first, but because I was an extreme extrovert I talked to her and learned all about her. She was nice and soft spoken, but although we had differences we became friends. She was pale and covered in freckles and had black curly hair. I didn't find out until that summer that she lived in my neighborhood.
Every other day we went to P.E. and got to do fun activities to make us stronger. I was one of the kids that could make it to the limit we were assigned on the climbing rope. I was the fastest runner in my class,if you left out the tall boys. In first grade I learned that being fast made lots of people want to be your friend so I had to get faster.
On the other days that we didn't go to P.E. we had art or music. My art teacher, Mr. Reyes, was to me the scariest teacher. He got mad easily, but to me he was also the greatest artist ever. He would demonstrate what we needed to do, and being a perfectionist, my art work had to look like his. Art has never been my strong point, but I would try so hard. I would get to the point of crying about it and being to ashamed of it to even let my tears fall, I did not want to cry about this, but my eyes were telling me to. I learned how to control my tears starting in kindergarten, and to this day use the same method.
Music class alternated between Mrs Neely and Mrs Herrera. Mrs Neely focused more on the written music and teaching us how to read it and how to determine notes on a staff. While Mrs Herrera focused more on the dances and singing and playing instruments part of music. She was the teacher that interested me in band because I absolutely loved playing the instruments in her class, although if I would've stuck to the instruments we played in her class I would've ended up a percussionist.
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At the end of the year I was sad because I didn't get to make arrangements for the summer with my friends. And I didn't want different people in my class either, in other words, I didn't want this school year to end. But now, after many years, kindergarten has little importance to me, if you exclude learning how not to cry when I wanted.