The beginning of a new school year is always pretty crazy. You find out your new class that you may be quite excited about, or might even be dreading. You find out who you will be spending the majority of your weekdays with in all of your classes, you have to figure out which route you will take to each class, and where your friends will be hanging out that year. Your first day is always somewhat scary, but exciting aswell. The first day is the start of a new year. A year that will make you cry from saddness and happiness, challenge you to your fullest, and time where you will find big and small problems you will have to face. The end seems so far away, but you just have to remember to take it one day at a time.
I was 15 entering sophomore year. I had a pretty crazy summer and had no idea what else to expect from the remainder of the year. I spent my entire summer in North Carolina and Virginia with family while my mom was struggling to become a lwayer in Los Angeles. During this summer, my best friend who I was actually in love with moved away to Texas. His name is Jeremy and we met and became best friends over the course of the second semester of freshman year. He was a grade ahead of me, and I had developed feelings for him even though he was currently taken and not at all interested in me in "that way". I told him over the summer how I felt and his response was a friendly one, but he totally rejected me, not gonna lie. I was fine with it though, I new there would be no "future" with him, but I just needed closure and make sure he wasn't hiding any feelings from me.
Last May before school ended, my friend Riley made me audition for the Advanced Theater class. I didn't really want to do it for stage fright issues, but she eventually made me go anyways.
"Emma, come on. It will be so much fun being in Advanced Theater! We would be putting on plays and be able to continue to act with eachother and meet so many talented students. You have to!"
"Riley, I won't fit in. Everyone else would have so much more talent than I and I would just be some background character."
"No you won't. Please, just audition with me. You have nothing to lose!" She eventually got on her knees and began to beg me.
After a while of thinking through the pros and cons, I finally decided to just join. She was right, there really wasn't anything for me to lose. "Fine, I'll do it. But you owe me!"
"Oh, thank you thank you thank you! You won't regret it!"
I did make it into the class, and even though I didn't want to in the first place, I was actually pretty happy that I made it. So here I was walking into the school getting ready to take on a brand new year with a lot of opportunities ahead of me. I was so excited.
I walked into the theater class with Riley at 7th period and was immediately overwhelmed. There was so many people running around hugging eachother and screaming about how happy they were to see eachother. I really only knew Riley and my other friend Sam, who I didn't expect to see here. I didn't really know Sam that well. I mean, we hungout in the same group of kids, and she was in my Theater 1 class with me and Riley last year, but we didn't really hangout or talk outside of school. Riley and I walked up to her and said a quick hi to eachother and all three of us eventually sat in the back row of the MPR away from pretty much everyone.
I took a good look around the class and examined all the kids filling up the seats. They looked like the steriotypical theater kids who dressed in unique ways and all seemed as if they were little goody two-shoes. I already didn't feel like I fit in. I kept my eyes on a few different kids and just wondered who I might become close with over the course of the year. I was already starting to regret my decision to join this class. About fifteen minutes into the class, we were introducing ourselves and a really tall black guy walks in with headphones in his ears, sunglasses, and a scooter in his hands. He was pretty skinny, but you could see muscles on him. He didn't seem like the type of guy that would be in this class, but I remembered that I had seen him around school last year. He kind of looked like the type of guy that would party all the time and honestly looked a bit like he was a player. I didn't pay much attention to him and just continued with the class and listened to all of the introductions.
When it was finally my turn, I stood up and said, "Hi, I'm Emma Gatewood, I'm a sophomore, I was in Theater 1 last year, I enjoy acting, I do horseback riding outside of school, and I am so excited to be in this class!" I sat down and the guy who was late had made his own row and was sitting behind me. He stood up and very enthusiastically said, " Hello, my name is Devin, I'm a senior, I've been in theater for 3 years now, I'm also in choir and I dance." He said it pretty cheerfully, but when he sat down he just seemed pretty emotionless. Maybe he doesn't have any friends in this class? I guess I was staring at him as I lost my train of thought because I noticed him staring back at me.
"Uh, is something wrong?" He said with a slight smile and joking tone in his voice.
"Oh, sorry. I was lost in thought. I didn't mean to stare at you." I said while blushing from embarrassment.
"Hey, if you want my body, you just have to say so." He said in a completely serious tone. Conceited much? I just did a small giggle to ease my awkward silence. "I'm just kidding by the way." He said laughing a little. He must have noticed my surprised facial expression.
"Oh, yeah I know." I said while a really awkward laugh escaped me.
He seems nice.
