Love on the Other side of the Rainbow

Welcome Back

Chapter 1: Welcome Back!

The clock was blurry as my alarm clock went off. My eyes were still half way closed, but I was able to make out the time. It was seven o’clock in the morning and it was my first day of my senior year of high school. I’ve never liked the first day of school to be honest, but every year it comes just like the one before. I do admire seeing old friends and getting into a nice structured schedule again. The thing that annoys me the most during a new school year is finding out who I will see during the school day and who I won’t. I know it is not a big deal to most people, but to me, it just is.  I finally got the strength to get out of bed to turn off my alarm clock. I decided the best thing to do first was to eat some cereal.

While eating cereal, I looked over my schedule. Looking over my schedule, I began to think of the past years of high school and the year ahead of me. “Isn’t it funny how in one whole day, one whole week, one whole month, and in one whole year, your life and you as a person can change, and sometimes you can’t control it”, I thought to myself as I finished my cereal.  

Glancing at the time, I realized I only had twenty minutes until I needed to be at the school, but knowing I live seven minutes away from the school, I just needed to get dressed and brush my teeth. So I quickly downed my cereal and ran upstairs to continue getting ready.  Deciding what to wear on the first day of school is always a painful process. Looking through the shirt drawer of my dresser, I decided it was best to wear the t-shirt with the characters from my favorite cartoon show. “This will leave the impression that I am young and creative on my new teachers”, I thought.   After getting dressed and brushing my teeth, I took one final look in the mirror. “Curtis J. Strickland, you look good!” I told myself.  My backpack was ready to go with the short amount of time I had left to get out the door and drive to the school.

The best part of being a senior was that all the seniors got first pick on parking passes. In my dashboard of the car was where I stored my pass to use during the school year. After my parking pass was hanging down from my rear-view mirror, I started my car. Before I moved the car from park to drive, I looked at my eyes in the rear-view mirror and told myself “Curtis, this is going to be your year! I know this for sure!”  I moved the gear shift drive and began to start the journey of my last year of high school.

The parking lot was pretty full when I pulled in. After searching for a spot, I finally found one. I looked in my rearview mirror one last time before I grabbed my backpack and headed into the school. When I walked into the building, a flashback of my past years of high school just flashed before my eyes. It happened so fast that all I saw was a blur of colors and shapes, but somehow I was able to make sense of it all.  I reached into my pocket to look at the information sheet with my schedule, as well as my locker number and combination.  My locker number was locker 491 in the math hallway. Math was never my favorite subject, but I didn’t really mind it. Part of me just wished my locker was in the English hallway.  My locker combination took me a few tries, but I finally got my locker open. I thought it was best to begin looking over my schedule.

The school I go to follows a block schedule, which means we go to four classes one day and then four different classes another. It alternates every other day, one being an “A day” and one being a “B day”.  Every year though, the first day is an “A/B Day”. This means that all the students go to all eight of their classes instead of just four. Each class today was a half hour long, as opposed to the normal length, an hour and a half.  My first class for the day was Algebra II, my “1A Class”. Math was never my favorite subject to have first thing in the morning, but I had it first thing in the morning during my freshman and sophomore year as well. I lucked out junior year by having it third period.  The one minute warning bell rang as I stood by my locker.  I was in no hurry because the classroom I needed to go to was right around the corner.

I walked into my math class with high hopes of the new and fresh year of high school. “Curtis, this is going to be your year! I know this for sure!” I told myself again when I sat down. The bell rang and for a moment it was silent. The teacher passed out his syllabus. He was an older gentleman, maybe around his fifties. Mr. Paz was his name. The name was odd to me, but I am not one to judge people. I never liked judging people. You don’t know them or what they have been through in their lives. Judging people to me is one of the worst human flaws out there. It is what worries me about the human race. People are so busy judging instead of loving.  Yet again, I shouldn’t worry about other people and the way they choose to live their lives. That would just waste my time. Mr. Paz spent the whole half hour going over the syllabus and explaining to us on what supplies were needed for the class.

The bell finally rang and it was an escape from planet boredom. The rest of my A day classes were the same way, syllabus after syllabus. When my fourth period class was over, there was a fifteen minute break before we had to do the whole thing over again for the B day. During this time, all the students would be allowed to use the restrooms or chat with their friends, I decided to do neither. Instead of looking for my friends or using the restroom, I went into the school’s auditorium. This was going to be my third year working for the school doing their lights and sound work for the performing arts or any occasion really. My phone was also my music player. My headphones were in my ears and I began to listen to music.  While listening to music, I began to reflect some thoughts. One thought caught my attention though. “Curtis, who are you?