Once Upon a Time: True Stories of an Aspiring Writer

10: I'm a Big Kid Now!: The Middle School Promotion

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE with Big Kids---you know, those tall people who gossiped, were loud, and hung out in a hallway full of lockers-- actually came in fourth grade, when I was going through that awkward period "between friends." These Big Kids weren't in just the "grades;" they were in the Upper School, and they were who everyone looked to as role models. So I thought. 

Of course, I saw a few on the bus now and then. One girl, Cat, seemed really sweet and I liked her a lot. I was sad when she graduated. I listened as Alex studied for something called "health class" and talked about his notes out loud. Another kid, Max, was sort of obnoxious. He liked to sing the Radio Disney theme song and made small talk with the bus driver. But I didn't know them very well. 

Before that year, though, we would walk down the upper school hallway twice a week on the way to gym class, as eighth-graders stood around chatting. This hallway was lined with lockers. I called it the "Locker Room." One day as we were going to gym in kindergarten, one girl said about us, "Awww! They're so cute!" I beamed with pleasure.

Back to fourth grade. I was packing up one day and found a note in my locker. It was made of yellow construction paper, had doodles in marker on the inside, and was a kind note left by "a secret admirer." There was only one logical explanation.

Harry Potter, my current love interest, was real.

 I was sure that it was Harry Potter who had come for me and left me a note. I mean, who else would do it? Goosebumps trickled down my arm as I studied the colorful stars drawn on the yellow construction paper. I mean....magic! Once I was faced with the knowledge that Harry Potter was real, I wasn't sure how to react.

 A week later, sadly, I got another note explaining that her name was Kate and that she thought I seemed really nice. I didn't know Kate, or what had inspired this interaction. Perhaps she took me on as her pity project. I shoved aside my disappointment that Kate probably wasn't a wizard and reveled in the fact that a Big Kid liked me. I don't remember what we said or did or talked about, but I believe we spoke on some occasions.

My mom encouraged me to get her a gift before Christmas break. The day before break started, my teacher worked with another Big Kid to get me down into the Upper School hallway and leave it at her locker. The noisy, bustling hallway was teeming with tall, noisy teenagers, gossiping and chattering and certainly not sitting in their classrooms. It was exciting but terrifying. I couldn't quite see over anyone's head. 

Kate and I talked throughout the whole year through notes and "Hellos" as we occasionally passed by in the halls. She graduated that spring. Sadly, I don't remember much else from these interactions, except for that she was one of my good friends at the time. And that she gave me a bouncy ball in her farewell note that spring.

 I do remember, though, in eighth grade when I was touring high schools, I was looking at one in New Jersey with a tour guide several years older than me. She told me that she had also attended my school, and we bonded over that. Only on the way home did I realize that my tour guide was Kate. It's a small world, after all. 

Only two years later, I became one of these Big Kids myself.

***

Life changed considerably after fifth grade. 

I'd always wanted to try the public school experience. More teachers. More kids. Hallway mazes with speckled floors and lockers. Actual cafeterias instead of ordering Papa John's every Tuesday. Class elections. 

But my experience was pretty good, too. We had our own hallway lined with tall lockers. We had to change classrooms every period, take a foreign language, and deal with more challenging subjects, including in math (algebra!) and science (physics!). But one of the biggest changes was that Christine was in none of my classes in sixth grade except for Latin.