The Color Club

A New Life

"Alisha! Come on, we can't miss the plane! Alisha!" I heard my mom calling from the front door.
"Coming momma!" I screamed. I smiled at myself in my mirror. "Tomorrow is the start of a new life," I told myself. It was bittersweet...I guess. I kind of liked our little Georgia town. Even if we didn't have much money and our neighborhood wasn't that high-end. But I was also happy to start fresh in California.
"Alisha!" my mom called again. I grabbed my things and raced to the kitchen where my family was waiting. "Let's go!" I said with a smile. We walked out the door; me, my mom, my dad, my older brother, and my older sister.
The plane ride seemed to take forever. I gazed at the clouds outside my window. That was when reality hit me; what will public school be like? All my life I had been homeschooled by my mom. I tried to stop worrying me but there was this horrible pain in my stomach that made me feel like someone was killing me from the inside-out. My stomach laughed at me; it seemed for just a minute that I was all alone and no one was there. But slowly, I closed my eyes and attempted to sleep.
When I woke up, I was in a taxi. We were outside a house. I looked around weary-eyed from sleep. "Mom?" I yawned sleepily.
"G'morning princess," my mother smiled at me, "welcome to your new home." I looked outside again. A small cream house-still nicer than the old one back in Georgia. I got out of the car to smell the warm September air. I felt another wrenching feeling in my stomach, but this time because I was excited. I slept extremely well that night, anticipating the next morning; my first day of school.
I woke up ready the next morning. I jumped out of bed. I got ready quickly. I could hear my feet pounding on the wooden floor as I dashed to the door, waiting on my family. It was my first day of public school. I couldn't wait. I didn't know what to expect or who to meet but I didn't care. It was like an adventure to me.
The school bus stopped at my school-or my jail? I was confused. Is this what school looked like? I had always dreamed of it being fun and colorful. But this was a sad little school. Much smaller than I had expected. I looked around me. There was a group of boys picking fights. There were all these groups. It was all new to me. In our old town, we all hang out together without much of a problem. But here all I could hear was name-calling. I heard a group of boys next to me half-whispering.
"Let's go for the black one!" "We could take on that Mexican kid." I didn't know what was happening. Could people really care that much about skin color? Oh no. I saw groups of girls forming. They looked like Barbies. Ew. They looked about my age. Their waists were probably around 8 inches in circumference. They looked straight at me. I got the bad stomach feeling again. They walked over.
"Hey black kid. Ya you over there." one of them said. She was looking straight at me.