Reunion (And The Rest Of My First Day Of High School)

I had a good summer, I thought, walking through the doors to the all-to-farmiliar high school gym. It was farmiliar because P.E. in middle school was usually in the gym, so although it was my first day of high school, I had been to this part of the high school before.

Tyler and I found a spot on the bleachers on the left side of the gym. We had already found Aaron and The Prophet. I don't know if I've mentioned The Prophet yet, so I'll mention him now. He was a kid who we met last year who looked like Harry Potter, and for a while we called him Harry Potter. Eventually we got tired of having to say Harry Potter every time we spoke to him. Also, his real name is Issiah, and everybody knows that Issiah was a prophet. So we renamed him.

We spotted John on the other side of the gym and Tyler ran over to him and tackled him a little bit. He was wearing his navy blue suit and the silver tie I had given him for his birthday. He looked really nice. He sat down in between Tyler and I and we began looking for The Other John.

Nicole came up to me and gave me a hug when she came in. She had gone to sit with Jukii. Nicole was Jukii's Japanese-obsessed counter-part. Just to clarify, neither of them were Asian. They had known each other for a long time, though, and Jukii called Nicole her little sister, even though they weren't biologically. They tried to get us to sit with them on the other bleachers, but John didn't want to, I think partially because Jukii had threatened to kill him once.

The bell rang, dimissing us to our home room classes. I didn't know where mine was, so I simply followed everyone out of the gym. When we got to the main hallway, we finally found The Other John. We all greeted him, and Tyler tackled him a little bit, too. Somebody told me that my home room was actually back in the gym, so I said goodbye to everyone and went back.

My homeroom teacher wasn't very interesting. He was a coach, and although he wasn't much of a character, he did seem like a nice person. My first block teacher, whose name escapes me right now, started off the class by telling everyone how terrible she was and how we ought to "Be afaraid, be very afaraid," but her speech was cut short by one of her students laughing at her, in reply to which she slammed her hand on a nearby desk and said, "Jake, you're ruining my image!" and joined him in his laughter. My second block teacher, Mrs. McCall, was a rather dull seeming woman, but my seat in her class was rather nice. I was sitting in front of a wall, behind a kid who may or may not have been crazy and had his left ear pierced, to the left of a quiet girl who had a Ramones book sack, and to the right of a kind of sweet girl who told everyone that she had a baby. I think she might have been lying, but she was nice to me, and I can't say I had much against her other than that. My third block teacher, Mrs. Eckelberry, was a really neurotic-seeming woman. She had constantly wide eyes, and just had a sort of nervous air about her. When she called roll, she would say the name of a student, and then look up from her paper and her eyes would dart all over the room, and her face would almost quiver a little. She was different, but I do like variety.

In the middle of third block, we went to lunch. Jukii was in my class, and had decided to adopt me. I had planned on sitting with her, but when we arrived in the cafeteria, John, Tyler, The Prophet, The Other John, and Aaron all showed up. We got in line to get our food and sat down. Just like old times.

When the bell rang, we all went to the rest of third block. Once that was over, I walked to the very end of the first hall to go to my and John's first class together: Introduction to Theatre Arts.

The teacher, Mrs. Bennett, was a kind old lady with short, gray hair. She had a very pretty smile. She told us about the projects that we would be doing in the future. She said that we needed to bring a memory item, a children's book that is significant to us, and a CD with a song on it that has sentimental value. She also told us that Monday we would begin our first project, in which we would interview a person that we hardly knew, make a poster about them, and present it to the class.

When the bell rang, dismissing us to the busses, John and I walked together.

"I'll see you Monday, then," I said when I thought my bus was approaching.

"I'm coming to your house tonight," he reminded me.

So he was! "Oh, you're right," I said. I had forgotten.

I told him I would see him later and boarded my bus.

Logan told me later that night that his friends called me The Bumblebee Girl. He said it was because of the jacket that I wore, which had black and brown stripes. I loved that jacket; I had worn it ever since the beginning of the eighth grade. I had been wearing it on the day that I met John, too. It didn't even make any sense for them to call me that, because bees have black and yellow stripes, not black and brown.

I looked on the bright side. It was my first day of high school, and people were already noticing me.