Chapter Four

     The last week of summer is the first week before school starts. Everyone is anxious and excited and nervous and excited and scared and excited. I was really excited. I just got out of the shower and I had laid out all of my brand new school clothes trying to find one perfect outfit. I finally chose a pair of gray jeans and a purple and gray plaid shirt. I blow dried and straightened my hair that night, even though I re-straightened every single strand when I woke up the next morning. That night, I also broke up with Kevin. I cried. But I refused to let it get me down! I mean come on, the very next day was my first day of eighth grade! I had to be excited here. 

     I woke up the next morning to my mom saying, “Katie wake up honey, it’s the first day of school.” As soon as I heard that I sat straight up, suddenly not being tired anymore. There is just something about days like that when you wake and you’re just not as tired as you would be any other day of school at six o ‘clock in the morning. Kelly texted me asking where I was every five seconds, my whole way to school. 

When I got to school I dropped all of my supplies off in Mrs. Trial’s room and walked to the brand new gym. Before I opened the door though, I stopped. I closed my eyes,  took a breath, and then I walked in. It was the world’s best entrance. Kim yelled “KATIE” and everyone looked up from their conversations and whirled around. Before I knew it all of my friends were engulfing me in a huge hug, especially JJ. Goodness, I love her. We walked back to the bleachers where all the other students were, still in our big huddle. Paul was sitting in the front and he turned around to give me a dirty look, I glared back. Paul hated me for no reason and I hated him because he hated me for no reason. 

     After lunch, I had drama class. I’d never really taken it before, except for one time in seventh grade but it was only for one semester and we didn’t do anything because the drama teacher had to take a long league of absence. I didn’t really know what to expect from this class. I only put it as one of my electives because my mother made me. She kept saying, “I loved drama in high school! You’re going to love it! Blah blah blah.” But when I got to the class there were only, like, six people. Wow. LAME. The teacher made us get into a little circle and play ice-breaker games. This was when I got to get a good look at her. She was new to SMA but she’d worked at the elementary school, apparently. She looked like she’d stepped right off a page of a magazine and into our classroom. Her cheek bones were perfect, her make up was perfect, her hair was perfect, and her outfit was so so perfect. She talked to us more like we were her friends, rather than adult to child. I already knew she was going to be my favorite teacher. But at that moment, I had no idea what a huge impact she was going to have on my life. 

     That day, at the end of the day, I was sitting outside on the bench waiting for my mom to get there. Since it was such a small school, that was like the place to be. Everyone was out there. There were three or four long benches against the wall and an over head thing above. The car line was right in front, and from there you could look out and see most of the island. If you looked directly to your right you saw the beach. For a minute I had tuned out whoever was sitting there talking to me. I took a good look around, at all of my classmates, my friends... Little did I know these were going to be the people that I’d never forget.