I had been sitting in the same exact spot for about 45 minutes now. Looking at myself in the mirror wondering if this was how it was suppose to be done. I wish that mom was here to help me out with these kinds of things, but no, she’s always gone by the time me and my siblings go to school. I know she works very hard for us, but then at the time I wish she would spend more time with us.

Today was going to be my very first day of high school. I wish that we would be like other families when the mom calls you down stairs for breakfast and kisses you “Goodbye and good luck in your first day of school.” No, instead it seems like I’m the mother figure in the house for my siblings.

“Bridget!” my younger brother Frankie shouted. I looked at the clock; we were going to be late on the first day of school! I took a quick look in the mirror for the hundred time, fake smiled at the reflection and ran out of my room.

Just like the past two years since mom started her new job that makes her even more distant from us. Every morning, I wake up, bright and early to wake my brothers up. It used be even earlier, but the youngest one is now in middle school. Frankie too, needs mom in these moments. I walked him to his bus stop with my other brother, Luke who is now eighth grade. I gave Frankie a good luck hug to make him feel a bit less nervous.

I know my other brother Luke needs mom as much as Frankie and I need her, but Luke is a lot more quiet and reserved about his feelings. As soon as I saw the bright yellow colored bus coming around the corner I gave Frankie one last hug and gave Luke a smile. The bus door opened wide. I saw Frankie’s nervous look through the window and hoped everything would go alright for him. The bus started to pull off and I waves him goodbye.

Now it was my turn to go through all the same chaos. I held my sweaty palms together and stood there. So many things were going through my mind at that moment. “What if I get lost?” “What if I fall going up or down the stairs?” “What if I walk into the wrong class and make a fool out of myself?” All these thoughts were making me 20 times more nervous then I already was.

While standing there, I looked to the right and saw my two friends walking towards the bus stop too. Thank goodness there were people coming so I wouldn’t be looking like a loser standing there by myself. Sofia had long brown beautiful hair and hazel eyes; obviously she didn’t have to worry if she looked good or not. She already looked pretty by nature. Then, there was Kathy, I could barely recognize her. The glasses were gone and her hair was fixed. She didn’t look anything like the Kathy I knew from last year. This Kathy was girly and was wearing makeup; something she said was only for the girly girls and for the preppies.

I looked one way and could feel Kathy’s stare turning my way. I looked the other way, and from the other way could still feel her stare following me. “Did I have something on my face?” asked myself. I tried to ignore it and looked another way to see if the bus was coming my yet.

Finally, about five minutes of total awkwardness I heard the loud roaring of the engine and saw the bright front lights of the huge yellow bus from away. I took a deep breath from the nervousness I was suffering from knowing that the time was getting closer and closer to start a new stage of my life as a high school student. Suddenly, the thought of mom came to mind. Does she ever just stop for a second and wonder how we’re doing? Or, if we are having a good day or not?

I looked out the window and saw the two-story building. We had arrived at Lincoln D. High School. I got off the bus, and took a very deep breath once again. For the very first time, I walked in there. I was officially a high school student from this moment. I looked back trying to find Sophia and Kathy, but I didn’t see them anywhere around. They had left me there, alone. Only three weeks ago, when I had last seen them we had promised that for our first day of high school, we would stay together and walk around. I guess, they had forgotten about the promise…
The first bell rang. It seemed that no one hanged out in the hallways other than the seniors. I rushed to try and find my class; room 207B. It was nowhere to be found in the hallway that I walked around in. Room 102...103...104, I started to get so frustrated. Where was room 207B at? Finally I saw a teacher in the hallway and I guess she saw how confused I was and asked “Honey, are you having trouble finding your class?” I replied with a “Yes.” “You must be a freshman huh?” Is it that obvious? I thought to myself. “Yes ma’am, I’m looking for room 207B” “Oh you’re far from there honey, that’s in the other side of the school, but follow me.”

The late bell rang right when we were about to get to the classroom. “There you go, room 207B sweetie” I answered. I timidly walked inside. I instantly felt everyone’s stare following me. I hated moments like these. I personally hated being the center of attention of any situation. I saw one girl looking at me then whispering something to her friend beside her, and started giggling. I tried to ignore it, but deep inside I knew I was dying to know what she had said. Instead, I quickly walked over to my seat at fast as I could and sat down.

The whole day walking up and down the stairs or just in the lunch line, I kept on getting stares where ever I went. Sophia was in my lunch, I waved at her, but she acted like she didn’t even see me and kept walking with the girl she supposedly didn’t like from last year.

I finally got home after a very long day. I looked in the mirror and after a while of staring at my reflection, I realized why I had gotten so many stares the whole day. I looked like a complete clown. I put my stuff down, and lay back in bed. I felt a tear drop rolling down the side of my cheek. I heard a door knock but didn’t give in any importance. The door opened, and I turned around getting ready to tell one of my siblings to get out.

Surprisingly, this time it was mom though. An instant smile was in my face. I instantly forgot about everything that had happened to me that day and hugged her very tightly.