My alarm went off at six o’clock, I turn it off and attempt to capture every last minute of snoozing prosperity I can, and then my mom barges telling me we have to go to school. I get dressed and have breakfast, preferably Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and then we get in the car and drive off. As we drive, I look out onto the familiar roads that we always drive on, cherishing the few minutes of freedom I have before the next seven hours. We arrive on time, as usual, and my sister gets out of the car. However, I stay in the car. I’ve been going to Alta Vista for the last three and a half years at this point. This would be the last time I come here. My mom drives away. I remember that she told me I was going to a “new” school.

We arrive in quick succession. Blossom Hill. We’ve driven past it so many times yet I’ve never actually gone inside. Thought it was a library or something this whole time. We step out and walk up to and past the gate, with me admiring the strange new landscape. We find my new classroom and enter. The classroom was the same as my old one, but it was different. The room had much fewer desks than normal; there was a small closet over in the corner with nothing in it. And one door leading to a separate room with no windows. In the middle-back part of the room, there was a small gathering of kids. Two of them were twins, seemingly to be the same age as me, but the rest appeared to be younger. I was unaware of the fact that they were a couple of grades younger than me as the notion of it didn’t make sense to me. It’s strange as usually there’s only one teacher, but in this case, there were three, two female and one male. My mom introduced us to them, making my presence as “the new kid” known. The male “teacher” asked me to sit down with them, and I did. I surrounded myself with these new people, officially beginning my second first day of school.