“It's kind of fun to do the impossible.”
-Walt Disney

That morning of January 3rd, 2005, my alarm clock went off at five a.m. I didn’t have to be at the school until 6:45, but a head start wouldn’t hurt. After all, the whole idea of another new school needing soaking in. Maybe the shock would wash off in the shower. The time went by pretty quickly, however, considering my shower was forty minutes long. Thankfully, I’d set out my clothes for that morning, which included my new sneakers, faded hip-huggers, and a long-sleeved shirt under a thin black sweater. It was understated, and didn’t draw out too much attention, but paired with some crystal earrings, it looked nice. I was straightening my hair when my mom walked in.

“Now why do you do that? You’re hair looks so nice otherwise.”

I gave her an ‘are you kidding?’ look. I had only straightened one side so far, which was glossy, and the other side was frizzy and my ends needed trimming. She reconsidered.

That morning, I skipped breakfast on purpose. If the day went horrible, I could scarf my lunch, and head off to my next class or walk around campus a little bit.

In the car, Mom said a few phrases that didn’t quite make sense to me. “You’ll do fine. Quit worrying. Things will be ok.” Uh….I was calm. I didn’t need this. The revelation came slowly. Mom wasn’t saying these things for my benefit, she was saying them for her own. She hoped I’d be fine, she hoped that I wasn’t worried, she hoped that things would be ok. It was a nice gesture, but I knew better. It was a new school, and it sucked that all of my friends were ten miles away, and everything, but whatever. It was the first day. I’d give it at least a month before I started bitching about it.

Upon arrival, we were ushered in by a student into the counseling office. The office was a joke. On the corner, in the middle of everything in the school’s office, there was a cubby-hole like area, which sat a desk covered in personal stuff, and two chairs. We had to wait a few minutes. The open area “office” was near a window, which seemed to look out into the hall of the school. A narrow window, I couldn’t see much, but there were feet moving, and walls with doors behind it.

That moment the counselor walked in. A tall woman in her forties, she came into the area. I didn’t catch her name or even her hair color. What did it matter? Anyways, she shook both of our hands, and asked questions about my schedule. Since I’d moved in the last three-quarters of the semester, the schedule would only last me a month before my new one had to be decided. For a month I had to put up with gym, earth science, and drama. My other classes like history, english, and math were going to be with me for the next semester. Electives were taken care of. My mom let slip that I sang competitively, so I ended up in choir. Another slip up was that I played the keyboard, and the counselor put me into a guitar class. I didn’t even own a guitar. I knew four songs on the keyboard, and I wasn’t ambidextrous.

Once the schedule had been taken care of, there was another matter that gave me great grief. I was going to have a “First Friend” by the name of Felicia, who was designated to show me around to all of my classes, and introduce me to all my teachers, and show me the campus. This person would be with me for the majority of the day, including eating lunch with them in a spot in the cafeteria. Dang. Couldn’t they just give me a map? What happened to ditching lunch?

“She’ll be here any moment, she’s been anxious to meet you,” the counselor said. Riiiiight.

My “first friend” walked in. She was a girl about my height, black, and she had a long, thick braid to her shoulders. She wore a red sweater, with a gold cross necklace. She looked fairly normal. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. We left the counseling office together, and Mom resisted the urge to wave. Thank God.

We turned the corner, out of the office, walking right past the narrow window, which was actually a door that had merely had a window. The shadow must’ve eluded the doorknob. We walked through, and to my surprise, the window didn’t reveal a hallway at all, but a very large cafeteria, full of students munching away on breakfast, talking, and completely absorbed in their first day back from break.

She took me through a door on the opposite end of the cafeteria, down a hallway. “Your first and second periods are in this room,” she said, pointing to a locked wooden door. “Obviously we can’t go in yet, but that’s your first and second room of the day.” We headed just a few feet away from the door, and went through two heavy glass doors to the outside, which had two very tall buildings one side, and the building we came out of on the opposite. “The gym is behind this building here, and that building is for choir and band. She checked her copy of my schedule. You have gym third period, the girls’ locker rooms are in those doors there, to the left, “she said pointing. We walked on, outside the buildings. “Sorry it’s so cold out here, but they lock the doors for the hallways in the mornings, so we have to go this way.” We walked along an outdoor sidewalk, along another building, connected to an outside hallway that was lined with classes. My “first friend” let out a sigh of frustration. “You math door is locked, it looks like as well. It’s the second one on the outdoor hallway, ok?” I nodded.

The bell rang. That made it the second or third one that went off since I got there. “I have to go,” she said. “Just ask someone about your fifth and sixth period classes.” Nodding again, I watched her walk off. Great.

My first period, I was late, but my teacher knew I’d been taking my tour of the school. Sitting, she talked to the class about some sort of project they were working on before break started. Staying quiet, I took out a book and read the whole period. Earlier than I’d expected, the bell rang. It was a block class, so not a whole lot of people left for the break. I felt I had to. There was only so much reading a human can take.

“Good Grief.”

-Charlie Brown

I stood outside in the cold, against the wall of my English class. I was pretty alone, until a girl came out. She stood near me, but didn’t say anything. A couple was near to me, and they kissed rather alarmingly. If someone did that at CedarHill, you’d practically have the security called. Nevertheless, the couple was totally undeterred, kissing as if glued together by saliva alone. I wasn’t disgusted, it was more awe. Moments later, the couple came unglued, and walked, arms entangled, through the big glass doors that Felicia had let me through to the outside. That was the most interesting thing to happen during the morning.

Apparently I had first lunch. It was news to me that you went to lunch before you had your fifth period. I went to my fifth period, on the directions of some random student. The door to the outside classroom was open, but upon my reaching for the doorknob, a very tall, thin man came out of it, holding a set of keys.

“Did you want to put your stuff in there?” he asked.

“Uh…,” I had no clue! “I don’t know. I’m new here.” I handed him my schedule.

He looked it over, before saying, “Well, welcome to Earth Science, Kelly. You have first lunch, so you can drop your things off in here before you go.” He talked in a very deep voice that was odd to hear, coming from so frail a man.

“Ok, sure.” I ran into the room, and set my things down in a far corner. Then I went off to the cafeteria, just inside the doors by the office.

You could hear the cafeteria way before you could smell anything or see anything. It was very crowded, and Felicia was nowhere in sight. Oh well. I stood in line for my lunch, and took it down to a far end of an empty long table. I ate in silence, while pondering over my book from my first period, and hoped not to draw a lot of attention.

About ten minutes went by, and a girl and boy came up to the table, and sat across from me. I didn’t look up, although I could hear their voices. They talked until the girl said, “Hey, I saw you earlier today. Are you new?”

The girl was built very much like me. She was about five foot, with tiny hands, hips, and feet. She had reddish brown hair, but her features were paired peculiarly. She had very large, round eyes, and a pointy nose, on an oval face. Her smile was nice, but not white. My first thought was that she was a little girl with large breasts. Somehow, she looked vaguely familiar...

"Yeah," I said.

"I saw you see us, this morning," the boy replied, with a cocked head, curious look. The boy smiled at me. He had medium-length curly hair and he sported a soft sort of beard. He wore oval glasses, which complimented his amber eyes. He looked at me curiously. I felt like he saw right through me. Or through my shirt, anyway. My build was so close to his girlfriends' that, body-wise I was most certainly his "type." His see-through nature set him very apart from the girl in his arms, who was quick, and remained on the surface of the conversation. Though his evaluation of me seemed deep and intimate, he held a gaze that never lost the light of a flirtatious grin. He was attractive, but in a brotherly way. You could probably wrestle this guy, and then make out with him. This guy looked like he had a pal nature about him. Add the abundance of hair, and he may have just as well have been a teddy bear with a beer in his hand. He looked like a good time, littered with poetry.

"Oh, sorry about that. I'm new, obviously." I said, blushing. Crap. Not exactly the most wonderful way to meet, watching someone and their girlfriend, like, so going at it during break. The boy noticed my blushing.

"Don't worry about it," him and the girl said together. They laughed. I giggled a little.

"Yeah, we do that, like, all the time, it's not really a big deal." The girl informed me.

"Won't you get into trouble for doing that though?" I pointed out.

The girl looked at me almost as if I was the equivalent of a mom and a fourth grader combined, and raised her reddish eyebrows at me a litte. "We don't really care, what're they gonna do to us?" She said it so defiantly, it was a bit of a relief. People that were honest were always on the top of my priority list. Diddling around with feelings was a waste of time to me. Although her defiance to the school was a little intimidating, she was stil likeable.

The boy simply looked at me. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Kelly," I said.

"Ah, he said, obviously intrigued by my shy way of saying it. "I'm Josh, and this is Cecilia, but everyone calls her Kate." He was sincerely making an effort to make me comfortable, and it was really, really nice. My day had been tough so far, missing everybody.

"Nice to meet you," I said, as we all shook hands. I always enjoyed shaking hands. There was never enough human contact anymore. You give a friendly peck on the cheek, and suddenly everyone thinks you're dating. I wasn't touchy-feely, but a handshake, and the rest of the items from etiquette should never be ignored. Etiquette was a wonderful thing for humans. A handshake said a lot about the person you shook with, and their confidence, and forwardness was very attractive, and rather rare to find anymore. The handshake alone pleased me so much, that a real smile crossed my face, probably the first that morning, I realized. I talked with "Kate" and Josh that entire lunch, learning that I wouldn't be alone in my sixth period class, for drama. They'd be there, too. Suddenly, the thought of one more class period with nobody I recognized was quite depressing. Anyways, the lunch bell rang, and we arranged for them to introduce me to their friends in drama, along with the rest of the class.