September 1

Dear Diary,

What a day! As you may or may not know, today was the first day of school. It was quite something, I'll give you that. First of all, I was rudely shaken awake at 7 in the morning by an insistent hand – my mom's. Barrymore Middle School starts at 8 am, so I have to get up earlier than usual. As I blearily made my way downstairs, I accidentally missed a step and fell down the stairs. Luckily it wasn't much of a fall and I didn't get hurt. I did hear a few snickers coming from the twins, though. Other than that, it was pretty much a regular morning at our house. I ate my Cheerios, fought with James to use the bathroom and got dressed for the day ahead. Then Mom drove us to school, me to the middle school and the twins to the high school. I have to admit that I was nervous. Who wouldn't be? Walking into the school was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I ever had to do. The first thing to do was to find my locker. That in itself was pretty hard, considering how big the school is. I finally found it and to my great relief, it wasn't very far from my first class. They had sent us our schedule the week before. I don't think I mentioned that, did I? Anyways, soon it was time to head to homeroom. I was relieved to find my best friend Laura there, already sitting at a desk near the back of the room. We were soon immersed in a conversation about our summer vacations. Laura went to Mexico for two months, so I was excited to hear about that. She comes from one of those rich families, so she's always traveling somewhere. I regaled her with tales about my boring summer, staying at home and doing nothing, but she just laughed and told me I was lucky to have so much time to relax. She was always being dragged to some special event or to see one of her mother's many friends and it got boring after a while, she said. Still, imagine going to Mexico! She's a lucky girl, you can't deny that. Anyways, we had just started discussing how big the school was and how we'd probably get lost as soon as we stepped out of the classroom when our teacher arrived. Mr. Roberts. First impressions: he looked like an ordinary person, brown hair, average height, probably around 40, nothing special. He seemed funny, and made us laugh a lot with his jokes. I could tell that I was going to enjoy his classes, or at least I wasn't going to hate him. The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, with the exception of lunchtime, but I'll explain about that later. First I'm going to give you a review of all my teachers.

Mr. Roberts – Well, I've already told you a bit about him, but I'd just like to add that he teaches English, one of my favourite subjects.

Mme. Claude – My French teacher. She's … odd. I couldn't really understand what she was saying with all the wild hand gestures she was making. It was too distracting. Also, her exotic perfume made me a bit woozy. I almost keeled over when she walked past me. It's so strong! She wears all these brightly coloured clothes, too. I swear, my eyes hurt just looking at her. She seems to be quite nice, though, so that's a plus.

Ms. Osmond – She's one of the younger teachers at school, and teaches Science. She has this efficiency about her, and moves fast, unlike some people who take all day just to explain one tiny detail (cough, cough, Mrs. Grect) ------- If you're wondering who that is, she was my Grade 5 teacher and probably the slowest human being alive. I'm so glad she retired at the end of last year. No more youngsters will have to be exposed to her extreme slowness. Too bad it wasn't sooner, or else I would have been spared too. Anyways, Ms. Osmond is also very neat and organized. Not one paper on her desk out of place, not one strand of hair astray from her tightly-wound bun. I don't know how she can stand being so neat. I'd have gone crazy if I was her. But then, we're nothing alike.

Mrs. Catordella – The math teacher. Oh math, the dreaded subject. At least for me. I'm reserving my judgment on this teacher for later. We'll have to see how well she's able to teach and explain to her students. Personality-wise, she seems like a kind and gentle lady, so I'm hoping that it's going to work out for the best.

Ms. Dratmundy – I'm sorry, this teacher's name makes me crack up. Dratmundy. Dratmundy. The person makes me laugh too. Ms. Dratmundy looks like a life-size Barbie doll, and she acts like one too. With her big blue eyes, long lashes, platinum blonde hair and a perfectly proportioned body, she could probably be a model. Instead, she decides to become a gym teacher. It doesn't suit her at all. Seriously, though, do you know what her first words of greeting were? "Are those designer jeans?" Never mind the fact that jeans aren't allowed as part of our gym uniform. The girl she was talking to, Sylvia or something, beamed at the teacher when she was asked that question. I could tell that they were going to be best friends. It's hilarious how much of a girly-girl Ms. Dratmundy is. After we were all present and accounted for in the gym, she told us that she'd be teaching us how to play basketball. Like we didn't know how to play. The funny part is that when she went up to shoot a basket, she accidentally broke one of her nails. All you could hear in the gym at that point was her squealing "My new French manicure!" It was hilarious.

Mr. Nezley – Our Goegraphy teacher. To tell the truth, I don't really like this subject, but Mr. Nezley is just so full of energy. You can't help but like him. We'll see if he's able to make this subject interesting.

Mr. Mylar – I don't know what to think of him. He doesn't seem to have a personality, and speaks in a monotone voice. Everything he was wearing was either gray or brown. His room was virtually empty, with the exception of the desks (ours and his), the blackboard and a poster of the entrails of a pig. Okay, okay, he does have a personality. A dark, twisted one. I mean, who would put up a picture of pig entrails? That's just disturbing. By the way, he teaches History, another one of my favourite subjects, but I don't think I'm going to enjoy it much this year. You never know, though. First impressions aren't always accurate, and I'm hoping that mine are wrong. Because if they're right, boy, this is going to be quite a year, and not in a good way.

Well, now that I've kept you in suspense for so long, it's only fair that I tell you what transpired at lunchtime. I'm sure you're eager to know all about it. Okay, so this is what happened. I entered the cafeteria and was promptly waved down by Laura, who had already placed herself at a table. She introduced me to a new friend of hers, Stephanie, who was also sitting at the table. We politely said hello, how are you, etc. and started eating. After a while, I decided to go get a carton of milk from the cafeteria "restaurant", which is basically where you line up to buy your lunch. They also sell desserts and drinks, so you can have a complete meal right at school. So I ran to the restaurant and got a carton of milk. As I went back to our table, I decided to have a swig. I was so thirsty! I opened the flap thingy and soothed my scratchy throat. I was pretty close to Laura and Stephanie right then and I was just about to wave at them when my foot accidentally caught on somebody's leg. Needless to say, both of us tripped and fell. But that wasn't the worst part. When I looked up, I saw that Stephanie was positively dripping with milk, milk that I spilt on her. She was really nice about the whole thing, although I did catch her glancing warily at me when she thought I wasn't looking. As for the person that I tripped, all he did was give me a dirty look and mutter something about "clumsy fools". He wasn't talking about me, was he? Anyways, I apologized but he just brushed me off and stormed off. Some people. So, that was my day. Hopefully tomorrow won't be quite as eventful. Have a good evening, Diary. I'll see you soon.

Ginny

AN: Hey everyone! Once again, I'm really sorry about the long wait. I've been busy with school. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. :)