Back To School

It was a cool August morning, there was a slight breeze that flowed through the air; it was actually a relief compared to the temperature that one normally would have experienced this time of year. The trees were in full bloom and the grass was a dark rich green. The parking lot was half empty, not many people had arrived yet for the first day of junior high.

It was his first day back since he graduated elementary school; during the summer this young man had faced so many new challenges in his life. He had his thirteenth birthday a month before returning to school; he also had to deal with the fear that he now carried, resulting from witnessing someone trying to break into his house on two different occasions, in the middle of the night.

His voice was beginning to change, which left this lad feeling awkward; and now he is starting over in a brand new school. Most of his friends are attending the junior high across town, so this adventure that he was facing, on his own, left him feeling apprehensive.

He slowly approached a set of doors on the east side of the building, the doors alone seemed intimidating; as he walked into his new school, he froze for a brief moment studying the long, eerie, silent hallway. There were lockers lined up in rows on both sides of the hallways.

The classrooms were totally different then he had ever seen before; each entrance for the classrooms was slightly enclosed by walls; there was a set of stairs that led to Mr. Horn’s office, the principal. Just slightly beyond Mr. Horns office was the cafeteria, where he would spend most of his free time eating and gathering with the new friends that he would make. The cafeteria was lined up with tables facing all different directions; the absence of students left the whole school almost in a ghostly state.

He crept his way back up the stairs looking for his first class, honors geography with Mr. Cruise; this in itself would prove to be a challenge with all the classrooms that were held within the school. Finally he finds the correct class, room 101; as he steps in he notices that the first thing to be seen is his teachers desk sitting caddy corner in the back of the room. To his left there are empty desks and chairs lined up, four rows across and six rows back, a total of twenty-four desks.

He quickly turned to walked out when he was cheerfully welcomed by a tall, overweight man. The man was wearing a dress shirt, half tucked in, half un-tucked; a pair of jeans that appeared to be slightly baggy. This stranger that made him feel so at ease was Mr. Cruise in the flesh.

Mr. Cruise shuffled the young lad back into the classroom, where he quickly put all uneasiness at bay for this child.

Soon the school began to fill up with the chatter of other children and lockers opening and closing; before anymore time was wasted this boy realized that it was just going to be another school day with more excitement and nothing to fear.