Social Introvert's Blog: July 2016

Hey bloggers! So there's this whole new idea of a Growth Mindset at school. And I wrote a story. I'll be posting a little more of it everyday. Please comment about any suggestions you may have or simply tell me if you enjoyed it. (please note that I'm an aspiring writer and my novellas aren't of the best content yet.)

A Resilient Mind

They always told me that I was smart - all through elementary school, and it started in kindergarten.

We took a quiz in kindergarten so the teacher could see how much we already knew. When the teacher gave me my test back, she said, “You are a very smart girl.”

I recall feeling proud of myself.

Then, in first grade, the same thing happened. Every year up till sixth grade, I was told that I was smart and intelligent. I couldn’t help but feeling a little smug.

Now, going into seventh grade, everything changed.

~~~

Brrrriiiiinng!!!!

I winced and slammed the the mute button on my alarm clock. At that moment my mom burst into the room and said,

“Good morning! It’s the first day of school! I’m driving you and Wyatt to school, so get ready.” She exited the room just as abruptly as she had entered.

The first day of school is always the same: you wake up feeling like you would any day, and your mom comes in and reminds you that it’s the first day of school (as if you had forgotten.) It’s the only day your parents let you pass on the ‘always fix you bed’ idea, and you always have that jittery feeling in your stomach.

The butterflies in my stomach had multiplied since last year - after all, I was moving to a completely new school with only one friend that I already knew.

My feet dragged me into the bathroom where I started by splashing my face with water. I stood back up with newly gained strength. I rinsed the yucky morning taste out of my mouth and ran a brush through my hair. Then I walked briskly down to the kitchen.

My brother, Wyatt, was on the table spooning cereal into his mouth and doing something on his phone. He looked up and smirked as I walked in. I sneered back and sat down on my spot across from him. I stuck my spoon in my cereal bowl and began eating.

When I had finished, I took my plate to the sink and got out my lunch bag. I took the lunch that my mother had made out of the refrigerator and put it in my bag.

Then I ran back up the stairs and into the bathroom where I tied my hair in a high ponytail and braided it. After I had made sure that the braid was perfect, I went into my room, changed out of my pj’s, and into a plain white shirt and black shorts. Over my shirt I wore a blue jean jacket.

I walked back down the stairs and checked that I had everything in my school backpack. My binder was in there, so were my four notebooks, along with the agenda that I had bought from the school. The only thing I was missing, was a reading book.

I walked back up the stairs and into my room. I took the book on my desk, Wonder, and walked, once again, down the stairs - exhausted.

I placed Wonder in my backpack with the spine facing down - that way the book wouldn’t get ruined.

Next, I retrieved my lunch bag from the kitchen along with my water bottle, and somehow managed to shove them in my backpack along with everything else.

Wyatt was still on the table with his phone, looking hypnotized.

My parents entered the room and my dad said, “Are you kids ready? We’re leaving in five.”

I nodded, but Wyatt was unresponsive.

My dad glared at my teenage brother, “Wyatt. Did you hear me?”

He gave the slightest possible nod.

My dad lost his temper like an exploding volcano. He walked over to my brother and jerked the phone out of his hand, “Wyatt, what did I just say?!”

“Uh… something about the fifth leaf...”

My dad was very unhappy, “What are you doing on your phone anyway.”

He looked at the screen. I looked too. Wyatt had been texting.

I smirked at him. He returned the gesture in a mocking way.

“Let’s go,” my mom said.

I grabbed my backpack off the couch and slung it over my shoulder. After that, I followed my family out the door and into our car.

Mom dropped my dad off at work first, then Wyatt at high school, and finally me.

“Have a good day, Honey,” she said.

“Yeah,” I turned and headed to the front of the school.

“Wyatt’s picking you up and you guys will walk home!” my mother shouted after me.

I nodded without looking back. Instead, I stared at the school.

La Colina Junior High was very different that my elementary school. The classrooms were scattered all over the campus instead of grouped together. I walked to the center of the school in front of the flagpole.

My friend, Sam, was already there.

“Hey,” she said as I approached. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to come.”

“Who’s gonna miss the first day of school?”

“What’s your first period?” Sam asked, changing the subject entirely.

“I’m not sure which subject, but it’s in room five hundred two.”

“I’m in room four hundred five.”

I nodded, “Cool. Are you as nervous as I am?”

“Well…. how nervous are you.”

“About as nervous as nervous can get.”

“Then yes, I am as nervous as you, maybe even a bit more.”

I smiled.

Sam was wearing a purple shirt and jean shorts. He blonde hair was pulled back in a long ponytail.

The bell rang and she said, “Good luck,” with a worried glance.

“Right back at you,” I responded and headed to room 502.

It was very funny to see the kids stampede towards their first period class like a herd of elephants. And I’m not saying that I didn’t join them, I can’t imagine anyone who didn’t.

A man was waiting by the door of my first class. He had slim glasses with barely any frame, and thinning gray hair. He was wearing an obnoxious Hawaiian shirt with blue and yellow flowers.

He gave us a fist bump as all the student walked into his classroom.

When inside, everyone chose a seat wherever they wanted, and I tried to sit next to the front. All the other kids were sitting with their friends, but my only friend, Sam, wasn’t in this class with me. Consequently, I sat in the midst of strangers that I was sure I would never become friends with.

As if to prove me wrong, a girl with shiny, dirty-blonde hair sat next to me and said,

“Hi, I’m Luisa.”

“Hi, I’m-”

I was going to tell her my name but just then the teacher had fist bumped the last student and the late bell had rung.

“Welcome everyone to your first day of seventh grade. Now I’ll just take roll and we can get started.”

I tried to pay attention to everyone’s names, turning whenever someone answered ‘here’, but it would take a lot more that one day to learn everyone’s name.

“Avia Watson,” the teacher said.

“Here,” I answered. I was the last name on the list.

“Perfect! My name is Mr. Brown. Now, I will hand out your schedule for the rest of the day.”

He called out the names of kids and they went up to get their paper.

After I had gotten mine, I sat back at my desk and looked at the schedule.

The first listed class read World History -- Brown, Kevin. Then the next class said Math 7E Tricia, Wood. Then I had science with a teacher named Madeline Cottage. After science, The teacher name was listed as Speak, Catarina for my English class. After English, I had Latin with a teacher named Jefferson Smith. Finally, I had P.E. with Melanie Parker.

“Okay, this year in Social Studies, we will be learning…”

And I zoned out. All I really heard was something having to do with the Roman Empire.

Then the bell rang and everyone grabbed their backpack and left. Our only homework from that class was to get a syllabus signed by our parents.

I looked at my schedule and saw that my math class was going to be in room 308.

The girl who had introduced herself as Luisa caught up with me.

“Hey, what was your name again?”

“Avia, I know, it’s an unusual name.

“I like it, it’s pretty.”

“Thanks. What’s your next class?”

“Math in room…” she glanced at her schedule, “three-o-eight.”

“Me too, maybe if we hurry, we can get a seat together.”

She nodded and we rushed through the crowd of students heading to their second period classes.

Luisa and I managed to get a seat together in math class. The teacher greeting us at the door had graying, blonde hair that had - surprising enough - faded purple streaks.

She had purple glasses and a black dress. She wore black sandals and her toenails had been painted deep purple.

Luisa and I sat the closest to the whiteboard as we could.

Soon, the late bell rang, and sitting at Luisa and my tablegroup were two other girls.

“Hi, I’m Luisa!” My new friend seemed like a very social person.

“My name is Camila,” the girl sitting straight across from me said.

“I’m Avia.”

“My name is Monica,” answered the girl sitting across from Luisa.

“Welcome everyone to math seven enrichment, my name is Mrs. Wood and I will be your teacher.”

My math teacher sounded very enthusiastic. She seemed like a cool teacher.

She handed out worksheets and we were to work on them with our table groups. They were easy; pretty much what we had learned towards the end of last year.

Soon, my group had finished, and I could tell that I was the smartest person in my group, not to brag or anything...

Mrs. Wood handed out homework and said that we’d correct it tomorrow in class.

The bell rang very soon and I headed to science. Luisa wasn’t in this class with me. I was on my own. At least I thought so, until I saw Sam in line for the same class I was going to - room 303.
I walked over to her and said,

“I’m glad we’re in this class together.”

She smiled and agreed.

“Did you meet any new friends?”

“Yeah,” she answered, “a girl named Elena.”

“Cool, I met a girl named Luisa and two more girls in math named Camila and Monica.”

“Nice.”

We walked in the door and sat as close as we could to the front of the class.

“Hello everyone, and welcome to seventh grade honors science!” said the kind looking teacher at the front of the classroom.

“My name is Ms. Cottage and in the back over there,” everyone turned to look at the back where a younger woman was standing.

“Is Ms. Robinson. She is our student teacher. Now, to begin, I’ll hand out a syllabus for your parents to sign, then we’ll get to fun stuff.”

Ms. Cottage handed out a sheet that read Science Syllabus at the top.

“Please put this in a safe place and bring it back as soon as you can. Now, since I want you to know everyone’s name in the classroom, were going to play a name game. Everyone please form a circle around the room.”

The class obeyed. Sam and I stood next to each other.

“We’ll go around the circle and say something that begin with the same letter as our name. I’ll start. My name alliteration is Cottage cheese because I like cottage cheese, like, a lot.”

My science teacher was one of my favorite teacher so far. She reminded my of this teacher I had in fifth grade. They looked a little alike. They both had sarcastic sound to their voice, and I could tell that Ms. Cottage had a sense of humor.

The circle went around until it was Sam’s turn.

“Uh…. Sarcastic Sam.”

After Sam had said this, she turned to me, as did the rest of the class.

“Um, Avid Avia?” I said this with questioning tone in my voice.

The teacher nodded and looked to the next student.

Science class didn’t include much science stuff that day.

After what seemed like two minutes, the bell rang again, and, with a look at my schedule, headed to English in room 306.

“Hey, Avia!”

I turned around, Sam had called me.

“Meet you at the flagpole for lunch?”

“Sure!” I called back and walked into my next class.

No one I knew was in this class, not even friends that I had met recently.

I sat towards the front, as usual, and stared blankly at the whiteboard.

The desk were in groups of two, so of course someone sat next to me.

“Hi, I’m Avia.”

The girl looked at me. She had brown eyes and black hair, “I’m Samara. I like your name, it’s very unique.”

“So is your, I love it.”

“Thanks.”

“Hello everyone! I am Mrs. Speak. Welcome to English honors for seventh grade! I hope you have had a good day so far.”

Everyone nodded.

“Good. Now, I have a syllabus for your parents to sign, and that will be your only homework for tonight.”

She walked around the classroom handing out pink sheets of paper that said Course Description in the top, left corner.

“Now I want everyone to take the green sheet of paper that is on your desk and fold it to make a name tag. Write you first and last name on it and include at least three drawings of something that you enjoy. Here is mine. I have my name, Mrs. Speak on it. I have a pencil because I love writing, a book because I live to read, and I have drawn multiple hats to signify that I have many different lives quote, unquote. In one hat, I’m a teacher, in another, I am a mother, in a another, I am a writer and so on. Please start yours now.”

I picked up the green sheet of paper that was on my desk and folded in a 3D triangle shape. On one of the sides, I wrote my first and last name in pencil. Then I went over it in purple marker. I drew a book - signifying that I’m a amazing reader, a light bulb - signifying that I’m smart, and a cheeseburger - because that’s my favorite food.

“I will call off the roll sheet and instead of saying here, I want you to tell me one thing that you drew on your nametag and why.”

When Mrs. Speak got to me, I said,

“I drew a book because I’m a really good reader.”

The teacher looked at me, and for a split second, I thought she looked a little unhappy, but then she smiled and called off the next name.

At last, the bell rang and everyone packed up their stuff and rushed outside.

La Colina did have a cafeteria, but it was only for if you’re buying lunch. Otherwise, you would eat outside. I headed straight for the pole that still had no flag on it.

Luisa found me, smiled and came over.

“Are you waiting for someone?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “my friend from elementary school, Sam.”

“Is it a girl?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, her name is actually Samantha, but she prefers to be called Sam.”

“Cool.”

Then I spotted Sam walking towards me with another girl next to her. The girl was not too tall, but not quite short either. She had reddish-brown hair and startling green eyes.

I felt a small twinge of jealousy, Sam was MY friend. Then I shook the feeling off and smiled.

“Hi,” Sam said as they approached. “Elena, this is my friend Avia, Avia, this is Elena.”

“Hi!” the girl said.

“Hi. Sam, this is Luisa, Luisa, this is Sam,” I introduced

“Nice to meet you, Elena, Sam,” Luisa said.

The four of us sat down under the shade of a tree with purple blooms. Almost everyone of us seemed to get along well.

“Sam, what’s your schedule?” I asked.

“English, P.E., science, history, Latin, math,” Sam answered. “What’s yours?”

“History, math, science, English, Latin, P.E.”

“Mine is English, science, history, math, French, P.E.,” Elena said, as if I cared.

“I go first to history, then to math, then to performing arts, then to P.E., next to English, and finally, science,” Luisa said.

Lunch seemed to pass by quickly, and soon Sam and I were headed to Latin class together.

“I’m not sure I like your friend, Luisa too much,” Sam admitted.

“As if I care for Elena.”

“Well, you’ll have to deal with it, Elena’s cool.”

“Same goes to you, I like Luisa.”

We burst out laughing, I don’t know why. Friends just do that sometime, they look each other in the eyes then crack up.
We sat together in Latin and I began to wonder why Sam didn’t like Luisa. Then it hit me. They were polar opposites. Sam was not very sociable, Luisa was. Sam had that glint in her eyes that let you know she was a trouble-maker. Luisa did not, instead, she had that attitude of a teacher’s pet. Sam was sort of a ‘rebellious teen’ and a ‘tomboy’, Luisa was anything but that.

The bell rang letting us know that class had started.

The teacher - a man with gray hair, thin glasses, and a beard - stepped forward and said something in what was probably Latin:

“Salvēte omnēs….” and that was all I understood. It sounded like a foreign language - maybe because it was.

Then the Latin teacher translated what he had said.

“Hello all boy students and girl students….” and so on.

Then the teacher introduced himself as Mr. Smith and he took roll.

“Please tell me if you go by a nickname or something.”

When he called “Samantha Jones,” Sam answered,

“Here, and I go by Sam.”

“Okay,” Mr. Smith said marking something on his roll sheet.

Sam was the only one who went by a nickname.

Latin was the same as most of the other classes: course description, what we would be learning, and a syllabus for our parents to sign.

Before I knew it, the bell had rung and I was walking out of the classroom.

“Meet at the flagless pole after school,” I told Sam.

She nodded and headed to her last class.

P.E. was the boringest class of the day. We just sat under a shady tree with nothing to do. My teacher - Mrs. Parker - had graying blonde hair and was short. She argued that it was too hot to do any activities, so we just sat there, until the last bell of the day had rung.

We all picked up our backpacks and left. I was unsatisfied, because the only person I sort of knew, was Elena, and she didn’t appeal to my liking too much.

I met Sam at the pole and said,

“Who’s picking you up?”

“My dad.”

“Cool. Wyatt’s picking me up.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. I don’t know if I will survive.”

She laughed slightly, “Good luck then.”

“Thanks,” I answered sarcastically.

I walked to the front of the school and waited. I may be waiting for a while because Wyatt’s school wasn’t near La Colina.

~~~

By the time Wyatt had come, there were only five students still waiting besides me.

“Well you took long enough,” I said, a little irritated.

“I took my time,” he smirked.

“Wow! I hadn’t noticed!” I sarcastically answered and sneered back.

“Let’s go.”

We started walking home.

Wyatt was on his phone from the very first step we took.

“Aren’t you going to ask me how school was?” I wondered aloud after we had walked for some time.

“Why would I ask about something that I don’t care about?”

“Oh, that’s low. How was high school, then?”

“That is none of your concern.”

“Yes it is. I’m being kind.”

“Whatever.”

We walked in silence for the rest of the way. I sighed in relief when I saw our house. When we got inside, the first thing I did was walk up to my room and change out of my sweaty clothes. Then I went down stairs, filled a cup to the top with ice, and poured in water to the brim. I drained the glass whole. Then I filled it with water again and drank about half of it. It was very hot outside, and I had just walked a mile and a half.

After that, I stalked to my room to begin my math homework. I dropped my backpack on the ground and took out my binder. There, I found the sheet Mrs. Wood had handed out and began working on it.

I had finished it ten minutes later.

I didn’t feel like doing anything after that, so I opened my window, and lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling.

I had moments like those, when my brain just needed to not do anything active, so I would often lay on my back and relax, forget about life and all stresses I may have.

~~~

I must have lost track of time, because after what had only seemed like two minutes, my parents arrived - and they weren’t supposed to get home until four thirty.

I took the four syllabi that I had received from history, science, English, and Latin, and walked down stairs feeling light-headed from my zone-out time.

“How’s my seventh grader?” my dad smiled when he saw me.

“Good. I have four papers for you or Mom to sign.”

“What about your homework? Did you get any?”

“Yeah, only math. I finished ages ago.”

I handed the papers to my dad. He skimmed through, and signed them.

“Did you know that you will be learning about the Roman Empire in history class?”

“Now I do.”

My father handed the papers back to me and I went up to my room to put them in my binder once again.

~~~

“Wake up Avia!”

I groaned at the sound of my mom’s voice in my room. I managed to open my eyes and see the alarm clock.

“Mom,” I said in a weak, scratchy voice, “it isn’t even seven o’clock yet.”

“I realize, but you and Wyatt have to walk to school today.”

“Urgh! Can’t you just wake me up at seven!”

“Avia, it is only six fifteen!”

“I know!”

“You had better get ready,” my mom said and left the room.

I groaned again and thought to myself, thirty more seconds wouldn’t hurt…..

~~~

“Avia!”

I jumped.

“Come on! It’s six thirty now!”

I groaned for about the millionth time that day, and got out of my warm sheets.

“I picked out your clothes for you, since you failed to do so.”

I looked at the shirt and shorts at the foot of my bed. The shirt was white, and navy blue striped, and the shorts were purple with black dots.

“Mom, dots and stripes don’t go well together.”

“I think it does!”

“And the colors clash terribly. How about I chose my clothes?”

My mother exited the room and I chose a different set of clothes. When I had finished, I went down to breakfast.

After the morning hustle, Wyatt and I were finally walking to school. He left me at La Colina and walked off.

As I walked to the center of the school, I saw that Sam was already there along with Elena. I felt reluctant to approach them, but did so anyway.

"Hi guys," I said.

They smiled and waved.

Elena started talking to Sam about what they had to do in English, and I felt left out. Elena even turned her back to me so she could talk to Sam face to face.

At that moment, Luisa came up from behind and said, "Hi!"

I'll admit that I felt way more relived with another friend by my side. I could tell that the Avia-Elena friendship wasn't going to work.

"Are you ready for that geography test?"

"WHAT!" I exclaimed.

Luisa laughed, "Just kidding."

I laughed nervously when the bell rang.

"Bye Sam!" I called after her and Elena, "See you in science!"

Sam turned around, "Yep!"

Luisa and I walked to room 502. There, Mr. Brown was fist-bumping students as they entered.

Luisa and I got into the line of students, and - after fist-bumping Mr. Brown - took our seats from yesterday at the front of the class.

The second day of school went much slower than the previous day had. The classes seemed to last days instead of 50 minutes. Lunch seemed much shorter than it should have, and I was glad when the final bell of the day rang.

Students swarmed out of classrooms and headed towards the parking lot. Wyatt seemed to take even longer than yesterday, so I spent the time noticing little details; the birds flying above me, the leaves falling to the sidewalk, and the occasional glint from the mountains. When I had been younger, I had always thought that those shimmers were treasure within the face of the mountain, but with age comes wisdom, so now I had a more rational answer.

I noticed how most girls were huddled in groups surrounding one girl’s phone. And how the boys were also in groups, but weren’t really encircling a device. They were more throwing things at each other, like mini footballs or hacky-sacks.

There were only two students other than me when Wyatt finally arrived. Like yesterday, we walked in silence.

~~~

As school went on, the days dragged into weeks, and weeks into months. I felt extremely familiar with my schedule. It was almost like someone had programmed me to walk the exact same route every time. When that bell rang, I stood up mechanically, and walked the path I had traveled many times.

At last, it was the final school day before winter break. School had gone quickly today, since we were getting out early. It was only 10:30 and I was already in English class.

Our teacher was going on and on about how a growth mindset is much better than having a fixed mindset in the process of learning.

I wasn’t paying any attention in particular. I just kept thinking about what I was going to do over the break.

All of a sudden, there was a blinding white flash outside. There was a cry from within my classroom.

Everyone - including the teacher - was staggering around as if they were blind.

“I can’t see anything!” they were yelling.

How odd it was, because I was fine, I could see.

“No one exit the classroom!” Mrs. Speak yelled.

“I wouldn’t even be able to locate the door!” a student in the midst of chaos replied.

I disobeyed the teacher and stepped outside. It seemed like a normal day, that is, until I turned around and saw that there was a tornado on the field. I turned again and saw lightning flash from the sky- however, I could tell that this wasn’t the bright flash that had made my class go blind.

I walked further out, into the center of the school.

I looked west to see a monstrous wave heading towards La Colina Junior High. Over all the commotion, students and teachers flooded out of the classrooms at last, and headed towards the field.

I wanted to follow, but it seemed that my feet were suddenly glued to the cement.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?!?! I thought alarmed.

I didn’t think that it could get any worse, but there went Mother Nature proving me wrong, as usual.

The final light that seemed to protrude between the clouds, vanished, and everything began to look dark.

The clouds parted slowly, and I saw what had happened.

The tornado had not been sucking up people, or buildings, or trees, or anything for that matter, but to take the tornado’s job there was the hole.

It spiraled with immensely strong winds. All I could see into it was black. I did not know where it led, or why it had occurred.

The spiral started drawing in objects with its wind’s like the tornado should have. The buildings around me crumbled to debris and were sucked into the abyss. The American flag ripped off the flagpole and went fluttering into the hole.

Trees were uprooted from the ground and pulled into the void. Smashed cars were also flying towards the spiral. Lastly, people. Everyone from the school, the town, the state, even the country, and possibly the world were drawn into the hole.

The only part of the world that wasn’t sucked in, was me along with the square foot of cement I was standing on.

I saw Sam get pulled inward, her face was horrified and screaming. Her hair was a tangled mess around her face. I was sure that I saw my parents, and my teachers. Luisa was holding onto a wall left from a school building, but soon that building also crumbled, and she was sucked into the spiral.

I am almost certain that I saw my house, not fully demolished yet.

I saw everything that I had ever known, tumble into the darkness of the abyss. Everything that I had ever loved, everything that I had cherished.

I looked around, there was nothing. No land, no oceans, no buildings, and no people. It looked like I was standing in the middle of gray sky, with nothing underneath me except a square foot of ground.

The last thing I saw, were my glittering tears stream like small rivers into the black hole. After that, I broke down, and merely cried.

The black hole had disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, but I couldn’t care less.

~~~

It seemed like days, that I sat there crying until my eyes felt raw. It seemed like years had passed since everything had disappeared.

I looked up for the first time in what seemed like decades. Nothing had changed, I hadn’t been dreaming.

I stood up for the first time in centuries and almost collapsed into the endless gray below.

Why me? Why had I been the sole survivor? What did I do to deserve this? What was I to do in a world with nothing? Who was going to support me? Where was I going to go? How am I going to go anywhere?

In front of me, colors poked through the gray surface and formed a portal.

Unsure what else to do, I stepped through it. Then I was falling into nothing, with nothing below to catch me…

~~~

“Avia! It is time to get up!”

I sat up lazily in bed. Excitement overwhelmed me when I saw that I was in my bed, in my room, with my mother waking me up.

I was so overjoyed that I flopped back onto my pillow and let out a hysterical laugh.

I was glad that it had been just a dream, but it would for sure loom over me for the rest of my life, surrounded by questions: Why did I have that dream? Was it a coincidence? Was there some sort of message? Why me?

I got up from bed, ready for an exciting winter break. My family was going skiing in Mammoth.

“Get ready for school Avia!”

What?

“Mom! It’s Saturday!”

“Yes, and?” she said poking her head in.

“I don’t go to school on Saturday…”

“Ah, cease to fool around, Darling, and please get dressed.”

What had she just said, ‘cease to fool around’? That sounded like George Washington English. Something had definitely happened, but I wasn’t sure what - yet.

I opened my closet and chose a casual pair of clothes. Then I went into my bathroom and brushed my hair. I left my hair down, and put a teal headband on to match my outfit.

My mom checked on me again.

“Avia! What ever are you wearing?”

“Clothes…..”

“Where is your uniform! And you know that it is unacceptable to wear your hair in that fashion! It must be up and out of the way! And take out that horrid plastic thing, that is for out-of-school occasions.”

“Oooookay……”

I located my school uniform. It wasn’t hard, since it was the only pair of clothes in my closet with no sense of style. The shirt was plain white with a collar and buttons. It said La Colina Junior High in the corner in green letters. The skirt was plain forest green and reached just below my knees.

I returned to the bathroom, took my headband off and tied my hair in a ponytail.

I walked down stairs to the table. Wyatt was not on his phone, he was eating breakfast with his back straight. It was really funny.

“Much more appropriate!” Mom said. “You are not wearing cosmetics are you?”

“Mom, I don’t wear make-up.”

“Excellent. Are you feeling well today, Sweetie?”

“Of course. The questions is, are you?” I asked.

My mother laughed, “Yes, I am, thank you.”

I sat down in my chair at the table. The breakfast was very methodical. The scrambled eggs were on one section of the plate, and not a single particle was out of place. The toast was cut perfectly at a diagonal, with a small square of butter placed in the center of each, melting perfectly. The bacon had the same colors on each side, as well as curves. They were placed in a stack; two on the bottom, one of the top.

I was surprised by my mom’s sudden need for organization, but I didn’t mind, as long as there was some sort of food on the table.

Sooner than I’d prefer, I was off to school.

I was glad when I saw Sam standing at the flagpole. I didn’t really care that Elena was with her either. I was just glad to see someone who didn’t speak like I had just heard my mother converse.

“Salutations Avia!” she said. “What an exquisite day it is!”

Never mind. There must have been some national holiday that I had missed all these years, like Act-Like-You’re-From-The-Middle-Ages Day or something.

“Hi, Sam.”

“Call me Samantha please,” she said.

“Greetings, Avia!” Elena said with a pleasant tone that I hadn’t heard in her voice previously.

“Hi…….”

The two girls continued speaking to me in that old-fashion style, and I had to admit - I had no idea what had happened, but this Elena was much better than the one I had first met.

Soon the bell rang, and I told them that I’d see them at lunch. They nodded and walked off to their first period classes.

Luisa met up with me on the way to history class.

“Good morning, Avia. Isn’t it a fine day?”

“Yeah….” Why was everyone talking like this, it made me uncomfortable.

Mr. Brown was greeting students at the door, as he always did, except that without a fist-bump. Instead, he was shaking their hands formally.

“Good morning, Avia, Luisa.”

We took our seats at the front and took out our binders just as the bell rung.

“What a fine morning it is!” Mr. Brown said.

“Indeed Mr. Brown,” the whole class said - excluding me, that is.

“Now for today, I would like you to get out you essays.”

Everyone took out a typed paper, except for me. I looked around alarmed. I hadn’t received an assignment!

The rest of history seemed like college-level curriculum. I understood nothing. On top of that, we had to grade other people’s work. We had to read through that thirty page essay that other students had written and give them a grade. I took a prolonged amount of time to finish reading, while everyone else seemed to read it in two minutes.

Social Studies was torture that day.

“Your homework for tonight will be to memorize every single country in the known world. Tomorrow you will have a test on the world map. Have a joyful Saturday!”

The bell rang at that second, and I walked away from Social Studies class gladly. Math had always been my strongest subject in school (if I do say so myself), so I felt confident that I’d rock this class.

I walked into math class, but learned that I had failed to complete the twenty page homework.

My confidence declined as if it was going down a cliff. It soon plummeted into the ocean and sank to the bottom.

We were to take a math assessment today. I flipped through it and counted a total of thirty one pages.

“Begin your test….” Mrs. Wood said looking at her watch, “.....now!”

We bent over our tests and got to work.

The entire test felt like someone was giving me paper of Egyptian Hieroglyphs and asked me to read it aloud.

In other words - torment, pure torment.

When Mrs. Wood told us to stop, I had only gotten to the second question. I was quite sure that she had only given us five minutes of working time.

“You’re homework will be this packet, please bring it back tomorrow,” our teacher said.

I groaned inside my head.

The bell rang just as I got my packet. I put it in my binder, and stuffed the binder in my backpack.

I headed to science, hoping that this class would be better, but that was just wishful thinking.

Inside my next class, the desk were set up with complicated-looking chemistry equipment.

“Hi Sam…. anatha.”

Sam looked at me as if I was talking weird.

“Why do you not say ‘salutations’ as you do constantly?”

“Um….”

Ms. Cottage saved me, “Everyone please sit at your spot and wait until I give instructions.”

We filed in and sat at our assigned seats. I felt slightly better with Sam sitting next to me.

In the time I had, I tried to inconspicuously look at Sam to observe if there were any changes in her appearance. Over all, she hadn’t changed. Her hair was still blonde and frizzy. Her skin was still as flawless as it had always been, but she had lost the mischievous glint in her eyes - a trait that singled Sam out from a lot of people. She no longer seemed like a close friend, but rather distant. I didn’t like that feeling.

Science class was no different than the rest. I sort of sat back and let Sam do the work. There were various chemicals that we had to combine, and I didn’t want to take part in an accident.

Towards the end of the period, Ms. Cottage informed us about our homework, “Tonight, I would like you to read pages one hundred to four hundred and take notes. After that, write a fifty page summary. This will all be due tomorrow.”

A fifty page summary? Was it just me, or was something off with fifty page, and summary.

“I shall see you at lunch,” I told Sam after the period ended, trying to sound more like everyone else.

She smiled, but it didn’t feel as kind as it had before. “Now you are transitioning to your normal self. Yes, I shall see you then.”

I walked to my English class.

“Good afternoon, scholars,” Mrs. Speak was saying at the door.

All I did before entering the class, was nod at Mrs. Speak. She smiled.

I took my seat next to Samara.

“Salutations!” I said, trying to fit in.

“Greetings, Avia.”

She clearly saw nothing odd with me, thank god.

“Greetings, students. Please take out your fifty page summary,” Mrs. Speak said after the late bell had rung.

For the third time that day, I was excluded in taking out an assignment that I had clearly missed.

We graded other people’s work as we had did in history class. Again, everyone read them in three minutes, while I took much longer than I should have.

After another fifty minutes of torture, Mrs. Speak finally gave out homework instructions, “You are to use your fifty page summary to write a two hundred page essay. This will be due on Monday.”

I had that sluggish, lazy feeling that I got when I didn’t feel like doing something. From that moment, I promised myself, that if I ever got back to my regular world, I would never complain about too much homework - ever.

Lunch went way, way, way, way too fast. I could swear that they only gave us ten minutes to eat.

In Latin class, Mr. Smith didn’t even say a word in English, not even to explain what he had said. The again, it’s not like it seemed that anyone needed help besides me. I sat there and stared expressionless at the Latin-speaking teacher.

At the end of that period, I wasn’t sure what the homework had been, so I said, “Sam...antha, what was the homework, I missed it.”

“It was to translate the story ‘ad urbem’ that runs from page two hundred eight, to two hundred thirteen.”

“Thanks,” I answered as another strong feeling of laziness settled over me. I headed to the final period of the day - P.E.

I changed into the P.E. uniform and sat on my hashmark outside on the black top.

P.E. seemed to pass normally, that is, until we began testing.

We were supposed to be able to do 100 push ups, 1,000 sit ups, 200 chin ups, 100 pull ups, and 150 stomach ups. We needed to be able to run the mile in three minutes, and the half mile in one and a half minutes. We had to jump at least seven feet. We had to complete the fitness course in under thirty seconds. The fifty meter dash should be run in two to three seconds. The two hundred fifty meter run was usually run in under fifteen seconds.

It was crazy!!!

I was so glad that school was over when it was. I changed out of my P.E. uniform, slung my backpack over my shoulder, and headed for the parking lot.

As I passed the office, Mr. Owens, the principal walked out and asked if I had a minute. Wyatt was always really late, so I said sure.

He led me into his office and gestured for me to sit down. I began to get a little nervous.

“Avia, I have been, ah, tracking you. And I have observed that you weren’t doing well in school today. Why is this?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Well then, I have no choice but to demote you to kindergarten.”

“What?! But I finished kindergarten years ago!”

“Yes, but you made a mistake today - your first mistake ever - and I must move you down.”

“Just because of one little mistake?”

“Yes. In English, you will learn how terrible mistakes are. They get in the way of learning.”

I frowned.

“You are dismissed.”

I got up from my chair, and stalked out of the office.

I was glad to go away from this school, why should I care? Wait, I do care.. right? No, no I don’t….. urgh. Yes….. no….. I don’t know!

I really didn’t know how I felt about this. I had always been the best student in La Colina, this school was ruining my previous reputation! Yes, seventh grade here was like college level, so maybe kindergarten would be better.

~~~

Kindergarten seemed to be at about the normal seventh grade level. I was doing fine, until I made a careless error in math.

The days were just like in La Colina. I was sure I almost liked this better than college-level seventh grade.

History was as if I were back in my normal world. So was math and all my other subjects - including P.E.

Homework was back to it’s regular quantity and difficulty. I was happy once again, and never complained of too much homework again.

My parents seemed a little disappointed, but if they were completely embarrassed, they didn’t show.

That night for homework in Social Studies, we had to read a few pages in our textbooks and write a regular-sized summary on it.

I read a part that said, “It was the lord’s responsibility to manage and defend his land and the people who worked it,” I started cracking up.

Wyatt walked in, “What is the matter?”

“Nothing, it just says, ‘the people who worked it’ in my text book.”

Wyatt got a puzzled look on his face and exited the room. These people had no sense of humor! It was impossible to make a joke without someone staring at you as if you’re from a different universe, which - in my case - is true.

~~~

The next day was going smoothly, until my math teacher found that I had made a mistake in my classwork.

I had written that a negative number multiplied by another negative number resulted in a negative number. I had forgotten, in the rush, that it should have been a positive number.

I was called into the principal’s office again, and they said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry! You’re going to be learning with infants now. I am sure that you have learned that mistakes are intolerable!’

So the next day, I was learning with babies. Now, these infants were unlike any other I had seen. They learned at a kindergarten level. They already knew how to speak, and how to read short books. They could write, (though it wasn’t very neat) and do simple math.

I sat in the tiny chairs everyday and stared at the teacher, who was speaking in that honey tone that you use when talking to little children. I felt stupid and useless.

“Mistakes are bad everyone!” the teacher would always say at the end of the day. “So don’t ever make mistakes. They will make you dumb.”

When ever she said this, she always looked at me

~~~

Soon, I couldn’t step out of my house without someone taking a picture of me and posting it on Instagram or some other social media.

Every night I would check my account, see myslef tagged in a picture, and the comments would go something like this:

#TheGirlWhoHangsWithBabies

tots. I heard she used to be the smartest peep in school. 😆

ya, and then one day, she made a bunch of unacceptable mistakes, and bam she’s in kindergarten, then she make another mistake and bam she’s hangin’ with babies. 😜

omg! i heard about her. she must be pretty messed up. btw, i <3 your prof pic. @crazycat007

Thx! @trixie.girl

One night, I was so mad, that I threw my phone at the wall and didn’t even care when it shattered.

A piece of glass cut my cheek. I touched the cut gently. The glass piece was stuck, and I knew I had to pull it out.

When I did, everything turned dark....

~~~

I saw the fuzzy image above me, and at first, I couldn’t make it out.

“Avia,” it said. “Avia.”

The image cleared and I saw my mother.

“Oh hi mom.”

“Hello. Are you ready to get up for school?”

“No,”I admitted. I didn’t want spend another day with those ignorant babies.

“Come on! There are only four days including today until winter break!”

“Whatever. Wait, winter break?”

“Yes….”

I had come back to my world, the mistake-appreciating world, the happy world.

At school, I was so happy to see Sam with her mischevious eyes, and Luisa with her social attitude. I hugged both of them, I even hugged Elena.

“I’m so glad you weren’t sucked into a black hole!” I said.

“Oooookay………” Elena said.

I didn’t care what they thought, I was just glad to be back.

School went awesome that day. I was back in the mistake-tolerating school I was used to.

In all of my classes, I raised my hand whenever I got the chance. I didn’t care if I got the answer right or not, I just wanted the opportunity.

From my time in that world, I learned many things. The only thing I didn’t learn was what exactly had occurred. Had it been a dream, did it actually happen? I don’t know.

I learned that mistakes are not bad things. Many people think that they sort of say ‘Haha, you failed, keep trying, just kidding - give up.” But I’d like to change that to “Yay! You failed. Try again! This was one step to the process. Just keep going.”

Mistakes occur when you aren’t sure about something. But if you understand why you failed, you will learn.

I took for granted that I was smart, and thought that I didn’t need to work hard. I used to be afraid of raising my hand. I had a reputation of being smart, so I would think, “Oh, I’m smart, I don’t need work hard because I know stuff.” and that is called a fixed mindset. When I was frowned upon as being stupid, I felt even more scared to raise my hand, but now I pay attention in English, and I know that I shouldn’t feel that way.

You should never feel like I did, most people love mistakes nowadays. I had a teacher that would occasionally dance on the desks if you made a mistake in sixth grade.

My new life’s motto is a quote by the famous author J.K. Rowling, “It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you may as well not live at all - in which case you have failed by default.”

I believe that resilience is the key to life.

(Here is my entire story! I hope you like it!)

Social Introvert's Blog

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Saturday, July 30, 2016

Wise Lyrics from "My Silver Lining" by First Aid Kit

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Normal is Boring

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

#TellAPlotBadly

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

#TellAPlotBadly

Monday, July 18, 2016

If I Were In Charge Of The World

Friday, July 15, 2016

The ABC's of School

How to Survive School from A-Z

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

A Resilient Mind

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