The Chances

This is the first chapter in a series called, “The Chances” which the Buchhof Bulletin will publish in installments throughout the year.

By Natalie N., Grade 5

Dear Diary, It is the first day of 5th grade. I am totally not stressing… ok, I maybe am sort of stressing, it’s just that my BFF Amber moved away like a week ago. She truly got me through 4th grade and 3rd grade, but now I have to be in 5th grade alone. I hope I will make it through the year without total embarrassment about something or forgetting something super duper important that you had to bring to school or basically hiding in the shadows. Oh wait, mom is calling me now. Gotta go diary! See ya in about 7 hours!

Chapter one: First Meeting

OK, I am getting off the bus. I am walking in to the middle school right now, any second… OK, I just touched the doorknob, I’m twisting it… ok, I opened the door, I have to walk through the halls now!

That is what I was thinking about, which was seriously making me sweat like crazy. My hand was shaking nonstop while twisting the doorknob rapidly. A girl was right behind me, asking for me to move faster instead of walking a centimetre each time I got closer to the middle school. I smiled sheepishly at her.

“Oh, y-yeah, sorry!” I said, forcing myself to stiffly laugh.

I breathed in, then opened the door. I checked that the doors didn’t lock behind me in case I made a run for it and sprinted back outside to save myself. I slowly looked around, I saw eighth graders and seventh graders staring at me, I felt like a mouse amongst these teens. I forgot where my class was. I saw the girl behind me talking with this other girl. I decided to ask her. “Um, excuse me, do you, um, know where Mrs. Lena’s class is?”

The girl looked at me and smiled.

“Oh! Your in Mrs. Lena’s class as well?!” she said. “Cool! So, continue going straight, go up those small set of stairs, turn right, then you will see her class.”

The girl remembered perfectly! I probably seemed like a complete noob to her.

I made it to the class and went in, there was a boy who shoved me, then went and basically tackled one of his friends. I just stared and walked past him.

I set my school supplies on my desk. Mrs. Lena was a tall, woman with long black hair and glasses. She was wearing a short silk dress with flowers on it. She had tan skin and wore golden nail polish. She waved at me and looked at a small glass mirror and put on blood red lipstick.

I came up to her and she said, “Hi! I’m Mrs. Lena! Welcome to the class! What’s your name?”

I looked up at her and said, “Oh, hi! I’m Jess!”

Mrs. Lena smiled at me and handed me a piece of paper. I t had a code on the back of it, “What’s this?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s the code for your lock on your locker!” she said, finishing putting on her lipstick. “Make sure to twist it three times to 0 first, though. Jess, your locker is 34.”

I nodded and left the class, I found my locker and took a good look at my code on the small piece of paper. I did what Mrs. Lena said for me to do, I turned to 0 three times and did my code. It worked! I felt pretty proud of myself. I opened the locker and put my backpack in, I closed it, locked it, and walked back into the class.

The girl who helped me get to the classroom had come in with her friend. I heard her talking to Mrs. Lena. Her name was Christina and her friend’s name was Stella. Christina had long wavy dirty blonde hair and she was wearing a pink dress with a bow in the front. She was wearing a choker and a headband with roses on it. Her friend had short, straight black hair.  She had freckles and was wearing a hoodie with a smiley face on it and ripped jeans with a star clip in her hair. Both of their outfits were so colourful and cool! I was just wearing a blue shirt with stripes on it, I was also wearing long, black, baggy pants that reached my ankles. My hair was tied in to a tight pony tail. My hair is dark brown and I have messy bangs that almost cover my green eyes. My hair is really curly and is out of control.

Christina walked over to me.

“Hi! I’m Christina!” she said. “You know, I always wanted really curly hair. I think it looks really cool!”

I looked at her and while she talked to me, her friend was glaring at me in the back of the classroom. I then looked back at Christina.

“I’m Jess!” I said, feeling like I might vomit rainbows from all the excitement overflowing inside of me.

Christina’s friend, Stella, came to her and grabbed her hand.

“Come on Christina, let’s go, we’re on the same desk! Isn’t that great?!” she said, giving me dirty looks and walking away with Christina right behind her.

I sighed and walked back to my desk, a boy came in to the classroom. He had messy, light brown hair and was wearing a white shirt with a collar and jeans. He greeted Mrs. Lena then he went to his desk which was right next to mine.

Each desk had a piece of paper that said a name. His name was Alexander. He put his stuff down and grabbed a piece of paper and started to draw on his desk. He seemed extremely focused. I looked over to see what he was drawing. He looked at me and stopped drawing, “What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and making the face that probably meant he thought I was a weirdo.

“OH!” I said, getting a little startled. “I was, uh, just wanted to see what you were drawing.”

Then he smiled.

“I’m drawing myself on a dinosaur!”

He grabbed his paper and showed me.

“Wow! That’s so cool! You’re a really good artist!” I said, taking a closer look at the drawing.

His eyes lit up. He blushed and put the paper back on his desk.

“Nobody has ever said that to me,” he said. “I mean…my mom says it to me but, nobody else at my old school really cared.”

I looked back up at him.

“Well, I think it’s cool that you draw,” I said. “I bet I wouldn’t be able to draw anything that complex like you do. The best drawing I have ever done was in preschool. I drew a rainbow with a happy face on it. Other than that, I basically suck at drawing.”

Alexander looked perplexed.

“Well then, why are you sitting here complaining about it?” he said. “Get a paper. You have been signed in to drawing class. I am the teacher and your name is Jess, right?”

I looked back at him while I was getting some paper.

“Yeah, my full name is Jessica, but, I prefer people call me Jess.”

He smiled again.

“You can call me Alex! The name Alexander is pretty long, so I prefer Alex.”

I brought back the paper and sat down. Alex started to talk about how to draw a face. I did my best but, after the “lesson” was done, my drawing looked like somebody threw a brick at the face. Alex’s drawing of a face was basically perfect. I sighed.

“Listen Alex, I guess drawing isn’t my main talent,” I said.

He sighed, “Well maybe you just need to find your main talent.”

I nodded. I kinda felt awkward. No talent and no sense of trendy new fashion. I immediately changed the subject,

“So…do you like dogs?”

My mind immediately started to say, “Dang it Jess! What kind of question is that? It’s too random!”

Alex stared at me.

“Uh, yeah! I actually have a dog of my own! His name is Jumping bean!”

I snickered.

“Jumping bean? What got you to name him that?”

I continued to snicker out of control.Alex started to snicker.

“Well, we named him that because he (*giggle*) jumps ridiculously high!”

Alex and I started to laugh uncontrollably, like two hyenas who just told the funniest joke in the world. I wiped the tears from my eyes and watched Alex finish his masterpiece.

I hadn’t focused at all on who had come through the class door. Then I heard three claps. Mrs. Lena got everyone’s attention.

“Ok, welcome to my class! This is gonna be an exciting time for y’all! I’m Mrs. Lena! I would love for each of you to introduce yourselves!”

Mrs. Lena pointed to a boy in the back of the class who somehow snuck a bag of chips in to the classroom. He was chomping away at his chips until he met eyes with Mrs. Lena. The boy closed the bag of chips and hid it behind his back, but he had chip crumbs all over his pants and seat.

The boy had red hair, a checkered, short sleeved shirt and had black pants.

“Um, I‘m Matt,“ the boy said, licking the salt around his mouth from all the chips.

Mrs. Lena then pointed at the boy who shoved me. The boy had his feet on his desk, picking at his nose. He had blonde, smoothed out hair, bangs, and wore a blue shirt with grey shorts.

“I’m Justin.” the boy said, not even making eye contact with the teacher.

Mrs. Lena ordered him to take his feet off the desk, then she pointed to Stella.

“My name is Stella Goldman.”

Stella said that and acted so full of herself. I automatically knew we wouldn’t be friends.

Mrs. Lena pointed to a timid boy named Michael, a talkative girl named Josey, a loud boy named Josiah, Christina, Alexander, me, and a bunch more kids. I didn’t think this year would be so bad or lonely after all!

At least, that’s what I thought.