Second Period

I walked over to the gymnasium, seeing Jennifer walking to her Science class on the way. I quickly waved, and she waved back. According to the announcements, we were to report straight to the gym to be assigned our lockers.

There were signs on the floor showing us where each teacher's class was sitting. I sat behind a sign saying "Mr. Garcia's class". I waited there, looking around the gym. There was blue paint on the walls, and the floor was beige. Most of my classmates were talking to their friends, but since Jennifer was in Science, I had no one to talk to.

The bell rang, which cued our teacher to walk towards us, clipboard in hand.

"I'm Mr. Garcia, your PE teacher this year. Let's have a great year!" Mr. Garcia announced, "But right now I'll be taking roll. When I say your name, please say 'here'."

He took roll, and when he got to my name he called, "Cyrus Santos."

"Here," I replied quietly, raising my hand.

When Mr. Garcia was finished taking roll, he said, "The boys will line up to the left of the gym, and the girls will line up to the right. Please line up in alphabetical order based on your last names."

Oh no, I thought. I knew I would need to coordinate with the boys in our class, so that we could line up in alphabetical order correctly.

"What's your last name?" A tall, muscular boy asked me.

"It's Santos," I answered as softly as I could. I started to sweat. At my old school, people like this boy would pick on me because I'm scrawny.

"What was that? Sorry, I can't hear you over all of this noise," the boy replied. Around us, people continued to talk to their friends.

"My last name is Santos," I responded, slightly louder this time. I held my breath as I waited for his response.

"Oh, you can stand behind me then. I'm Henry Rodriguez," he said. I let out a sigh. He was more friendly than I thought he would be. What a relief.

I waited in line, and when it was my turn, one of the other male PE teacher was sitting at a table. He asked me to write some information on a slip of paper, handing me a pen to use. I did, and in exchange for the slip of paper, the teacher gave me a paper saying "Locker #493" on the top of it. It had the locker combination underneath, as well as some instructions on how to enter it onto the lock.

After I got the paper, the teacher told me, "Go to your locker and try to open it. Once, you've got it open, show either the TAs or one of the teachers and return to your class."

I walked over to my locker, and using the instructions on the paper, I entered my locker combination. I then lifted the handle and the locker door opened. I closed the locker, then looked for a TA or teacher, and eventually I found a teacher. I took the teacher to my locker to show that I could open it, then was dismissed to go back to my class.

There was a bit of time left before nutrition, so I decided to try to talk to some of my classmates, maybe make some new friends.

"Hi, I'm-" I tried to say to the girl behind me. I realized that it was the same girl that was sitting next to me in math class. I turned back around, feeling flushed. She was already talking to her friend anyway.

I sat there in awkward silence, like I was in the eye of a hurricane, as everyone around me was talking about what they did over the summer and their electives.

The bell rang, and I walked as fast as I could out of the gymnasium to meet up with Jennifer for nutrition.