Period 4

As I walked out of the library, I saw Jennifer and her friends on their way to their PE class. I waved to them, and they waved back. I headed to my History class in room 42. When I walked into the class, almost all of the seats were full, except for a couple in the front. I sat down at one of the seats. A front row seat wouldn't be my first choice, but it would have to do for now.

A few minutes later, the bell rang and class commenced. "Good afternoon class. I'm Ms. Vendez, but you can call me Ms. V. How have you guys been doing so far?" Our history teacher greeted us.

"Good afternoon Ms. V," the class replied, "We're doing good."

"That's good to hear. When I give you a paper, please fold it into thirds and write your name on one side of it, like this," Ms. Vendez explained, holding up an example of what she was talking about. She went around and started passing out blank pieces of paper to everyone in the class.

When I got mine, I did as she said, folding my paper as if it were a letter and writing "Cyrus Santos" in large letters on one side of the paper. The rest of the class did the same.

"When you are done, place it on your desk like this, facing me," she instructed, folding the paper so it formed a triangle shape and placing the name card on her table facing us.

Oh, so that's what we're doing, I thought. I followed her instructions, which everyone else in the class did as well. Ms. Vendez probably had us do this so that she could take attendance. She did something on her computer when we were all done (most likely taking roll), then got up and turned on the projector.

"This is the curriculum that we'll be covering this year," she explained, pointing at the screen. She talked about what concepts we would be covering for this semester, then the spring one. She changed the slide, then pointed at the screen again. "And these are the materials I would like you to get by next Monday."

One composition notebook, pencils, pens, highlighters, post-it notes, and white-out were on the list. I wrote the list of materials down on a sheet of paper. I would probably buy the materials over the weekend or after school on Friday.

"For your first assignment, I would like you to write about what you think history is, and why you think it's important to study it."

"We have to write? We don't even have to do that in English yet," someone behind me complained.

"When is it due?" Another student asked.

"You only have to write a short paragraph, and it's due by Friday," Ms. V. responded.

I wrote it down on the piece of paper with the list of materials on it. Ms. Vendez started to pass out lined paper to all of us. When she got to me, she said, "I've heard great things about you."

"Really? From who?" I asked.

"The school told me about you. Also, Jennifer Mendoza, one of my 3rd period students, mentioned you. Is she your friend?"

"Yes, we've known each other since kindergarten," I replied.

"Oh. Well at least you've got someone to get through middle school with. I can't imagine how it must feel to be going into middle school so early."

"It's been alright, so far."

I got straight to writing after the conversation was over. I wrote about how I thought that history was a story about past events that occurred, and that it was important to study it so that we could learn from past mistakes that have been made. After I was done, I handed it to Ms. V.

"Done so early," Ms. Vendez remarked. She skimmed my paper. "This is an impressive paragraph, Cyrus."

"Thanks," I muttered. Just then, the bell rang, and I walked out of the classroom for lunch. Suddenly, I felt really hungry. All that work must've used up a lot of energy, I thought.