My school is actually a prison. The school was unable to raise enough money to support the giant place, so half the school is dedicated to inmates from all around Florida. There’s a iron gate separating students and inmates, but there have been a few break-in’s.
Just kidding, the school doesn’t house inmates, but there wouldn’t be much of a difference even if it were true. There are iron gates surrounding the school. It was pretty clear that most of the students were no stranger to trouble. We arrived at the front office, where a bunch of late kids were signing in. A lady led Mom and me to the 6th Grade office. There we met the counselor. There was a school picture with a bunch of scribbles on it. I asked her about it, and she was like, “These kids vandalized my picture… No big deal!”
I was starting to wonder about the kids at this school. Than some tall 8th Grader lead me around. It was very brief tour. He just walked through the hallways and said, “This is the library. This is the gym. This is the cafeteria.”
The strange thing about the school is that in the middle was an outdoor courtyard with a statue in the middle. The hallways went around the giant courtyard. But the things is, there are no walls or doors separating the inside from the courtyard, so the hallways are always hot. I went to band class. That’s how my ears withered and died. It’s been a month since school started, and they still sounded like a whole forest of dying animals. Next was lunch. Back in elementary school, the cafeteria was always noisy. But the 6th Grade is giant. You could probably fit a football field in the cafeteria. The lunches were free since the school was sponsored by some organization I don’t know about. The first thing I noticed were the kids around me. They all swore constantly, like they were in some rap battle. I guess being in a rap battle also makes your grammar suffer, so everyone was talking in incomplete sentences. After lunch was “gym”. I put quotation marks around “gym” because it was not gym. The substitute didn’t know what she was doing, so she sent us outside to ponder our life decisions. I sat down and noticed something in the grass. I picked it up and found a cigarette. Nice to know. These kids smoke. Then these kids had a fight and the other one started crying. Cool school. After lunch was history. I was pretty late to history. I walked around the hallways for a while after the tardy bell rang. Maybe I would’ve known my way around if the guy had actually given me a real tour. I ended up in the office and asking them where to go. When I entered class, the guy was all sarcastic about everything, but not in the funny way teachers usually are. Apparently everyone was taking a test, so I sat down and he handed me a sheet.
Question 1: What was the “fight” over Florida?
Question 2: What did conquistadors do to Native Americans while in Florida?
Well how was I supposed to know this? In Ohio, the curriculum in Ohio was based on history in Ohio. So I know about Ohio history! Why do they expect me to know all about Florida? I sat there for half an hour until the teacher said, “Read the book, stupid!”
That’s not what he really said but that’s what it sounded like. There was practically no information in the book, so I’m pretty sure I failed. Math was next. It was pretty confusing since they were in the middle of studying ratios, which I haven’t learned about yet. Then we had to pick groups and do some work. I knew this was going to be a bad time since I hadn’t really met anyone yet. Then these two girls asked me to their table. I said yes, and the whole time they snuck each other these smug smiles. For some reason, it made me want to fight them. Science was nothing but confusion, and ELA was the worst. The teacher there looked and acted like she was a college dropout. She said things like “Yeet!” and “Shut up idiots!” I wonder how she ever got a job here.
Today on Monday, I walked into class. I was a little worried since I had taken a test on cells and on ratios, which I hadn’t studied on or learned about. My group in reading class was a bit strange. Let me break it down.
There’s a boy with glasses who is a pretty good artist. There’s a girl who is too cheerful. Lastly, there’s a kid who I’m still trying to figure out if they’re a boy or girl. I haven’t had the courage to ask yet. The kid with glasses drew a picture of me. When I looked at it, the picture gave me this blank expression, like I had just murdered someone. I guess that IS how I look. At the end of class, the cheerful girl said I have a weird voice. I wondered what she was talking about, since I thought my voice sounded fine. I suppose I was voice cracking lately, but that’s just puberty. Then she said my voice was cute, like I was some barking dog. After I left class, I began wondering. What does my voice sound like? I mean, I think it sounds a bit deep, but on recordings it sounds high. I wondered what other people heard: a deep voice or a high voice. Someone tell me please!