I wake up at around 7 AM. I roll out of bed and fall three feet to the ground. I lie there, lifeless as I wish school was not mandatory. After what feels like hours, I crawl to the stairs. I spend two minutes trying to stand up, crying in the process. But my legs give out and I need to repeat this agonizing process once more. Once I head downstairs, I eat breakfast which consists of a crepe filled with Nutella. This is the only reason that I can stay awake long enough to get to school. Thank God my mom packs my lunch, otherwise I wouldn't make it. I brush my teeth, then lay in bed for as long as I can. I fix my hair and then pick out something to wear for the day. I am really tired while doing this and sometimes I just do not care what I wear. I have better things to worry about. Like my math homework. "AAGH, I FORGOT TO DO IT". Well, I have time before 1st period to complete it so I just have to have some speed. I then get out of the house.
I get to school by car almost every day of the week. My Mom has some more freedom in her schedule than last year, so I get rides to and from school. Otherwise, I will walk. My Mom has limited time, so I get dropped off at the local elementary school when it is time for me to go to school. In the car, I forget to buckle my seatbelt for the one-mile journey there, so I am shaken around from side-to-side in the car. I walk over to my school and enter through the side door. The door is really concerning because at the beginning of the year I was five minutes early to school. I entered the school, only to realize no one was there! I initially thought school was somehow canceled, but the first bell did not ring yet to let us into the school. I only realized after a teacher told me I wasn't supposed to be in the building. If they forgot to lock the door, what kind of maniac could just walk into the section of the school where 600/1000 students were "learning"?
They finally locked the door when the same thing happened to students like me. It takes them a while because "WE ARE SHORT-STAFFED, WAIT FOR US TO UNLOCK THE DOOR". It's terrifying knowing my safety in the school depends on whether some forgetful employee remembers to lock a door.
Before Period 1, I climb the stairs with my 15 lbs of baggage (an instrument, a backpack, and a water bottle). It feels like hell. After the agonizing walk, I store my backpack in my locker and I take the stuff out. Our school has a stupid "no-backpack" policy. I have so much baggage to carry with me from class-to-class. People always say, "How do you carry all of that?" or "I can help carry that for you." I strap my lunch box to my binder, which goes on my left shoulder. I then carry my water bottle and my instrument with my hands.
I walk into my history class. Immediately, I go to my friend's desk and we chat until the bell rings to start class. Or, I do homework at my desk. When the announcements come on, everyone talks even though we are not supposed to. Class then starts. My class is full of the popular girls, and they start chatting away. Meanwhile, I start to sleep with my eyes open. I have developed the ability to do so. It is like the quiet quitting phenomenon that is happening at workplaces. But this time, I am completely zoned out. We did world history last year. But this year, history is more than just history. We do and other things unrelated to world history. Right now, we are doing an NHD project. It is Q2 and the only actual history we did was Latin America. I spend most of the class either sleeping with my eyes open or doing other work. My teacher does not care. She just wants us to be quiet. Our class is crazy, so I understand why.
Onto my second class of the day—P.E. I walk into the locker room and it is disgusting. I hate P.E. From smelly kids who haven't discovered deodorant to the disgusting pennies, it is safe to say P.E. is my least favorite class. It is at 9:00 and I am still asleep. I want to go home. Period 2 is always the most boring, no matter what class it is. I hate the people in it just as much. One quarter out of the year, you do health with your P.E. class. All of my friends are in health. I have it Q4 and they have it now during Q2. This means I can only see them one semester out of the whole school year. Since I have no one most of the time, I can't find a team to join! I am bad at sports, but not the worst! The best part of having health last is I don't need to go outside in the up-to-104-degree heat with wasps and gnats. I am grateful for that. We do things like volleyball, flag football, soccer, handball, and others in P.E. For someone who is bad at sports, this is equivalent to torture.
I walk across the school into my math class. I run the risk of being late. This is Algebra 1 and I am in 7th grade. This is the dumber class for eighth-graders and the smart class for seventh-graders like myself. My teacher checks the homework occasionally. Conveniently, I always didn't do the homework or can't find it only on the days the teacher grades it for completion. Just my luck. Even when I am sick, I am on the hook for the homework. That is pure BS. We learn about slope, rate of change, functions, and others. But I have to say we covered like half of this stuff last year. But everyone forgot, so we learn it again. It is a pretty average class that I actually enjoy sometimes. I complete the homework during my study hall that I have next.
Advisory is a 23-minute study hall. We don't go to the same classroom every day. We rotate classes on a schedule, unlike last year. It is good for the teachers because they get three planning periods during their advisory in a two-week period. Here is how it works. On Mondays, you go to your assigned advisory class, the one that is on your schedule. Then, on Tuesday-Friday we go to Periods 1-4 or 5-8 depending on the week. If school is canceled, we do not make up the advisory rotation.
This is my band class. I play the trumpet. All we do here is play our instruments. We also get yelled at by our band teacher because we are awfully behaved students. We work on our technique when we aren't preparing for concerts and our concert music when we do play concerts. We do Practice Logs and other assignments like playing tests. I even made a bingo card about my band teacher because he is so short-tempered. The bingo cards had nine slots. None were free. They were, "Making us play Concert F at least four times in a row, Saying the 6th graders are better than the 7th graders, Gets mad for no good reason, Threatens Lunch Detention, Yells YOU ARE IN 7TH GRADE..., Denying Bathroom Access, Holding us knowingly after the bell, Getting mad at Percussion for any reason, Says we are not prepared for a performance two weeks before it or later." He used to be so insufferable, but he has gotten much better.
This is finally my lunch. I talk with my friends and get the well-deserved social interaction with sane people. My lunch consists of a sandwich and some fruit. It is a nice break from the academic stress of the day. I stay inside for "Wellness." It is free time after our lunch that lasts only fifteen minutes. I walk around because the day was so damn boring.
This is my Elective Rotation class. This is just a fun class where I get to explore different subjects and activities. It provides a nice break from the core academic classes and allows me to enjoy my middle school years. I should be taking a foreign language, but I am waiting until high school so I can take Russian. My entire family speaks it and I need to learn. You do classes like Art, Computer Science, and Tech and Engineering. Some of my friends are in there too, so I can enjoy it with them too. The worst part about the class is that there are many annoying kids. They are dum-dums. They get yelled at every day. And worst of all, the ENTIRE class gets punished for it. No free time, no free seating, etc. I am punished more than I am not punished.
This is my Science class. It is very easy. I hate the people in it. I hit the trifecta. I could have been in the other science class with all of my friends. Instead, I got the Popular Girls, the Annoying Kids, and the people who just won't shut up! Even though the people are trash, it is not that bad. My teacher likes to yap a lot. Once, we had the entire 43-minute class period to take a test. By the time he was done talking, we had five minutes. That is insane. That is why I hate homework, because it is just an excuse for teachers to waste class time. I don't get much homework from this class. It is easy because it is just busywork. But I still have to put my all into it. I don't know what is busy-work and what isn't. I care about my grades. This class is more busywork than real work.
This is my English class. It is tedious. We read so much, and we have no choice. I say I receive the most amount of work from this class. Last quarter, we had to do an essay, read an IRA book (Independent Reading Assignment), and read Hello, Universe. These overlapped. It was exhausting and super stressful. I already went to the counseling office twice this year because of my workload. I am a straight-A student, but still, I have a life. By this class, I want to go home. I stare at the window more than I actually focus. It isn't the worst thing to do at the end of the day. It isn't intense or too energetic, but it isn't boring. I had English at this time last year and I thought it was great. I have some of my friends here too, and we occasionally get free seating. When 3:00 hits, I bolt out of the class. I carry my backpack to English class to avoid the crowds. I just stop by my locker beforehand.
After school, I walk back to the elementary school and get picked up by my Mom. If she can't, I will walk home. I get home in five minutes, then run straight to my bed. I will do my homework at 11:58 PM. At the last minute.