The Day I Met The American

First Day of School

It was a cold September morning, one of those mornings where you just don't feel like getting up. Alas, summer was over and it was, once again, the first day of school. My alarm woke me at seven to the sound of Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train'. Bleary-eyed I fumbled for my tiny Iphone 5 and upon finding it, I quickly turned off the unwelcome noise. Yawning and stretching, I stumbled out of bed to get ready for my first day of year 8. I made my way to the kitchen, shivering in the cold, to find myself some breakfast. After selecting two brioche buns, I toasted them, covered them in Nutella and with a glass of water to aid me, I quickly consumed them.

Abandoning my plate and cup for my dad to wash up, I meandered into the bathroom to clean my teeth and have a shower. When all was finished, I dried myself off, dressed in my smart school uniform and combed my hair. For the remaining minutes of my free time, I sat down and watched YouTube. At eight o'clock, I picked up my school bag, slipped my shoes on, and got in the car with my dad. After a journey of about fifteen minutes, I hopped out the car, slung my bag over my shoulder and walked towards school with a couple of friends.

Since it was the first day of a new year at school, my form had a new form room, which was definitely better than the last one we had. Our previous form room had been the music room. Having this as our form room meant staying outside during free time no matter the weather and not being allowed to have food or drink out whilst inside. This room however, was one of the many English classrooms in my school. It was inside the main building and we were allowed to spend our breaks eating in it - provided that we behaved.

However, when I arrived, it was only eight thirty and the room wouldn't be unlocked for another ten minutes. During this time, most students would go and talk to their friends and hang out, but being the unsociable quiet kid, meant that this would mean spending time with the class outcasts. So it was then that I went to go stand around them, not really paying much attention to their conversation but instead playing games on my phone.

Not long after, a member of staff lead a student I'd never seen before down the corridor to where my form stood waiting to be let in. She turned to one of the group members I was hanging around and started talking to him. Since I was so close to them, I could hear what she said:
"This here is a new student transferring over from a school in America. I'll leave him in your care to show him around the school and get him used to things."
I pondered what I'd heard for a moment and then came to a sudden realization. This kid had been thrust into the care of the least liked student in the class, if he started to hang around with him it would leave a bad first impression.

Thinking to save the poor soul from what could have been a bad start to his new school life, I rushed over to him pushing past people in an attempt to rescue him before it was too late. It was only when I stood in front of him, that I remembered how bad I was at being sociable. Fortunately, this new student was extremely good at conversing with others and he started up a conversation with me, seemingly effortlessly. He did my job for me. With his brilliant social skills, I was able to lead him away from the weirdos and introduce him to some of the more intelligent and respected members of our class. I managed to get away with talking to them due to the slight bit of intelligence I posses, deeming me worth occasionally talking to.

He quickly made friends with them and it was at that time that our form was unlocked and we entered to find our seats for the year and sit down to listen to our new form tutor. I was sat next to a quite average student who I neither liked or disliked so didn't mind too much. We'd had our form tutor as an English teacher the previous year so all of us, except the new kid, were familiar with her. Similarly to the previous year, the first lesson on the first day of school was dedicated to sorting out our stuff. This included copying our timetable into our planners, receiving bits of information, and getting to know about the new student, who quickly adopted the title The American.

Afterwards we set off to our first lesson, which was actually the second period. I left the room to seek out the room that we were to have a lesson in. Our form had been taught in there before and we all made our way there quickly. However, the American was not familiar with the school layout and managed to get left behind.

Our teacher for this lesson, kindly allowed us to choose our own seats for their class, which meant being alone for unsociable me. This was not ideal but it did stop people constantly copying my work. But to my surprise, the American, arriving just on time, chose the seat next to mine. We quite enjoyed the lesson together and this behavior reoccurred in every lesson that we were allowed to select our seats in. As consequence we ended up spending break and lunch together, and talking a bit more.

This continued throughout the rest of the year and many after. It took a short while but eventually we became good friends, discovered that we had common video game interests and enjoyed many fun school moments together. However, that's the end for 'The Day I Met The American' but not the end of our story.