7th grade madness

The steamy scent of chocolate filled croissants,  and apple crisp macchiato's filled the air as I entered  the welcoming warm store. I was only there of course to do my homework and perhaps by a little treat for myself because I couldn't afford to waste too much money or else I wouldn't have enough to buy things in the future,  like applications or admission fees for stories.  Of course I did get the largest size only because I knew that I was going to be there for a very long time,  after getting my usual pink drink and a chocolate cake pop. I sat  down to complete the tasks given to me by my teachers.It annoyed me that usually I got all my work done in school so that outside I could come here to write my stories or perhaps research things for my astronomy paper, but I suppose once you're in 7th grade life becomes more hectic than it used to be. After all, you're not in elementary school anymore and obviously you have more responsibilities as you get older. Of  course I did not like getting older and  having more responsibilities and more work and worrying about more things and especially since I had social anxiety and that last one really didn't fit into my list of things I’m okay with handling. The  coming air of the Starbucks was the only place where I could Escape all my worries and test scores and homework assignments- even though I really came there to do them there. My algebra homework wasn't too tough and neither was my Ela which I, even though I was a writer, did not prefer to do algebra. Numbers  we're more interesting to uncover than grammar, spelling, punctuation or any of those nonsense things- besides what are we in third grade to be learning first, second and third person?!Obviously my Ela teacher did not share my concerns or my interests, but she was a good and kind teacher. I did not blame her for the amount of homework the school made her give us- actually right now I blame myself for not being able to manage time wisely and complete it in time.  As I moved my fingers across the keys of my Chromebook I felt the familiar feeling of anxiety rolling as I questioned my answers. I took a deep breath and the fumes quickly chased the tingling feeling of anxiety away.I was very confident in my answer by the end of the algebra assignment and felt like it would be Mrs.Shalf worthy. She was my algebra teacher and she understood the privileges that we, as an advanced class, possessed. She also understood that we had to earn certain privileges to move forward.She was the kind of teacher I usually respected, the only issue with her was that her room was hidden- it was literally behind the stairs in a secret hallway which almost no one went through. She was also a new teacher at the school so no one knew about her and that made everything even more secretive.I felt the urge to suddenly write a secret code name as my nickname on the assignment because if we were going to be this secretive, with a teacher nobody knew, in a hallway almost nobody went through we might as well adopt code names and start calling each other agents. Hannah suddenly called out my order number and I was forced to retreat from my thoughts and onto the task of retrieving my treat. I was glad that it was Hannah who usually took the shift when I arrived, she didn't know I was watching her because I'm not the usual 7th grader who isn't as perceptive as I am. I'm also not a stalker so don't you dare try to use that term on me because it will enrage me and then we will have a problem and it is rare for someone and me to have a problem because I am usually that quiet girl who sits at the back of the class and reads during lunch and is very nice but nobody notices because she never talks person.Hannah Is one of those quiet and nice people but she was also friendly and very talkative once you started a conversation with her, of course I was scared to approach her because of my social awkwardness and anxiety- she would definitely think I was a freak! But we always had that silent acknowledgment of respect for each other, I felt comfortable sharing things with her even if I never actually did. Of course I don't necessarily pride myself on being nice, heck if my older brother gave me the tiniest of snide remarks we would be throwing hands! Believe me, it has happened more than once that we had a very large fight that went on for weeks and then in the end we forgot what we were fighting about in the first place and started yelling at each other for random things that happened about a year ago!These days the only thing I ever asked him for help with is  what teachers to go to for help and what teachers to avoid and general 7th grade advice because he is a 9th grader- I can't wait for him to go to college. I know it's quite a while away but still he never helped me tone down my anxiety cuz he's loud and crazy and popular and has a lot of friends and I'm quiet and shy and I don't like crowds and I read in spare time while he plays soccer during his spare time.And another thing,  he actually bothers to do his assignments even though as crazy as it might sound- or maybe it sounds crazy to me because I've known him for my whole entire life and I do not see how he fits time into his schedule to do all his assignments! I guess to some degree I am jealous of him because he's got it all figured out and I'm still here trying to understand whose friend whose phone and who actually wants to talk to me and who wants to stay away. I pull up my next assignment and almost have a mini heart attack- we have 10 pages do you tomorrow of an essay about a bizarre middle school experience. We've been here for less than 2 weeks and they expect us to have some crazy story prepared by tomorrow- I mean come on do you seriously want me to have only- I  absent-mindedly glanced at the due date- 4 days to have something bizarre happen to us?!Isn't that a bad thing? Usually things that are bizarre  happen to you in the middle of the year or something and I don't even have to swim the first half of the year! How am I supposed to come up with something so bizarre!?No don't get me wrong I do love challenges I love a good stem challenge when there is one but this is not a stem challenge this isn't one of those make a castle that can hold 2 minutes of an earthquake out of popsicle sticks challenge this is an impossible challenge and I don't say that too often because I am a S.T.E.M  perseverer!  I don't know what I'll do but I'll have to figure something out soon because I have never had a lead assignment the max was when I had  6 hours of  volleyball practice in one night and I came home really late and I was  drowsy and I still had to take a shower and prepare for the next day and I totally forgot about a small amount of assignment we had to do. but the next day I was able to get my act together early in the morning and do it so there is no way something will happen to me in the first few hours of the day tomorrow!  I had to breathe in and out again and smell my drink as I rushed out the door- nothing was going to happen to me at Starbucks obviously. and even if it did I can't relate it to school!

My Bizarre moment:

By : Lilliana Strohstoll - please call me Lily

Authors note:

The following events are completely and utterly true-I swear it

As I was ready to walk out of the school - on my own per usual, a girl suddenly bumped into me causing me to drop  my school bag and the contents spilled Out. I could tell that she hadn't been paying attention where she was going and she had done it purely on accident- but the incident still made me fume. of course I never told her anything because that would have been utterly and completely destroying my social status and everybody would think of me as the Raging girl from then on and I did not want that to happen so I held my tongue, but just barely. “ Oops, sorry”  she said absent-mindedly and continued walking down the hall laughing hysterically with her friends about something that definitely was not me because they were staring at their cell phones- cell phones were definitely not something I was a big fan of but at the same time my school bag had just spilled all over the school floor, and the buses were definitely not going to wait for one girl who was almost never noticed! “Excuse me,” I said, recognizing a girl from my bus, “Could you tell Mrs.Jana that I’m on my way?” I was hoping for some sort of response on her part- instead she just grumbled rolled her eyes and said “ the bus will never leave without you”  and left me there with all of my books and pencils on the 7th grade hallway floor.  I sighed and started to pick them up, if what she had said was true I had no reason to worry and I would make it out in time. But I still should exercise some kind of caution because if this was not true I would definitely have some issues.The girl who had bumped into me earlier was taking selfies with her friends a whole way down and the girl who had told me that the bus would never leave without me had just joined them. I quickly picked up my belongings and rushed out the door. They did along with me but I tried to keep my distance from them because who knew what they were talking about- one second it could be their boyfriends and the next day could be me!The bus doors were closing. I could see all of them starting to get ready to leave. I started panicking and the familiar feeling of anxiety rushed through me. I had to hurry because there was no way I was missing the bus On the way home! I mean was that even heard of!? Apparently the girl who had been previously on my bus had transferred to a bus closer to her house which happened to be with her friends- including the girl who bumped into me.Their bus was the first one in line but my bus was last and since it was closest to the exit- my bus left first but it was farthest away from the Middle School. As I started running- not a common feat for the likes of me- the bus doors were closing, all of the bus drivers' glances either disapproving or neglecting. I started to panic  even more, my social anxiety started to bubble up higher and even though I started practicing the breathing exercises I had done previously with my therapist it was of no use, the tears came before I realized what was happening. Hanging on to the last strand of hope that the bus would circle back for me I kept running to the spot I could see the look of pure pity on other kids faces as my skinny legs carried me all the way to the other side of the parking lot into the high school. The buses were all gone, there was no one to hear my sharp in-take of breath as I sat down on the pavement and started to ball my eyes out, I knew that none of the buses were circling back- they probably hadn't even seen me and even if they did they didn't care. The girl who had decided to so unkindly knock into me and slow me down had also made me miss the bus and now I didn't know what to do, she might as well be laughing at me with the girl who had assured me that none of the buses would leave without me, easy for them to say with their bus literally the first one in line. As I thought these bitter thoughts I decided that I wasn't not going to give up. I was not going to spend the night at school and I was definitely not going to let some popular girl and her friend knock me down and make me cry on the side of the road like some helpless little 6-year-old. I stood up and stopped crying through shaky breaths somehow I managed to contain my anxiety to the level where I could talk normally. I saw a teacher fixing a van at the high school and jogged over to him. “ What's up?” He asked me, looking at my tear streaked face. “I'm on bus 28,  and they left without me and I don't know what to do and I-” before I knew it I was cut off by another fit of tears. “Oh okay hun, you need to go back to the middle school and call home, then your parents will pick you up.” I was relieved that there was some sort of solution to this whole madness, but that solution involved me trying to get into the middle school when it was locked from the outside. Luckily  when I finally returned back a teacher was leaving and she held the door for me so I was able to make it into the building. By this point I was fully calmed down and I could speak clearly to the lady at the front desk and tell her my situation. She told me to call my family and tell them to pick me up, which I did and even though my mom was furious at the girls and the bus driver for not stopping she came and she got me home from school. I was late for my piano lesson but I had avoided a disaster and not have had to sleep at the middle school. This is a bizarre thing that happened to me in the first two weeks of the school year.