First Day

‘This is my worst nightmare…’ Kindle, a young, 10-year-old boy with light brown hair, brown eyes, and peach skin thought to himself. He was standing in front of his new school, but he had forgotten his backpack. He swore he brought it with him. ‘Maybe it’s still on the bus?’ he questioned nervously.

He knew he had to go into the building, but what was he supposed to write on or write with? He didn’t have any of his notebooks, pencils, calculator, ruler, anything. Hesitatingly, Kindle walked up to the door by himself.

‘Wait...am I late on top of it all? Where is everyone else?’ He noticed that there was no one outside. There was no teacher to make sure the kids got into the school safely, and no other children running around outside or making their way to the building. That was when he heard the bell ring. “Oh no! I am late!” he cried in panic. He forgot about his missing school bag and ran through the side door to the school.

Kindle strolled through the halls looking for his class, but he couldn’t remember which class he was supposed to be in right now. Since he didn’t have his bag, he didn’t have his schedule...or a map. He thought of going to the front office, but he didn’t know where it was. He was going to leave through the door he came in from and enter through the front of the school building, but he had wandered around for so long now that he couldn’t find it.

‘I guess I could just ask one of the teachers and explain what happened,’ Kindle thought nervously. His brown eyes rolled to look at one of the classroom doors and stared at it. It was a simple-looking, chocolate brown door with no window. That didn’t help the young boy. He couldn’t peek in to see if there was a class going on or not - if the door led to a classroom in the first place. Slowly he stepped up to the door and raised a fist. His knuckle was just inches away from knocking on the door, but his hand froze in place and began to shake. Kindle gulped loudly as his heart pounded in his small chest.

‘Calm down,’ he told himself. ‘Just knock on the door and ask the teacher for directions.’ Kindle breathed in deep and finally tapped his knuckle on the brown, smooth, glossy wood.

“Come in!” a woman’s voice sounded on the other side of the door. Kindle hoped that she would open the door and talk to him out in the hall, that way none of the kids would think he was stupid, but it looked like his good luck hadn’t kicked in yet.

He slowly opened the door all the way and met eyes with a ton of kids his age and the teacher. He paused, not able to ask his question as he saw that everyone looked at him with wide, shocked eyes. ‘W-why are they looking at me like that?’ he thought.

As he was opening his mouth to ask aloud why they were all staring at him when the kids burst out laughing, and some of them even fell out of their chairs. Kindle’s face started to feel warm, he didn’t understand why they were laughing.

“Young man, what are you wearing?” the teacher asked him. He looked at her confusedly. He should be wearing his favorite blue, dog t-shirt, and white shorts. There was nothing funny or wrong about that. His mom said so. He looked down to double-check that that was what he was wearing but froze when he saw that his clothes were not what they were supposed to be. Instead of his favorite t-shirt and shorts, he was wearing a pink-ballet shirt that had the words “Momma’s little princess’ written on it, and pink shorts with frills at the bottom.

Kindle’s face became so hot that he swore it was going to burst into flames. This was not what he chose to wear. He didn’t own clothes like this and he was an only child, so no little sister to pull a prank on him.

The kids in the class continued to laugh, much to Kindle’s embarrassment. He quickly tried to explain himself, but for some reason, his voice wouldn’t work, like the words were glued to the inside of his throat. Not able to handle the laughing anymore, Kindle ran away from the class.

Kindle found the cafeteria, but as he walked in there were more students than he wished to see. None of them took notice of him, which he was grateful for. He went to get something to eat, glad that his mom had already paid for his lunch. Before he got in line with the other students, he checked his clothes and saw that they were back to normal.

He waited to get his food, and when it came into view his eyes widened. Lunch wasn’t normal by any means. The lunch lady had a pot of something cooking on the stove. Kindle couldn’t identify what it was. He thought he saw cheese, tuna, pieces of chicken nuggets, greens, and...red peppers? There was a bunch of stuff mixed into the soup. 

‘Could I even call it soup?’ he wondered in disgust. All he knew was that whatever it was that the school was serving, it couldn’t be edible.

Kindle leaned in close to the student next to him and asked, “What is in that?”

“I’m not sure, but I know that there is peanut butter mixed in it because I saw the lunch lady add it in.” Kindle’s face turned green at the thought. He decided to not bother eating and left the line.

He finally found his class and sat down at his seat. He decided to sit in the back and wait for the teacher and the rest of the students to arrive. When they all got in and the bell rang: class started.

“Konnichiwa, kodomo-tachi!” Kindle’s vision became doubled. He had no idea what his teacher said. “Kyō wa sūgaku o manabimasu.”

‘What did he say?’ Kindle didn’t have any idea what was going on. He figured out that they were doing math, but his paper had strange symbols all over it. The only thing he could read was the numbers. ‘Is this asking me what five times eight is?’ he thought. Hesitatingly, Kindle wrote the answer for the question, praying that he got it right.

As he finished up the page for math, the class moved on to the next subject, but now the teacher wasn’t speaking at all. Now he was moving his hands and the students would do the same when the teacher pointed to them. Kindle realized that the teacher was asking questions and the students were answering in kind.

His nerves were twitching and he felt sweat roll down his face and back. He couldn’t do this. He wouldn’t be able to answer the teacher if he was called. He prayed he wasn’t, but no one answered his silent plea.

The teacher asked him a question, but he didn’t understand what it was. “I-I don’t know what you’re saying,” he told him, but the teacher just made a disapproving face and repeated his question. “I don’t understand what you’re asking me, sir… I don’t know what you’re even doing,” he said again. All the other kids looked at him like he wasn’t very smart and that he should know this already, but he didn’t. There was nothing that prepared him for something like this.

Kindle’s hearts began to pound faster and harder. The teacher started to write on a pink slip, and he remembered that this normally only happened when a student did something bad. It was handed to him and the teacher said something, but again he couldn’t understand it, but he had a feeling he knew what was said. He was being told to go to the principal's office.

“No! I don’t know what I did wrong! Why am I being punished?” The teacher began to look annoyed, and so grabbed him by the arm firmly and started to pull him away. “Stop! No! I did nothing wrong! Mom!”

“MOM!” Kindle shot up from his soaked sheets in a brightly lit room. He was breathing heavily with eyes wildly looking around. He saw sky blue walls with birds on them, a green carpet, and his grey dresser. ‘My room…?’ he thought in confusion.

His door opened to let him know someone was coming in. His eyes snapped over to see his mom entering the room.

“Kindle, are you okay sweetie?’ she asked warmly. Kindle finally processed what had happened, and he breathed out a huge sigh of relief. He told his mom about the nightmare he had and she sat on the edge of his bed while listening. Once he was finished, she pulled him into her arms. “It’s okay, son. It was just a nightmare. I know that going to a new school can be scary, but there is no need to worry. Momma will make sure that you don’t forget anything, and I’ll pack your lunches for you every day so you know what you’ll be eating, and all the teachers there speak English. I made sure of it. Now, why don’t you get a bath and change? I’ll have breakfast ready for you downstairs,” she said with a loving smile on her face that just made Kindle feel safe and that nothing could go wrong.

“Alright, mom.” He watched as she left the room and plopped back down on his bed with his arm placed over his eyes. ‘What an awful nightmare.’