Peace. Calmness. Tranquility.

It's the first day of middle school. New school, new kids, new community.

All the middle schoolers rush onto the bus, or into their cars, to get to school on time.

Andrea was one of the "New Kids". She was nervous about going into the Seventh grade. Especially in a new school with new kids, teachers, and homework.

Andrea hops into her car, with her mom driving. She shakes and twitches, thinking about the community of kids.

Are they going to be mean?

What are they like?

How are they going to react to me?

Who am I going to meet?

Where am I going to be at the end?

These questions bounce through her brain, multiplying with every new question.

What am I going to do?

How am I going to react?!

How are the other kids going to react?!

Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god.

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

The car rumbles as it drives over the crumbling roads. The other car's motors sounds, bang through the car. Andrea holds her head between her knees silently whimpering, as the car suddenly comes to a stop.

"Andrea? Get out of the car! You're going to be late!" Her mother says, rushing her out.

"Bye Mama!"

"See you after school!"

Andrea walks up the steps. The cars and kids around distract her. She frantically looks around. Andrea focuses, takes a deep breath, and walks through the gate, to her classroom.

"Welcome. sit down and we'll start in a few minutes." the teacher says, as he sees Andrea walk in. She sees Mrs. Patterson written on the whiteboard.

The kids are mumbling, laughing, yelling, and moving around. Andrea's head cannot handle the loud noise.

She goes to her seat, sits down, and rests her head on her knees. Putting her hands on her neck, the bell goes off.

The ringing twangs through her ears. She stiffens up. Andrea's ears hurt from the bell.

All the kid's seat screech on the floor, as they sit down at their tables. The teacher says, "Hello everyone! Welcome."

As silence fills the room, Andrea relaxes. She drops her hands from her neck and looks up.

"My name is Mr. Patterson. You may call me whatever. I am only a sub for today. My wife is out today. She will be here tomorrow." Mr. Patterson sighs. He looks straight at Andrea. "We have a new student in the class! Andrea S. Portman, come."

Her breath becomes sharp, as she walks up to the teacher, all eyes on her.

"H-hi. I'm And-"

"Stut-t-tering A-and-rea." a girl smirks. the whole class laughs.

The laughing booms through her ears, chairs squeaking, clapping hands on backs.

Andrea's eyes widen, she plugs her ears and runs back to her seat, crying. She puts on her noise-canceling headphones and plays music.

The class looks at her. The music calmed her, She looks up at the teacher.

The teacher looks at her, wide-eyed.

Andrea closes her eyes.

The beat, the melody. Her hand follows the music and her classmates whisper.

But she doesn't hear.

One hand turns to both.

A hand gets put on her shoulder. Her eyes open, and its the teacher.

Andrea takes off her headphones.

"Take your headphones off NOW."

Andrea complies.

She twitches through the whole class. and through her other classes.

The ending bell.

Andrea walks out of class and the building, nervously twitching. Her mom picks her up. She nervously sits in the car, twitching all the way home. Once they get home, Andrea's mom said, "Honey? Let's go for a walk."

She leads Andrea outside and into the car again. "Do you want to go on a hike?"

Andrea shakes her head.

"Alright. the forest it is."

They pull up to a hiking trail.

"I didn't want to go on a hike."

"Well now you gotta. C'mon honey."

She drags her up the mountain. They're both tired, sweating. Andrea takes a seat on a nearby rock.

"Why are we even here?"

her mom walks a little more up, and opens her stance. she closes her eyes, and takes in the afternoon sun.

"This."

Andrea walks up to the scene.

The mountain range opens like a volcano, plants flow down each of the mountains, looking like a flower field, the sun at the end, the cool breeze.

The trees greet them with a smile, and the damp smell of the earth, the flowing water from a stream nearby, and the soft moss on the rocks.

Andrea sits down and soaks it all in. Her mom plays Andrea's music.

Andrea gets up and says, "Care to join me?" Her mother nods.

The music starts. Piano, soft voices, violin, cello, and oboe greet them with a melody.

They dance with the trees, the ground, the air, and the mountains.

"Why don't you star in the Talent Show?"

"Reason one: people, Reason two: all eyes on me, Reason three: I get nervous."

"We all get nervous."

Silence fills the empty space. the leaves rustling all around.

They walk down the mountain, almost dancing. They waltz to the car and drive home.

At school the next day, a different teacher walks in.

"Hello everyone! I'm Mrs. Patterson. My husband is a little loud, forgive him." she says, walking to her desk. "We're going to have a fun day."

The kids start whispering, some talking. The squeaking chairs, the people, the teacher, it all overwhelms Andrea. She puts on her headphones.

Anchor, by Novo Amor, greets her ears with a dip of a hat.

Her hand flows with the music.

Both hands flow.

a hand taps her shoulder. Andrea flinches and looks at who it is. Mrs. Patterson.

"Would you like to blast the music without the headphones? We'll all listen to music while we learn. We can make space for you in the back so you can dance."

Andrea looks around her.

She looks back at Mrs. Patterson.

And nods.

The kids move their chairs to make space for Andrea to dance. She connects the music to a speaker and blasts the music. Andrea starts to dance.

The melody, the voice, the sounds, the guitar, the light cymbals; everything. she dances like the leaves rustling in the wind, like the flower blooming, like the wind tossing itself through the plants.

Mrs. Patterson ends early. The kids move their chairs silently.

Andrea looks at them.

"Care t-to join me?"

They all come around her and listen.

"Follow the music. The beat, the words, the melody. Don't shake; flow. Flow like the rushing river. flow like the air through the trees."

The kids dance. The teacher dances too.

The bell rings. "Alright, class. Time to get to your other ones. Each morning we'll start by having a 5-minute dance time to wake us up. and we'll keep the music playing in the background, but Andrea can keep on dancing."

Andrea felt ready for her next class.

The final bell rings throughout the whole school. Andrea comes home, happy and content. Dancing all the way home. people looking at the girl. Dancing on the sidewalk home.

"Let's take a walk"