Hope Springs

Monday morning had been stressful. Mom was rushing us all and Dad was making breakfast. Maria and May were hogging the bathroom because the two of them were brushing their teeth, and then May had to actually use the bathroom so I was stuck waiting outside of it. The twins had managed to cut my shower time in half and I managed a fifteen minute shower. I didn’t have time to curl my hair like I planned so I quickly had used my blow dryer and dried my hair as best as I could. I brushed my teeth and after having brushed my teeth I French braided my hair and adjusted the towel around my body slightly before I hurried into my room and changed into the outfit that I had selected for school.

I shimmied into my undergarments and quickly threw on a hunter green long sleeved shirt, a black sequined skirt, and black ankle boots. I applied a minimal amount of makeup and hurried out of my room and downstairs to where Mom had just set Maria and May down for breakfast.

“Oh thank God you’re ready,” Mom said, “Dad will take you to school. You don’t have time to eat with us.”

“I know,” I answered, grabbing my backpack which held nothing in it. Dad had apparently dropped off my school supplies yesterday after he had gotten off of work. “I’ll see you after I get done at the diner,” I kissed my Mom’s cheek and hurried outside to where Dad was sitting in our van.

I climbed into the front and as soon as I had buckled him he was driving. As we neared the high school nerves once again started to creep up on me and I wrapped my arms around my stomach. Dad glanced at me and sighed, causing me to look at him.

“What,” I asked, when I saw him glance at me again.

“You’re nervous,” He answered and I opened my mouth to lie but his look silenced me. “Trinity you will do fine. You don’t need to be nervous.”

“Yeah I know, Mom has constantly reminded me that I don’t need to be,” I muttered, “But I can’t help it.”

“I know.” His reply was short and then he added, “Trinity you need to relax. Didn’t you say that you had already made a friend?”

“Sort of, and I don’t even know if she goes here,” I gestured to the high school and sighed, realizing that I was just wasting time. If I didn’t hurry up he was probably going to be late. “I’ll work on calming down, but...I am just nervous.”

“You don’t need to be,” Dad smiled, “We’ve lived here for three years.”

“Yeah but for two of those years Mom homeschooled me,” I pointed out, “And this is only our third year of living here and my first year attending public high school.” I sighed, “Whatever. I’ll just deal with it I guess. I’ll see you after school then?”

“Yeah, because I have to take you to the diner.”

“Thank you Daddy,” I said before getting out of the van and making my way towards the entrance of the high school.

As I walked I thought about what Dad had said. He was right we had lived here for three years, so it wasn’t exactly like I was a new face but in those years that we had lived here I had kept to myself and preferred to go outside of the city to do things. I had been homeschooled, so I didn’t know anyone (aside from Hadley, but I wasn’t really sure if she went here) and I had never gone to a public school before so this was a whole new experience for me.

The first place I went to when I entered the school (which was crowded with kids) was the office. The receptionist had been kind and I was relieved. From what I had read usually the receptionists were mean or overly kind, but this receptionist was neither of those things. She was nice, but didn’t try to be overly nice. She handed me my schedule and explained that my locker was on the second floor and that most of my classes were on the second floor, except for two.

I thanked her and headed to the second floor. There was still about twenty minutes until class started and I needed to find my locker. I walked around the second floor searching for my locker and felt a sense of relief when I found it. I glanced at the combination that the receptionist had written down. 23, 4, 17. I yanked on the lock and smiled when it gave way. Normally I was pretty bad with locker combinations. I opened my locker and grabbed a magnet, sticking it and the paper with my locker combination on the inside of the door. I laid my bag down on the ground, unzipping it and grabbing my sketchbook. I put it on the top shelf of my locker and glanced at my schedule.

Period 1 - AP American History Rm. 212 8:00-9:45

Period 2 - Chemistry Rm. 220 9:50-10:35

Period 3 - Honors Algebra 2 Rm. 301 10:40-11:25

Period 4 - Psychology Rm. 205 11:30- 12:15

Period 5 - French 2 Rm. 312 12:20-1:05

Lunch Lunchroom 1:05-1:40

Period 6 - Honors American Lit. Rm. 222 1:45- 2:30

Period 7 - Yearbook Rm. 201 2:35-3:20

Only seven periods, I thought, That’s not bad. But it could pose a problem since it only leaves me with ten minutes to get to the diner. Maybe if I’m late I can just explain it to Claire and she’ll hopefully have a little grace. Shaking my head, I decided I would worry about the possibility of being late to the diner later. I hung my backpack on one of the hooks inside of the locker and grabbed my binder, notebook and pencil case and glanced down at my schedule again. Room 212. I shut my locker, leaving the lock inside and headed down the hallway trying to find my first class. I was so focused on looking at the room numbers that I wasn’t watching where I was going and I bumped into someone.

“I am so sorry,” I said at the same time that the person I had bumped into to.

I eyed the person, taking in their chunky grey heels, blue skinny jeans, white long sleeved shirt, grey cardigan, blonde hair, and black glasses.

“Hadley?” I asked and she looked up from her phone which was in her hand and a smile appeared on her face.

“Hi Trinity,” She said excitedly, “I didn’t know you went to school here.”

“Uh yeah, it’s my first year,” I offered lamely and Hadley furrowed her brows.

“I thought that you were sixteen though,” She sounded puzzled and I giggled.

“No, no, no. I’m not a freshman. I was homeschooled for freshman and sophomore year, so it’s my first year here.” I rushed to explain and Hadley nodded, glancing down at her phone and typing away before looking at me.

“So you are a junior,” Hadley murmured and I nodded. Her eyes lit up with excitement, “That’s great! I’m a junior too! Maybe we have a few classes together, let me see your schedule.” Without even waiting from a response from me she snatched my schedule out of my hands and examined it. After a few minutes she handed it back to me and gave me a small smile, “We have AP American History, Psychology, French 2, and Yearbook together.”

It honestly didn’t surprise me that Hadley participated in Yearbook. She just seemed the type. I smiled, “Well at least I won’t be completely alone in my classes.”

Hadley grinned, “Certainly not. I’ll see you in history, Trin.”

She waved and headed to her locker while I resumed trying to find Room 212. When I finally found it I found a sense of accomplishment and made a beeline for the room. When I got in the room I noticed that it had three bookshelves full of history books, and there were about forty or fifty desks in the room. I hesitantly walked further into the classroom and chose a desk closer to the back. As the time got closer to eight, more students began filing in. I didn’t know any of them and about one minute before class began Hadley walked in with two girls, giggling.

She glanced around the room before noticing me and waving. I waved back and the two girls that Hadley were with looked at me. I noticed that the two girls seemed to hold themselves the same way that Miranda and Sheri had, although they seemed to be a lot less cocky. Ad they were wearing a lot more clothes. They talked to the teacher at her desk for a few moments before striding towards me. Hadley plopped in the seat to my right, and one of the girls sat next to her and the other one sat next to me.

“Trinity this is Raven,” she indicated the dark haired girl sitting next to me, “And this is Rhea.” She motioned to the blonde sitting next to her.

“Quiet,” the teacher snapped and Hadley fell silent, her cheeks dusting a light pink. “We will start off my AP American History class with the syllabus. The syllabus will have the grading score on it, the supplies needed and the subjects that we will be covering. I trust that I do not need to include my classroom expectations as you are all old enough to know how to behave accordingly in class. Now Kerrie, please pass out the syllabus.”

The teacher, Ms. Anderson stepped up to the whiteboard and wrote in beautiful handwriting What We Know So Far. Raven nudged my arm and I grabbed the stack of papers from her, taking one for myself before passing it over to Hadley. I glanced down at the syllabus. The grading score wasn’t something I hadn’t seen before. The topics though, were things I hadn’t seen.

Semester 1

Colonization and Settlement (1585-1763)

American Revolution (1763-1783)

Articles of Confederation

Federalists vs. Antifederalists

Two party system

John Adams

Boston Massacre

“We will be spending an extensive time on these topics,” Ms. Anderson said, “When the second semester rolls around I will be handing out another syllabus. Now what do we know?” Hadley raised her hand. “Hadley?”

“We know that the British settled in America and we also know about the American Revolution which was where the colonies broke away from Britain to become their own nation. We also know of the French-Indian war which was between the French and the British, not the French and in the Indians. The Indians had actually allied with the French,” Hadley said before adding, “Um...later we have the signing of the Constitution and eventually we have the presidents such as George Washington. We have John Adams, the Boston Massacre and the expulsion of Indians from their native lands.”

“We won’t be getting to the Indians in this semester Hadley but thank you,” Ms. Anderson said, “But yes, the American Revolution. As always that is a topic that we have talked about before.”

Ms. Anderson continued to outline what we would talking about before saying that we would be beginning with the colonization and settlement of America tomorrow which was also when we would be picking up our books.

Okay, as first classes go it wasn’t terrible, I thought. Now let’s see how the remainder of my classes go.