I Never Stopped | ongoing

Chapter 1 | First Day of School

・❥・

7 years later

I'm going to throw up. I'm literally going to throw up and everyone's going to see and make fun of me. People are going to record it and someone is going to push me into my big pile of throw up and then I'm going to throw up even more. The video is going to spread throughout the whole school and I'll be the laughing stock on campus forever—

Okay! I need to stop. I'm not actually going to throw up, I just like being dramatic and making things a bigger deal than they actually are. The truth is, I'm just nervous. Like really nervous. It's my first day of junior year today and I'm kind of freaking out over here if you couldn't tell. I don't know why I'm freaking out because I literally do this every year, but... I just am. That's just me. I don't know if you can call it anxiety but I get really anxious and then I start to overthink things that will most likely never happen. I have a mini freak out party and then I'm okay... sort of.

I'm standing outside of my homeroom class right now and it's very awkward. Random people are just standing around doing god knows what on their phones. I don't know if other people do this but when I'm in an awkward situation, like walking in the halls or standing by myself, I hide behind my phone. Not literally but figuratively. I just turn on my phone to the home screen and look at it like it's the most interesting thing in the world. It really comes in handy in situations like these.

"Okay everyone," my homeroom teacher says with a clap of her hands, "Please come in and take a seat anywhere that you'd like."

I'm one of the first people to enter the classroom and I automatically pick a seat at the very back of the class. It's always been like a natural reaction for me to pick a seat at the back of any classroom. I'm just the most comfortable there and it makes me feel less exposed.

My homeroom teacher walks to the front of the class and introduces herself, "Hello everyone, my name is Ms. Jay and I will be your homeroom teacher this year. I'm going to pass a seating chart around and all of you are going to write your names on it. These will be your seats until I decide otherwise."

She hands the seating chart to one of the students in the first row and then continues to talk. "I will now be handing out your revised schedules for the rest of this semester. If you want to make any changes or have any questions, you can speak with your counselors."

I continue to mind my own business, just looking around the classroom and surveying my classmates, when Ms. Jay calls my name.

"Sage."

"Here," I answer in a quiet voice.

She walks over to me and hands me my schedule. I look it over and then snap a quick picture of it to my best friends Peyton and Margot. They respond after a few minutes, and I sigh in relief when Peyton tells me that we have English class together and Margot says that we have P.E. together.