Degrees of Genius

Where the Wild Things Are (Hint: It's Middle School)

Kathleen~

The very first thing I hear on the very first day of eighth grade is someone yelling the f-bomb. Loudly. In front of the principal. Not that he did anything about it.

But, hey, it is middle school. Where everyone either thinks they're gangster or thinks they're the perfect child sent directly to earth from heaven via Amazon express shipping or something. When in reality they are the Satan spawn the book of Revelations warned about.

Not that I would actually say that to anyone. I just enjoy making snarky comments in my head where no one can hear them. Maybe I should be a politician. Wait, no, I'm not a very good liar.

The first day of school is boring, as always. Blah blah, my name's Kathleen, blah blah, here's the tornado shelter, blah blah, I'll be your social studies teacher, blah.

Lunch is the only relief I have from the endless flood of syllabuses that need to be signed by tomorrow.

I brought my lunch simply to avoid wasting money on cardboard with cheese. Thanks Michelle Obama. I am forever in your debt. But, could you bring back chicken patties?

After having absolutely no friends in any of my classes, it's nice to see the familiar face of my fellow ginger looking for a seat in the crowded cafeteria.

"Hey, Ellie!" I wave my hand in the air, successfully catching her attention and she makes her way over to me.

"Hey!" She sits down in the seat beside me, gently setting down her book like it was a child. I glance at the cover. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. Obviously. It was one of her favorites. She would literally pull Park Sheridan out of that book and spend every waking second with him if she could.

I was about to ask the stereotypical 'How was your summer?' question when I hear a familiar voice break through the cafeteria chatter.

"-hail the glow cloud."

I look to where the sound is coming from to see a kid in our grade aggressively plugging in headphones.

I look at Ellie, and grin. She heard it too. I stand up.

Ellie grabs my arm, "Kathleen no."

"Kathleen yes," I respond before looking back at the guy with the headphones. "Bro! Are you listening to Night Vale?!"

He glances over at me and nods. I hear Ellie groan.

I look at Ellie, "Ellie, shhh, I'm making a friend." I look back at the guy a few seats down, "I love Night Vale!"

I hear a soft, "Why me?" from Ellie but I ignore it.

"Do you wanna be friends?!" I half yell at the guy. He shrugs, picks up his stuff and moves to the seats across from Ellie and I.

"You're in band, right?" Ellie asks him as he sits down.

"Yeah. Trumpets. My name's Clayton by the way. You play clarinet, right?"

That's when I zoned out. I heard the occasional band pun or complaint about how the flutes couldn't get their crap together, but mostly, I took to reading the flyers on the table.

The first one had 'Falcon Football' written across the top in big letters. Hahahaha. Nope.

The second one was about basketball, both girls and boys. Sports was never really my thing but I've played rec basketball for a few years now. I wasn't very good though.

The last one was the one that really caught my eye, however. It had a cartoon brain on the top. The page was entitled 'Scholar Bowl'. I don't recall our school having a scholar bowl team last year. I read on. The flyer said it was new this year because enough schools in the area had signed up, so we'd have someone to play. That explains it.

Try-outs were next Tuesday and Wednesday after school. Room 273. By the looks of it, the coach was Mrs Davis, my math teacher from last year.

I turn, showing the flyer to Ellie and interrupting her sentence about the utter annoyance that reeds are. "Hey, we should try out together."

She takes the flyer from me, reading it over. She grins, "Finally a school activity that isn't revolved around sports and athletics." She passes the flyer to Clayton.

We all decide to try out on Tuesday together and with that, the bell rang.

>•<

"Do you think teachers are aware that most of us know each other already?" I whisper to Mia, the girl who sits next to me in Language Arts, as we sits down after a class period of get to know you activities. I swear if I have to share that my favorite color is purple one more time, I will kill a man.

We had about ten minutes left and since it was only the first day, our teacher decided to just let us talk or read.

She shrugs, "Beats actually doing work." The very first thing she does when we sit is pull out a pencil and start doodling. I just put my head down and watch, knowing that trying to continue a conversation while she was drawing would just bug her.

After awhile, I recognize the shape she was drawing. "A fan of Steven Universe, eh?" I raise an eyebrow. I didn't know much about the show, I just recognized it from various memes scattered across the Internet.

Mia's head snapped over, a semi-evil grin spread on her face. I was genuinely terrified. I decided to change the subject before she decided to go on a rant and/our break out in the theme song. "So, have you heard about the academic team that they started this year?"

Her facial expression immediately went back to sane and she shook her head, "Our school has an academic team now?"

"Yup."

A few awkward beats of silence passed since neither of knew what to talk about. Thankfully, the bell rang, releasing the tidal wave of twelve, thirteen and fourteen year old kids into the hallways.

Glancing down at my schedule, I gulped and took off towards the worst hell this school had to offer.

The gym.