Dec's Misery

The Lying Starts

Thankfully, none of the bullies were in Dec's homeroom, so Dec was able to relax a little and enjoy the beginning of the school day. He was very happy with his homeroom teacher, Mrs. Smith. She had also taught two of his older siblings as well. She was one of the teachers his siblings had liked a lot and Dec could see why after only a short period of time. 

Mrs. Smith was a very cheerful and friendly person. She introduced herself and asked the students to write a short paragraph describing themselves and their plans for college and their lives after high school. Some of the students groaned at hearing the assignment, but they were quickly silenced by a look from Mrs. Smith. Dec didn't mind the assignment, as it seemed interesting. Once everyone finished writing their paragraphs, Mrs. Smith collected them and dismissed the students with a warm smile and a cheerful goodbye. 

Dec quickly gathered his notebook and pencils, put them in his bag, and left the classroom. He only had five minutes to put his stuff in his locker and go to his next class, which was a little walk from his locker, and he didn't want to be late to his class on his first day. He got to his locker, exchanged his homeroom materials for his materials for the next class, which was English, and headed to his next class. 

Unfortunately for Dec, James was in his English class. Even worse was that the teacher for English was known to be a very strict teacher and didn't take any nonsense from anyone. His siblings had warned him about this teacher, Mr. Brown, and he had hoped that he would not get him for English. 

Mr. Brown was notorious for being very strict and demanding. He also assigned a lot of homework and expected it to get done no matter what was going on in your life. Dec sat down in a seat that was open near the front of the classroom and waited for the class to start. Everyone around him was chatting with their friends, but Dec was too shy to talk to anyone he didn't know. Luckily for Dec, James was sitting in the back, so he couldn't bother Dec during class. 

All of a sudden, Mr. Brown whistled really loudly, and all the students became silent and faced the teacher. Mr. Brown introduced himself and told the students to open the textbook to a certain page, getting into the instruction right away. Due to a mix-up with his textbooks, Dec didn't have the right one and raised his hand to tell the teacher. 

When he told Mr. Brown that he didn't have the textbook, he said, "Why don't you have your textbook? Are you in elementary school? You're in high school now! You should come prepared to class!" 

Dec lowered his head in shame as the rest of the class laughed at him and how he got scolded on the first day by the teacher. Dec felt his eyes water and quickly tried to blink the tears away before someone noticed and made fun of him. 

"Class, be quiet! Declan, I will let you share with the person sitting next to you today, but tomorrow, if you come to class without your textbook again, you will get detention, am I clear?" Mr. Brown said. 

"Yes, sir. I am sorry, sir," Dec said quietly and turned to the person next to him. She introduced herself to Dec as Sharon and let Dec share her textbook with him. Thankfully, the rest of the class passed by uneventfully, and it was over before Dec knew it. As the bell rang, Mr. Brown let all the students know what the homework would be and dismissed them. The first half of the classes passed by without any other incident, and soon it was time for lunch. At lunch, Dec quickly got his food from the lunch lady and sat down at a table all the way in the corner of the cafeteria. As he sat and ate, Dec felt really lonely and wished Ant and his other friends were with him. Nobody came to sit next to Dec and he quietly ate his lunch alone, feeling sorry for himself. He was thankful when lunch ended and it was time for the next class. 

The first day of classes was over soon, and Dec found himself quite exhausted from putting on a cheerful smile all day. He felt really sad all day, but for the sake of his teachers, pretended he was happy. He was thankful, though, that Mr. Brown was the only strict teacher he had. All the rest of his teachers were really nice, from what he could see, and he didn't expect to have any problems in any of the other classes. However, James and his friends hadn't made his first day easy for him, as they took whatever opportunity they got to poke fun at Dec, call him names, and push him around or trip him "on accident." 

By the time the day was over, Dec was sure he had a couple of bruises on his  body because of the actions of the bullies. He was definitely glad that the day was over, and he was looking forward to spending a bit of time with Ant. Dec went to his locker and got whatever he needed to complete the homework given today, and left the school. Ant's mom was going to pick him up from school, as Dec's mom was still at work and Dec's family lived next door to Ant's family anyways. When Dec got outside, he saw Ant and his mom already waiting, and he quickly got in the car, as he didn't like to keep people waiting for him. As he got in the back, Ant turned around in his seat and greeted Dec with a huge grin on his face.

"Hiya, Decs! How was your first day?" 

Dec couldn't help but smile, seeing Ant's big smile. "Hey Ant! Hi Mrs. McPartlin! It was fine. No trouble at all!" Dec lied, not wanting to bother Ant with his problems. He could handle himself and didn't need Ant around all the time to protect him. 

"Do you want to hang out and maybe grab a bite to eat?" Dec asked, really wanting to spend some time with Ant to get his mind off of James and his friends. 

Ant grinned and said, "Food is always on your mind, isn't it? You sure love to eat!"

Dec smiled sheepishly and shrugged, "What can I say? Food is my number one love!"

Then, Ant's grin faded, and with a troubled look on his face, said, "As much as that sounds like fun, we won't be able to hang out today. I'm so sorry, Dec! I promised Sarah that I would spend some time with her, as it was her first day at middle school and she was dead nervous this morning. We can hang out tomorrow, though, for sure!" 

Dec faked a smile for Ant's sake and said, "Sure, of course,  no problem! See you tomorrow then!" They had reached home and Dec waved goodbye to the McPartlins as he walked over to his house. He let himself in with his key and walked in, calling out a hello, hoping one of his siblings would be home. Unfortunately, the house was empty, and he felt a little sad and lonely. He dropped his bag near the front door and went to the kitchen to make himself a snack to eat. 

He made himself a sandwich and decided to start on his homework. 

Just as he was finishing up his homework, he heard the front door open, and a voice call out, "Anyone home?"

"In here!" he yelled out from his room. His brother, Martin, walked into Dec's room and sat down on his bed and asked his brother, "How was school today?" 

Dec mumbled a "fine" as he concentrated on his homework. He didn't want to look up at Martin and risk him finding out that he was lying. He wished he could tell someone how his day actually went, but he knew that Martin would make a big deal out of it, and he was sure he would be able to handle it soon. 

"What would you like for dinner? It's my turn to cook today," said Martin.

At the sound of that, Dec perked up and said, "Ooh, can you make that chicken and potatoes dish you make that tastes amazing?" 

Martin laughed and said, "Of course I can! Boy, you love eating, don't you? I've never seen you this excited for anything other than more food!" Martin left the room to start dinner. 

Dec decided to read a book until his parents came home, and it was time for dinner. At dinnertime, his parents asked him the same question that Martin and Ant had asked, and he gave them the same reply, pretending that the first day of school was actually fun. 

After dinner and dessert, he sat in the living room for a while with his parents and siblings, and they watched a little movie. Around 9, he yawned and told his family that he was exhausted and wanted to go to sleep early today. His family bid him goodnight and he went off to bed. As he lay in bed, he thought about his first day, and his eyes started watering. Dec was very sensitive, but he tended to keep his tears to himself when he was alone. He had only cried in front of his family a couple of times, and those times were when he found out his grandparents had passed away. Dec wiped his eyes and told himself to stop being a crybaby. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep, with thoughts and fears of his bullies and his future in the school running through his head. Dec finally fell asleep after about an hour of thinking and hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.