XOXO, Rachel Finch

six

The first day of school was, in one word, torture.

I chose to wear a red dress with white polkadots, one I had worn a thousand times back home. My car still hadn't arrived, but I wasn't planning on taking the bus if it was the last thing I did. I mean, seriously. Sitting next to a group of people that would one-hundred percent be staring at me the entire ride? I'll have to pass. Instead, my mom offered to take me to school, until my beauty of a Honda Accord made its way to Ohio.

"Rachel! You have two minutes before I leave!" My mom's voice echoed in the house to my room, and I took one last look in the mirror before patting down my hair and running to put my sandals on.

"One minute!" She says ten seconds later, and I practically glide down the stairs before missing a step and landing straight on my ass, the pain shooting through my body.

My mom runs over as I bring myself back up, her hand on her heart. "Are you okay!?" She was wearing a black business dress, towering over me with the minor heels she had on.

"Yeah, I just fell, no big deal," I respond, holding back the tears from the pain. It was too early to cry.

"You shouldn't have been in a hurry then!" She scolds, walking back to the kitchen as her shoes clack through the hall. Right.

Getting to school, my mom realized her car needed gas, and instead of dropping me off first she began to drive to the "nearest station". Except, she couldn't remember where the nearest station was. Once I caught on to this, I pulled out my phone for the GPS and gaped at the time. Ten minutes until first period, and I had no idea how far away the school was.

"We're fine, don't worry," my mom assured me.

In reality, we weren't fine. Well, I wasn't fine. I showed up to my first period classroom while my chemistry teacher was giving her "all about me" speech, and everyone was paying full attention to the girl who showed up late to the first day.

My chemistry teacher pressed her mouth into a fine line and stuck her hand out for my pass, which I had gotten from the office. The class is silent as I hand it to her, and as I turn to face them I realize the desks are set up into tables, which basically meant I would have to invite myself to someone's group.

As I walk towards the back, my teacher decides not to continue her speech until I've been seated, so the entirety of the class was focused solely on me. Great. I began to walk towards an empty table, passing by a girl who (and I kid you not) literally put her book bag on the seat next to her as I walked by.

Alright, well fuck you then.

I sit down at the empty table before my chem teacher's nasally voice begins again, this time telling me I needed to sit with other people in order to participate in the activity. So again, a silent class watched me grab my backpack and search for an empty seat. Eventually I sat next to three girls, all staring at my with curiosity until I made eye contact with them and they looked away.

As we began the activity and introduced ourselves, I learned that their names were Paisley, Samya, and Caitlyn, and they all were all sophomores taking honors chemistry. We had started a Would You Rather game, which was basic a get-to-know-your-peers-on-the-first-day 101. Thankfully, none of them widened their eyes when I told them my name, which gave me a lot of confidence for the rest of my day.

That confidence was lost third period, when I was dress coded.

This was done by my AP Psych teacher, who took one look at me and thought it was more important to come with me to the office than instruct his class on the first day. Now, here's the deal. My dress was apparently too "short" for school, and I needed to change into something from the lost and found. If my dress actually was too short, maybe I would follow those directions. Instead, the principal was brought into the office to officially decide if my dress followed school guidelines or not. When I was found innocent, my Psych teacher decided it was my shoes that didn't follow protocol, not my dress.