“Andy,” My grandma exclaimed. I slowly opened my eyes. Slowly I came to my senses, I was in China with my grandparents. “Yes?” I answered.

“Your mom is calling you”

“But its the middle of the night.”
I take the phone anyway. “Hello mom?”

“I know this is sudden, but do you want to go to Faria instead of Lincoln for 4th grade?”
Not thinking, I answered with a sluggish yes.

“Great,” my mom replied, “Bye!”


A few months later, the day before school, I nervously sat at our dining table, in Cupertino, eating. I had a sinking feeling that I should have said no, but the way my mom had described it, with all the great education and one of my family friends there, it seemed like it wouldn’t be that bad. Silently I ate my dinner debating weather to happily accept going to Faria, or to run away crying. I did neither, I just sadly trudged to my bed after getting ready for school and tried to sleep.

The next day I went to Faria. I stood in front of the classrooms terrified by the amount of people I had never seen before. I stared in fear at all the kids lined up in rows. It seemed endless the amount of strangers looking at me, blinking and wondering where are they had seen me before. The bell rang and I walked into the classroom and sat down at my seat. Our teacher introduced me to the class. As I looked around nervously I realized I was the only new kid in the grade. I found a wall during recess and just sat in the shadows hoping that this lonely recess would end. Before it ended the family friend had brought a friend up to me, but I had never seen him before, so I turned away and left them. I sat down at another wall and waited for recess to end. After an eternity it ended. My other classes went by, but I didn’t pay much attention. I just hoped the day would end faster. Then came lunch. I sat at the same spot I sat at during recess. One person came up to me and said, “You got in trouble already?”

“What…?”

“Well this is where you get benched.”

“Ohhh…”
After that brief exchange I felt even more depressed. I quickly blazed through my other classes and walked home. My mom saw me walking home from school and met me by the door. “How did school go?” she asked.

“Fine”

“Ok…” My sister then got home and we played around and did what little homework we had. We then ate dinner with my sister dominating most of the talking this time. She talked about her teachers, her friends, and how much fun she had. It didn’t make me feel much better. My mom guessed that I didn’t have a fantastic day and came to my room. The only thing I remembered from the we had was, stop worrying about sticking out. That comment helped lift a little pressure of me. The next day during recess I tried to summon some courage to make some friends but in the end I just stayed at the wall I always sat at. The next few days went the same way. One day during lunch I decided to make myself some friends. I don’t know what motivated me, but I think it was just the loneliness the wall radiated.

“I’m stuck here anyway,” I thought.
Slowly I made my way up to a four square court. I recognized the person I sat next to.

“Hi”

“Do you want to play?” he replied.

“Sure, but can you tell me how to play?”
The players quickly explained to me how to play. Before I stepped into the court, the kid that sat next to me said, “He’s the new kid, treat him nicely.” I realized how nice he was to say that. It meant that there were people at school who cared about me. Unfortunately the bell rang before I could play. I sprinted to my last class thinking how maybe the school wasn’t that bad. The next day I felt like the school day wasn’t going to be that bad. After arriving back at the four square court I walked up to the first square. The server served. The ball shot out of the court as I whacked the ball, thinking it would land in. I quickly retrieved the ball and stood back in the line. Five more games passed, all with me getting out the moment I set foot in the court. Even though I didn’t do too well I felt good because I was doing something with someone. I played foursquare and talked to different people like we met years ago.

So after a while of me sitting around I pulled myself together and made some friends. Today I have even more friends because I went to two elementary schools. By the time I went to fifth grade I felt that Faria wasn’t bad at all, maybe even better than my old school.