BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Sam reluctantly wakes up to the sound of his alarm. He couldn’t believe it was finally the first day of school. Sam hurried up and quickly put on a red polo shirt and beige pants. Whenever he felt excited, he wouldn’t eat much. He forced himself to spread some nutella on a slice of white bread and gulped down a glass of milk. A few minutes later, he’s ready for school. “Come on Sindi, we’re going to be late for school!” he yelled loudly, in case his sister couldn’t hear him. After getting ready, which seemed to take an hour, he grabbed his backpack and headed towards the door.

He jumped in the yellow taxi his family called, his sister next to him. Starting to overthink again, his thoughts overwhelmed him. He started feeling tense, but the slow music of the radio calmed him down. Sam looked outside the taxi’s window and saw a large building, full of windows and doors. It had two entrances both guarded by gates. He had arrived at school. They both stepped outside. The air was humid; the sky gray, and lacking clouds. They slowly walked towards a large brown door; their shoes scratching along the concrete.

They pushed the door open, and then hurried up the stairs. They led themselves into a large room filled with balls and basketball hoops on both sides of the room. Instead of seeing students their age, it was full of little kids curiously looking up at them. Embarrassed, they quickly hurried upstairs, and slowly walked into wide a room filled with students their age, it smelled like food, probably because it was the cafeteria. Sindi, Sam’s older sister, sat next to some girls her age, while Sam looked around and found an empty table to sit in.

Two tall men, probably teachers, were giving a speech. “We’re going to have a small competition between middle school.” One of them said into the microphone. Sam started getting tense all over again. Oh no, what if I do something wrong? I’ll ruin everything! “Hi, my name’s Kristian.” Someone’s voice interrupts his thoughts. Sam looks up and sees a boy his age.

“I’m Sam, nice to meet you,” he replies.

“We were thinking of you to represent our class, since you’re new and all.” Kristian suggested.

Sam hesitates, “Sure.”
“Every class will have one representative. The game is called “Pop the balloon”. You have to sit on a balloon and every balloon you pop, you get one point.” I can do that, Sam thinks to himself. The teachers get the game ready while Sam tries to comfort himself. I can do this, I can do this, he repeats to himself.  

“One.. Two.. Three! Pop the balloons!” Sam sits on a balloon, pops it. It’s not so hard after all, he thinks to himself. He sits on another one, POP! Before he could even sit for the third one, RRRRIP! He feels a rip somewhere. He feels his shirt, then his pants, until he feels a hole in them. Everyone starts to laugh, mocking him. “What are you all laughing at? That’s so unskinny of you.” A girl about his age steps up. The laughter dies. Everyone gets back to their classes while Sam searches his backpack for new pants. After he gets changed, his classmates introduce themselves to him and try comforting him.

At that moment, Sam realizes that he shouldn’t have been nervous. Even the worst that happened didn’t end up too bad for him. At the end of the day, it could have ended up with no one standing up for him, but instead, his classmates were there for him, and he felt like a part of them.