Rough Start

As the sun rises in the morning, the sky is filled with pastel blues, reds, oranges, and purples. The image was almost picturesque, like a painting or a classic scene described in a novel. Rolling out of bed in the morning still groggy, I limp over to the crutches which were propped up against the wall. I can’t believe it, having to start my freshman year in highschool with my leg in a cast! This day was supposed to be perfect, but due to a calcium deficiency combined with a badly thought out decision, I am where I am. I mean… maybe going through with the dare to jump down a flight of stairs wasn’t the brightest idea, but what can I say. I wanted to prove that I am not the girl who everyone has to be careful around. Maybe, I could prove that I was the same as everyone else. That thinking just resulted in a broken leg. So for the next six weeks, I will be the person who limps around school. Forget a super cute outfit for my first day. The fact that I am on some pretty serious pain meds is leaving me groggy and honestly whatever shorts will fit over the cast, are the ones that I am wearing.

“Emily, are you awake?” My mom yells from down the hall.

“Yes mom!” I say moving to the door. I open it and head to my parents bedroom across the hall. As I pass the door to my dad’s office, I can hear the raised voices signaling he has started his morning calls. I peek in, blow him a kiss, and go to my Mom.

“Morning Mom!”

“Morning sweetie,” she says, giving me a hug and a kiss on the head. “What do you want for breakfast?”

“Oh um, I don’t know. I will go downstairs and see what we have”

“Okay, but I can make you something. You only have an hour before we have to leave. Will you have enough time to eat breakfast and then also make your lunch?” she asks.

“Yes Mom, don’t worry about it, I got it. I am going to get ready. Love you!”

“Okay, love you too Em”

I leave the room and head to the bathroom to get ready. I brush my still damp hair, having showered yesterday night and going to sleep with it wet. I wash my face and apply some much needed concealer. I am not one of the tall skinny girls with a perfect complexion. No, my blonde hair, brown eyes, and face riddled with acne, along with the fact that I just reached 5 feet at the age of 14, is definitely a contradiction to the perfect image my 10 year old self had of me starting highschool. After pulling on shorts, a shirt, and a hoodie, I go downstairs to make breakfast. After eating some scrambled eggs with some toast I start to make my lunch. Slapping together a ham and cheese sandwich, I am rushing to get everything done.

“You see!” says my mom coming down the stairs, “I told you, there is not enough time to do all you want to do in the morning”.

“I know, I know. It’s fine, I will do better tomorrow, I promise!”

“Listen Emily, It’s always the same story with you! Unprepared, unreliable! You are no longer a little kid. You are going to high school, so actually start acting like it!”

“Okay, I got it! I’m sorry” I say quickly.

“We have to leave now! I hope you remembered we have to pick up Natasha. We are going to be carpooling. No need for me to pick you up and drop you off every day at school when she lives so close.”

“Yeah, okay. Let’s go.” I pull on my converse, head down to the garage and get in the car trying to figure out a way to sit comfortably. Carpooling with Natasha. Oh how fun! Well, not really. We have known each other for a very long time, always going to the same school and let’s just say that we didn’t really get along. It’s not like I didn’t try, but I just don’t think that she liked me very much. Oh well, we will see how it goes. After getting in the car with my mom, we go pick her up. She lives like two minutes driving distance away. I text her to let her know we are here, and we wait in the car. After a minute she walks up and gets in.

“Hello Natasha!” Says my mom enthusiastically!

“Hello Mrs. Kowalski! Hey Emily.”

“Hey, how was your summer?” I ask nervously.

“Oh, it went okay, how was yours?”

“It was good,” I replied. The small talk continues, mainly carried by my mom but we arrive at school. Oh my! Is what I am thinking at this moment. The traffic for the drop off line is insane! There are so many cars and people. It takes us a good 15 minutes to get dropped off. I struggle a bit to get out of the car with my leg.

“Hey you okay?” Asks Natasha, “Do you need any help?”

“Oh um, thank you. Can you take my lunch for me?”

“Yeah of course!” She says and waits for me. I go with my crutches and she stays with me the whole time. We are actually getting along and having a decent conversation as we cross the street and head to the main entrance of the school. Maybe the animosity was just a childish thing. I feel weird, constantly watched by kids older, and much bigger than me. My palms begin to sweat, everyone is looking at me and the teachers keep stopping us and asking what happened to my leg. First day is definitely not going according to plan. What plan that may be? Well, the goal was to blend in and that is certainly not what is happening now. The five minute bell rings and we grab maps and split up. We don’t have any classes together. Okay, deep breaths I tell myself. First period Bio, here we come!