Into the Great Wide Open

Into the Great Wide Open: The First Day of High School
By: David Ptashnik 6th Hour
The darkness is shattered, and my eyes open. The loud chatter of my alarm clock fills my ears, so I roll over to check the time. 5:30 the clock reads. This is way too early to get up in the summer; it must be a school day. I slowly make my way up out of my bedroom and into the hall. I trudge on slowly through the hall as if I was waist deep in mud and I enter the bathroom. I am instantly blinded by the lights that are illuminated after I flip the switch. I hop sluggishly into the shower and let the warm water wake me from a tired haze. I now realize that there is no more summer fun to be had this year because school is officially back in session.
While I’m getting dressed the words of my mother from the previous day circle through my head,” Tomorrow it is back to reality. For the both of us”, she said “for the both of us” because my mother is an Algebra 2 and Geometry teacher at Franklin High School. After getting dressed I make my way downstairs to the kitchen to find something to fill me up for such a long day. I ravage through the pantry and see a box of Raisin Bran that looked rather tasty, so I decide that it will be the very “hardy” breakfast that will keep me going today.
After I am finished with my breakfast I hear my father yelling for me to come to the front hall. Once I get to the front hall, I find that he has called me so that he can take a picture of me and my little sister before the first day of school (which he has done every single year since Kindergarten). He quickly whips out his silver Cannon™ and tells me to pretend that I love my sister and smile for about fifteen seconds and then it will be over. After my picture has been taken, I realize that I still had some time to kill before I have to walk to the corner to get to the bus stop. With my last moments of freedom, I decided to sit down on a chair in my kitchen, listen to some calming Van Halen on my iPod, and just relax and ponder my thoughts.
The time soon came for me to leave for the bus stop and put an end to summer for good. It was still dark out when I left the house and as far as I’m concerned, it was still night. There were around five other students waiting to catch the bus at the same stop. I knew some of them, but some were complete strangers to me, even though we lived in the same subdivision.
When the bus finally came, its engine made my ears wake up and its blinding headlights did about the same thing for my eyes. I walked up the stairs on the bus and took a seat towards the back, put in my iPod and waited for the ride to be over. The bus ride seemed to drag on and on like sitting in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, only being highlighted by the sound of car engines, the bright glare of flashing stop lights, and the smell of waking up to early.
Finally, the bus pulled up into the Stevenson bus loop and came to a stop. The sound of friends seeing friends pounds on my eardrums as I make my way down the small aisle of the bus. I exit the bus and is greeted by a massive building staring me dead right in the face. As I walked up toward the double doors to enter the building I thought to myself… “Summer may be over, but I’ve got to face the truth. This is my home for the next four years, I think that I going to like it here”.