First Grade Blues

She stared at the red, uneven bricks that bordered the building. In her small innocent eyes, the building was enormous and scary. She cautiously stepped onto the deep green grass that grew wildly around the building, each blade turning in a separate direction, as if trying to escape the latter.
Her worn brown faded sandals made a rustling sound as she approached the humongous blue metal doors that welcomed each child into the large school. She had walked through these doors countless times without and hesitation, but for some reason today seemed different, the mood more unsettling than before, when she had last came through them, as she left for summer vacation. Her mother waved her goodbye from the car, and forcing a small smile, she waved back. She felt a lump in her throat as she opened the large blue doors, and stepped into the hall. There were many kids there already, some older and some younger, but nobody she knew.

Suddenly she heard a familiar voice, "Hey Anya." She turned her head abruptly in delight and saw her friend Trevor.

"Hey," She smiled aat him, revealing her front tooth missing.

"We'd better get to the gym or we'll be late," He reached out his small chubby hand, took her by the wrist, and walked her to the gym. He was wearing corduoroy overall shorts, revealing a big dinosaur band-aid on his knee.

"What happened?" Anya pointed at his knee with a sense of curiousity shiny in her big blue eyes.

"I fell off my bike yesterday. I cried a little, but my mommy said I was real brave."

As they entered the noise-filled gym, she saw hundreds of kids of different ages sitting on the cold floor talking, laughing, and fooling around. She followed Trevor and sat down with her other classmates.

Suddenly the principal, Ms Nelson, stood at the podium, and tapped at the microphone. She was a rather tall woman with graying hair and small eyes hidden beneath thick rimmed glasses. All of the childrem slowly quieted down as she began to speak.
"Children. We have begun yet another brand new year at our school. I am positive it will be well-spent for everyone, with a multitude of extra-curricular activities, and you will all put a lot of hard work in your studies. I promised that there are many wonderful surprises planned, but you'll have to wait for all of that until our assembly next week. Right now we wil assign each of you to your teachers. Each teacher will call out the students in her class. Remember to listen carefully and as soon as each of you hear your name, go and line up next to your new teacher. Now first we will start with the Junior Kindergarden class of Mrs. Cherryll."

Anya patiently watched as each child walked up and lined up next to Mrs. Cherryll. They were all at least two years younger than she was, which made her feel really grown-up and mature. Afterwards they began to called on the proceeding J.K. classes, and then finally the Senior Kindergarden teacher, Ms. O'Neill, who was also the nicest teacher in the world. Anya patiently waited while Ms. O'Neill called out the preceding letters of the alphabet. Then she drew her breath as Ms. O'Neill began to call the people with last names beginning with 'R'. Suddenly a gasp left Anya's throat, as she realized that Ms. O'Neill hadn't called her name! She skipped her!

Maybe she just forgot and was going to say it at the end. Old ladies were like that. Anya sat at the edge of her seat waiting anxiously, but Ms. O'Neill finished without a moment of hesitation and walked out of the gym with her class. Then the next teacher Ms. Ross was called on. Anya bit her lip, as tears sprung in her eyes. How could they have made such a huge mistake? Where was she supposed to go now?
What was she going to do?

Suddenly Ms. Ross called her name, "Anya Rogal." Anya made wide eyes. She couldn't believe her ears. Had Ms. Ross just called her name? Impossible! But she wasn't her teacher! Anya shook her head in disbelief. Grownups! they couldn't do ANYTHING right!

Seeing that no one had come up. Ms. Ross proceeded to the next student's name on her list. Oddly enough, most of the kids that were being called up and standing in line after Ms.Ross were in fact in Cassie's kindergarden class from last year. Could it be that she was supposed to be there too? When they called up the last kid's name on the list, Cassie panicked and ran up to Mrs. Ross.

"Uhh...I think I'm supposed to be here too." She shyly said to the tall blond woman. The teacher had a warm smile and gorgeous blue eyes. She crouched down next to Anya's small thin figure and pointed her finger at the neatly typed out list.

"Do you see your name here, sweetie?" She asked her in a soft tone lightly touching her arm. Anya scanned the list with her finger. There it was neatly typed between Jack O'Connor and Emily Skarpeta: Anya Rogal.

"That"s me." She pointed to her name, her eyes worried.

"Then I guess you're in this class." Ms. Ross lead her to the end of the line up.

Anya shrugged, still not understanding why this was happening. She assumed she'd have to deal with this somehow. She followed the other kids upstairs, entering a colourful carpeted room full of interesting books, toys, and posters. She sat at a desk with a big rectangle shaped sticker that read "Anya Rogal".

There was a boy beside her with dark blond curly hair. In effort to be nice, she smiled at him. "Hi, what's your name?"

Oddly enough he didn't evenreact and kept staring in front. She frowned, but once again, she smiled and repeated "Hello, What's your name?"

Once again, there was no reaction. At that point she had an idea. Maybe he just didn't know any english. She poked at his shoulder and said "Hello", except this time in clear Polish, her native language.

He looked at her and smiled back, "Hello." he responded in Polish.

"What's your name?', She asked.

"Mateusz." He responded. And so they began to talk. A year ago, she had been in the same situation. Understanding very little English, she had trouble learning and understanding everything. She knew very well what he felt like.

The next few days went by like a flash. The class read stories, learned adding , and many other things. Anya acted as if everything was normal, but on the fifth day she got impatient, turned around and said to the girl behing her. "Listen, this class is fun and all, and Ms. Ross is SUPER nice, but when the heck do we go back downstairs to the kindergarden room, and see Ms. O'Neill. I'm getting kinda mad."

The girl stared at her with wide eyes. "But...but we're not coming back. We graduated from Kindergarden already. Now we're in Grade 1, and Ms. Ross is our new teacher." Seeing Anya's shock she explained , "It's like a batch of cookies. They're baked until they're done and then have to leave the oven. At least that's what my mommy said."

Anya's mouth hung open." And this happens EVERY year?!"

The girl rolled her eyes. " YES! Of Course. Where were you born, the moon?"

Anya sighed. "Holy Moly, just when I got usaed to going to kindergarden, I get traded in for a new batch of cookies."