~Junior High School Days - Part 1 - Sixth into Seventh Grade

My School

Fall always brought on excitement and anxiety for me. Beginning a new school year was traumatic, to say the least. My mom always made sure I had some new clothes to start out the year. It didn't matter what I had, it never compared to what everyone else had.

My school was a very prestigious "college preparatory" school. It was K-12, so basically you were with the same kids from kindergarten until you graduated high school. The school was located in a pricey suburb. The families that lived there had money. There was one area of that particular suburb that was a little less desirable. It was located across the railroad tracks. Naturally, the kids that lived over there were thought of differently. The friends that I had lived over there. I didn't live in the pricey suburb at all, but in another town. I got "the priviledge" of going to that particular school because my father was a teacher there.

I can remember starting 7th grade. The night before the first day of school, it was warm in my bedroom, and I couldn't sleep. I had my window open, but no air was coming in. I had my clock radio on, and Heart's Barracuda was playing. I was filled with dread about the next day. The only catastrophic thing that happened on that first day of school, was that I broke out in one hive, on my face. ONE HIVE and I thought it was the end of the world. I wanted to go home.

There really was only one reason that I looked forward to school at all that year. It was a boy. This boy was someone that I had had no prior interest in in elementary school....until the end of sixth grade. Someone was having a boy-girl party, and everyone was pairing up to go. "The Boy" that sat in front of me turned around and said "Will you go to the party with me?" I can remember being ecstatic. You must know that I had not had any interaction with boys up until this point. Sure, I had crushes....on John Travolta, Andy Gibb...not people that I associated with on a daily basis. We did not end up going to the party together. He got a concussion the day of the party, so I went with my girlfriends. From that day forward, I developed a huge crush on "The Boy" that would last into our senior year!

There is a painful memory from that party that I will never forget. A game of spin the bottle was started. When the more popular girls were chosen to be the ones kissed, the boys who got to kiss them had big smiles on their faces and hi-fived each other. I got chosen to be the one kissed. I got up out of the circle and walked to the chair. I remember a few boys running out of the room. The boys that the bottle landed on were horrified at the thought of having to kiss me. They did all kiss me, but wiped their mouths and spit after they did so. What was wrong with me? I tried to act like I didn't care, but of course I did.

Right after that party, school ended for the year, and my family and I made our annual trek to West Virginia. That summer was pretty special; we got to watch my granny's cat give birth. It was also the summer that my cousin Dawn and I became best friends.