First day of school take three. I got all my clothes on and jumped into the backseat of my dads car. We were silent the whole time until I got there. I was about to open the door, Dad said to me “ Be careful Paul.” I looked at him and he was giving me a faint smile. I smiled big back at him and opened the door. I said “ I love you, dad”. I got out of the car and took a deep breathe. I knew that it this was going to be a very, very, interesting year.

I walked up the front steps of St. Anthony’s, pushing past people. Surprisingly people didn’t notice me, and didn’t pay any attention to me either. I walked into the main hall where all the kids either go upstairs down stairs or go straight. I walked into the main office and gave the secretary my first and last name. She studied me for a brief few seconds, then walked into another room, and signaled me to come along. I walked into the separate room and it looked like the president's office. It was huge and all white. There was 10 pictures of other nuns that must have ran the school. The secretary waved me over to come sit in front of the headmaster nuns desk. I looked up at the nun for the first time. I thought I would see a mean, old, tall, fat, ugly woman glaring down at me. But no. It was a young woman, maybe her late forties. She was pretty. And she was medium height, but a little plump. She smiled at me sweetly and said

“ Welcome Paul Fisher. How was your first impression of the school so far?”

“ Well, everything is so big and beautiful. Much different from my old school.” A shot of pain came to me from even thinking about Tangerine. I missed the my soccer team and Joey. I guess I’m just afraid that people wouldn’t want to be my friends, after what happened. The nun looked at me with cheerful eyes.

“My name is Sister Emelie. And this is Sister Katherine.” She swiftly laid a hand out to the secretary who led me in. I nodded at both of them.

“ Sister Kat will show you around the school today and a few of your classes.”

“ Do you have a soccer team?” I blurted out.

She looked at me strangely and cleared her throat.

“ Yes we do. But only for eighth grade and ninth grade.”

I looked down at my hands and nodded politely. Sister Katherine led me around the school and showed me a few classrooms that where empty, that I will be taking my, “main courses” she called them. After that we just wandered around the school until it was time to leave. I walked out the school doors with every other student. Pretending like I was another fish in their sea. I walked out into the front lawn and saw where mom was parked I jogged over to the car and opened the door and jumped into the car. Mom leaned over and kissed my forehead, which was surprising because she never did that before.

“ How was your first day Paul?”

“ Good, actually.”

“ That's great.”

We sat there for a few moments just sitting in the silence until my mom put the car in drive.

We drove the whole way home in silence. I just sat at the window of the car staring at the muck fires and the tangerine trees and groves. Daydreaming of what other people's lives must be like. How they feel sometimes when other people say some things and when other people say other things. And how life must be easy for some people, but not so much for others.