7:00
“Me-li-ssa.”
“Wh-a-t,” she moaned. She dug herself face first into the covers. The covers smelled like lemonade, which she spilled yesterday afternoon. It was the most terrible, horrible, gross first day of school. Melissa is eight. Melissa is frightened because it is third grade, and third grade is a lot of work.
Her mom said, “Get out here! Your breakfast is ready, it’s your favorite breakfast — scrambled eggs and chocolate chip pancakes.”
As Melissa got out of bed, she got the idea that she should get under the bed. But her mom saw her and told her, “Haven’t I told you to not get under the bed? So now you are grounded for a day!”
Melissa stumbled to her dining room and crawled into her chair. Melissa ate her food as slow as a sloth. As she ate, the only thing she could think of was how terrible school would be. She felt like there were ants crawling up her leg. When she finished eating, she begged her mom to stay home, but she had to go to school. She asked before she brushed her teeth and got dressed so that she did not wear her uniform if she did not have to go to school.
“The only time you skip school is if you have a sort of disease,” said Isabel.
“Okay,” said Melissa, slinking out of her chair. “I hate life {zoe in Greek},” said Melissa.
“Stop cursing,” said Isabel.
“I’m not,” said Melissa.
“Oh yes you are,” said Isabel.
“No!” yelled Melissa.
“Yes too,” said Isabel.
Then Melissa walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Melissa was so unhappy that she brushed her teeth too long! Then Melissa stumbled to her room, so she could get dressed. Melissa did not like her school uniform because it’s the most unfit and uncomfortable thing Melissa had ever worn! The school uniform is a shirt, a dress shirt, and a sweater. But she had to wear it to go to school, and Melissa had to go to school. So, Melissa had to wear her school uniform. Melissa was so unhappy. Melissa started to get dressed.
“Why does it have to be me?” asked Melissa.
“Your life is not hard at all,” said Isabel.
“How do you know,” said Melissa.
Melissa was put into a stage of rage. “R-o-a-r!” screamed Melissa.
“What are you doing?” asked Isabel.
“Nothing,” said Melissa.
Melissa’s heart was pounding. She was as frustrated as a squirrel that had no food! Melissa just wanted to stay home. She did not know what school was going be like.
Melissa just went with what she had.
8:20
“It’s worse than I thought,” said Melissa. “I will not do school next year.”
The classroom was so tiny that Melissa could not stand it! The classroom also smelled like deodorant. But the desk pattern, that’s what did it, because Melissa hated checkers. Melissa got the idea to act sick and lay on her desk acting sick. This was hard. Too hard! Melissa could not do this for much longer.
“I hate this,” said Melissa. Melissa had to stop! “Ouh-hoo,” breathed Melissa.
9:07
“I hate math!” exclaimed Melissa. She had flunked the whole math class! Melissa had said, “2+2=22” and “1+1=11!” Melissa would never go to school ever again!
“Melissa,” her teacher would say.
“Oh g-d,” Melissa would say.
School was very hard for Melissa. Very hard.
9:45
It turned out Melissa could not write more than a half a page! Melissa had never written a book before! Why did I even go to school? Melissa would think.
10:20
Melissa did not know any history about her ancestors, and that is what she is learning about in social studies.
“What am I going to do?” Melissa would say. Melissa was so frustrated that she was the only one in the class who had no history about her ancestors. Melissa could not do any work for the whole rest of her unit, because her ancestors were from so long ago. Melissa’s social studies was bad for the whole unit, because she could not do any work about her ancestors, because she had no information about her ancestors. But worst of all, she was sad, not that she couldn’t do any social studies in the unit, but because she didn’t know anything about her family years ago.
10:58
Melissa was only level A, which was the lowest, lowest level for reading. Melissa did not want to read, because she was embarrassed that most of the time, she couldn’t even read the word “mistake.”
“What am I going to do about this?” exclaimed Melissa.
“Shut your mouth, and get to work,” said the teacher.
“What’s wrong with talking?” asked Melissa. Melissa was so unhappy.
11:48
Melissa was beat up at recess. She had a scar on the right side of her face. There was a bully named Tryler in third grade, who was the worst bully ever known in the school. That is why she had a scar on the right side of her face. Tryler beat Melissa up because Melissa had stolen his ball not knowing that it belonged to him. Tryler was so stealthy that he would never get caught doing anything bad unless he wanted to get caught.
Melissa felt like she had a bloody right cheek.
She felt like she was in The Walking Dead. Melissa was terrified to go back to school.
“Why does it always have to be me? What am I going to do?” asked Melissa.
4:44
“Worst day ever,” exclaimed Melissa. “It’s getting super late. I hate the world. The grade hates me. Everyone hates me! No one likes me, nothing likes me, the world hates me!”
She was in her room, sitting on her bed trying to get the juice stain out of her bed.
“That means I hate the world,” exclaimed Melissa. “I like no one.” Her goal was to have a successful year, and the first day was not a successful day. Melissa would have to stand up for herself next time she goes to recess. But Melissa had a fear of standing up for herself, because she thought that the bully would tell on her to the teacher.
Next morning…
Melissa woke up at 5:00 in the morning. She was as ready to go to school as she was to play a card game, and she loves card games. She felt excited to go to school, so she could stand up for herself. But it turned out they had to go on vacation that day because of work. So she could not stand up for herself against the bully.
Melissa did not like the location because it was boring, colder, and was bombed a long time ago and was rebuilt.
“Poop to hell,” exclaimed Melissa. “And pee to hell. It’s poopostris!” This was the worst day ever for Melissa. The worst!!!
Two weeks later…
“Worst vaykay ever,” exclaimed Melissa. Melissa wrote in her journal:
1/29/2010
Worst vacation in what I had been through. – Melissa Korik
Back at school…
Melissa was feeling as happy as a newborn baby turtle. She was feeling happy because now Melissa could stand up for herself. When she got to school, she said to the bully, “You’re not going to do any bullying today Mr. Bully.”
The bully growled at her. His face looked like he’d been running for two hours in the Olympics, but he just found out he was not even in the Olympics.
“Yes, I am,” said the bully.
Melissa said, “No, no, no, Mr. Bully.”
The bully sighed. “Okay,” said the bully. The bully does not have a lot of friends.
When Melissa got back to her desk, she whispered, “Success!”
Then it was math class. Melissa took out her math book, her dry erase board, and her marker. There was a problem. It was “___ + 10 = 187.” She doesn’t know how to solve that problem! It equals 177.
Finally…
It was recess. Melissa saw the bully walking up to her. She told him, “No bullying today,” and walked away with her arms crossed. But when she walked away, she let her arms go and felt great. So she went and grabbed a hula hoop. She can hula hoop seventy-five times in a row.
She…
Stood up
For
Herself!
Before she knew it, there was a big circle, three rows thick, cheering and screaming and clapping their hands before her.
Lesson:
Always stand up for yourself.