“Wake up! You’re going to be late for school!” my mom yelled, trying to wake me up for my first day at a new school, Vista Grande Elementary School. I was nervous and dreaded this day, because I spent the previous three years at John Baldwin Elementary School on the other end of town, with my best friends. Now I had to start all over again, like I did when I started first grade at Baldwin from Sycamore Valley Day Care. I was going to start my first day of school at Vista Grande with new teachers, new people and a whole new campus.
My mom received the call from the VG office telling my parents that I got into the alternative program, and I had about four days time to make up my mind to take the spot or let someone else go into the class, only couple weeks before school started. I argued with my parents for two days before making up my mind to transfer schools. My Auntie Jackie and Cousin Hay happened to be visiting those days too, and they said if I transferred to Vista Grande they would buy me candy and a cool new M&M folder. I decided to take the gifts and transfer schools, because my mom signed me up for the alternative program since kindergarten because every week there are two Spanish lessons, a better math program, and more advanced and individual lessons.
Traffic was backed up from the stop light to turn onto Diablo Road because of all the cars trying to turn into the driveway of VGES. When my mom walked me into Mrs. Littlejohn and Mrs. Maybeck’s fourth grade classroom, I was surprised to find so many people in my class. There were a total of 32 students in my class. I didn’t feel so alone for being the new student because the transition between third and fourth grade class adds ten more students into each class, from 20 students per class to 30-32 students a class. Six of us transferred from different schools while the other six kids transferred from other classes to be in the alternative program. My “tour guide” of the school was a girl named Zoey, she showed me all the classrooms we’d go to each week for our lessons.
“Hi, I’m Kelsey. Do you want to sit with my friends and I for lunch?” Kelsey P. asked me as she was putting her coat behind her seat on the second day of school.
“Uhm, sure…thanks.” I answered to Kelsey’s offer.
During lunch I met Kelsey’s friends, Chelsea and Sara. We instantly became friends and we shared each other’s thoughts about the new kids in our class. After a couple weeks of becoming friends with the three of them, Kelsey asked if Sara and Chelsea could talk to her alone for a second before going out to the playground/blacktop after eating. I walked ahead to the play structure and waited five minutes before they walked toward me. I could tell from far away that Chelsea and Sara were arguing with Kelsey because they turned all red and there were tears in Sara’s eyes. When I asked the three of them “What’s wrong?”
Kelsey replied, “You know what’s wrong. You’re trying to steal Sara and Chelsea from me so YOU can replace me and you three will become best friends! You know that at Baldwin the only reason you became friends with Sophia was because she’s popular, and you only want to be popular!”
“I never wanted to become friends with Sophia to become popular!” I shot back at Kelsey.
“Then why are you trying to pull me away from Sara and Chelsea?! You’re trying to steal my friends and you’re not admitting it. I was the one that became friends with you first, because no likes you!” Kelsey yelled at me.
“Since when did we say we’re replacing you, Kelsey? Why are you being so mean to Victoria?” Sara asked with tears in her eyes.
Tears were in my eyes now, rolling down my cheeks. I ran away and stood in line to go to class five minutes early. Finally, Sara and Chelsea walked towards me after yelling at Kelsey and told me, “Ignore her… We can tell the teacher and she’ll get in trouble, and we’re still your friends, we know that Kelsey was lying.”
After that fight with Kelsey, Mrs. Littlejohn made us stay in from P.E. one day because one of our mom’s called her and told her that Kelsey made one of the girls cry, because Kelsey was yelling at her. The call wasn’t from my mom, but from Chelsea…we think. We also learned that Kelsey had made every girl in the class cry, as well. We later “resolved” this problem by telling Kelsey not to be as aggressive and respect other’s feelings.
Transferring schools to Vista Grande in fourth grade made me more prepared for the transfer from Vista Grande to Charlotte Wood Middle School. Since majority of the fifth graders at Vista Grande go on to Los Cerros Middle School with their friends, I had to transfer back to my home school, Charlotte Wood. I had to make new friends all over again, because the friends I made at Baldwin have all gone separate ways, they either became popular and mean, prep or a girl that eats their feelings, and I happened to not fit in with any of those categories. At first, meeting new people was a big obstacle for me. And from that experience I have learned that there are mean people out there that will try to hurt you as much as they can, and there are very friendly people that will try to be friends with you. There are also some very quite people out there that want to be friends, and they’re just too quite to say a word. Sometimes, to make friends, you have to take chances and break out of your shell. Now, that I've overcome my obstacle of going to a new school and making new friends, I can handle whatever people might throw at me, like the infamous quote "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade". I now know that the friends I have met from elementary school, have become a big part of my life and I will never forget them.