Vaccinations: Prologue

Prologue

      I lazily pulled my eyes open. I did not want to go to school today. I mean, I don’t want to go to school any day; school was horrible, boring, and at least a dozen other unpleasant feelings that all combine into an indescribably unpleasant emotion. However, on this Monday in particular, I was not even in the mood to move a muscle. It was the first day of my seventh grade year, and -completely unlike my confident self- I was nervous. I did not want to have six different classes instead of sixth grade’s comfortable three. I did not want to have my homeroom teacher -Mr. Jade- only because there is a popular rumor that he has thrown a desk out the classroom window a couple years back in a fit of rage at one of his students. No thank you; I would like my desk on the floor, please.

      As for the rest of my teachers -I was fine. I knew most of them from my older brother’s passing through my school, but I didn’t know how they ran their class or how they acted towards anyone that was actually in their class. Great. I still somehow managed to stand up and stumble tiredly into the bathroom, and grab my hairbrush. While I was brushing my wavy brown hair -which was now messy from sleep-, my little brother, Tommy, skipped into the room next to me, hugging my leg. “Sissy! Sissy!” he squealed. “Yes?” I asked, failing to conceal my morning irritability in my voice. “First day of school! First day of school!” he cheered, my little sister, Libbee, joining in. “Yeah, yeah; go get ready,” I commanded, waving them away with my brush and continuing to brush my hair. “Fineeeee,” they both whined, turning on their heels and walking away.

      I sighed. Sure, I love the kids, but they were a handful. This was going to be a long year. And it had better be worth it –I’d gotten like three vaccinations just to get put in a class. And it hurt! I hate needles. A lot. So I’d better love seventh grade. Can you get like a refund or something if seventh grade wasn’t worth the shots?