The first day of school is rough. There's a lot of classes, you have to remember where to go, you have to remember the teachers' names, you have to fill out a ton of papers about yourself, and there are tons of crowds that swallow you whole. I hate the last one.

I weaved through the crowd. Everyone was chatting with their friends and talking about what they did over the summer. Some people traveled to different places and had parties. Others preferred to stay home and play video games all day. Everyone's break sounded better than my summer vacation. It wasn't even a vacation! I babysat the entire time!

My cousin was out of school at the time. My aunt wanted to put him in summer camp again, but he didn't want to go. So I babysat him while his mom was at work. At first, I thought it would be easy. Taking care of a seven year old that plays video games all day didn't sound too hard.

It was harder than hard. It was a struggle. I had to threaten him to get him to eat! He could play all day and not eat anything other than chips. That's all he does. Play and snack. Maybe he'll watch videos on his Ipad for a little while. But when his Ipad dies, he'll go right back to playing video games. It's like a pattern. Play, snack, watch. He's also a very picky eater. I tried feeding him a hamburger patty with cheese on it. He didn't take a single bite out of it because of how it looked.

"It doesn't look good. It tastes nasty," he would say.

"You didn't even taste it! It's a burger Josh! You love burgers!" I would say back.

"Not this type. It's a square. Not a circle,"

"Does it matter?" I would ask him. Of course I knew what the answer was going to be.

"Yes!" He would yell. The only reason why he doesn't like it because it doesn't look like a patty from McDonald's. That's the only type of burger patty he'll eat. Without the bread of course.

A security guard divided us all into sections by our grade level.

"Ninth and tenth grade this way!" The security guard yelled pointing to his right side.

"Juniors and seniors this way!" He yelled pointing to his left. Everyone got into the right sections. I tried to find anyone that I knew from my other school which was right next door to us. I couldn't find anyone though.

The bell rang. Everyone headed into the school. I followed my group into the ninth grade hallway. Or the freshman hallway as they like to call it. There were three teachers waiting for us there. Each of them had a basket full of locks with their combinations on them. We got into three lines, and took turns picking a lock. It would've been easy if everyone didn't take so long trying to pick the locks with the easiest combination. When it was finally my turn, most of the lockers had already been taken. Mostly because people were saving them for their friends.

"This one's taken. Sorry," one person said as walked to a locker beside them. One that was currently not in use. But I didn't say anything. I just simply nodded and went to the next available locker which was at the very end of the hallway. Wish I had a friend that saved a locker for me, I thought.

I opened it and saw the reason why no one picked the last row of lockers. The lockers were dusty, dirty, and looked like they hadn't been cleaned since last year. It also cobwebs which means that there might be a spider in one of these lockers. I sighed. The locker kind of reminds me of me. Lonely and left out. I was just going to have to deal with it though.

Another unlucky person opened the locker next to mine. She cringed when she saw what was inside of it.

"Seriously? They didn't have the effort to clean the rest of the lockers!" She exclaimed. She shook her head and looked at my locker.

"Is yours the same?" She asked. I nodded. "Dust, dirt, and cobwebs," I said. She nodded as well. I began putting my stuff away. The only thing I needed was my binder.

"I'm Maria by the way," she said. And here comes the 'meeting people process' as I like to call it. It's basically when someone runs into you and tells you their name or something. My dad came up with ways for me to respond since, according to him, I don't know how to carry out a conversation.

"I'm Raven," I said. Maria smiled. "Cool name," She said. Okay so far so good.

"What class do you have for first period?" She asked.

"Math," I said sadly. I don't like math at all. It's confusing and frustrating. Although if I practice the concept more, I can get better.

"Me too! Mr. Drake right?" She asked.

"Yeah him," I said. I actually forgot his name. All I know is that it started with a D.

"Great! We can walk to his class together!" Maria said. I just nodded and followed her to our first class. Mostly because I didn't even know where to go.

"So, how was your summer break?" Maria asked. I shrugged. "It was alright. How was yours?" I asked.

"It was totally awesome! We went to Abu Dhabi for the summer. It was so cool! We rode on camels and went sand surfing. Although one of the camels ate part of my mom's shirt and spat it out. It must've thought she was a plant or something. She was wearing a green shirt," Maria said.

"That sucks. Was your mom okay?" I asked.

"No. She yelled at the camel. That didn't make anything better of course. The camels got frightened because mom was yelling so loud! They ran off and accidentally covered her with sand. She wasn't happy at all. Neither was the handler. He had to run after them. When he finally rounded them up, he asked for ten dirhams extra. Mom got into an argument with the handler. It wasn't easy for her to understand him though since he was speaking mostly in Arabic," Maria said.

"Wow," I said.

"I know. The handler did warn us that the camels sometimes ate people's clothing before he let us ride them. He said ride at your own risk," she said.

"Your mom's shirt was at risk," I said. Maria laughed.

"Yeah, it was," she said.
That went better than I thought it would. Maybe this year won't be so bad after all.

Or so I thought.