I walk into this big, brick building for the first time. It feels as if the building is looming over me. As I walk in, I see many rooms and many doors in the entrance. Lost of people are walking beside me and everywhere. It feels big and old, used for many years.

“Bye, Ellie!” My mom calls back to me as she waved and leaves me to explore the big building to find my room.

“This way, this way, please!” Someone—maybe they work here, points to an open doorway to a big room.

I step in and the moment I do, I hear a lot of talking—the amount where you would even wonder if we’re humans. But then again, we’re students.

“Hey! Are you new?” A girl who looks at least a year older than me, with a red backpack, patterned with stripes,zigzags, and various strange shapes on it, looks at me and asks.

“Oh. Yeah, how’d you know?” I’m pretty sure that It’s not that obvious, or maybe it is??

“Oh! Well...I noticed you didn’t go to your grade levels line. You also had that name tag thing for people who it’s their first time here.”

“Oh”, I guess it is just that obvious.

“Yeah, I’ve been homeschooled before but decided to start going to the actual school.” I answer again.

“Oh, cool! I can show you your classroom, if you’d like?” She asks me in response.

“Sure” this building was pretty much having an ominous vibe to it, or at least to me.

A woman that I assumed was a teacher squinted her eyes our way.

“Amanda, what are you doing near the exit? They’re in the middle of taking attendance, so please stay seated at your grade levels line.”

Huh. I hadn’t noticed we had already gotten near the exit.

“Ah.” Then the girl beside me, ‘Amanda’ as the teacher called her, raised her voice to a normal level. “Sure, Ms. Zenin.” Then Amanda lowered her voice a bit. “Ahh...schools kinda boring though, you’ll eventually see. Sure, recess is fun but the learning isn’t. Most teachers are nice but, I’d rather just skip school and learn by myself—and only learning things like soccer or writing, and I’d choose the times I’d learn or don’t learn. It’d feel cool to be free and chose anything in my opinion, what would you do if you changed school?” Amanda asks me, looking at me with a face full of curiosity.

“Umm...hmm.” I think for a moment then answer. “I don’t know..” I mutter, not wanting her to catch that last part I said.

But she did, of course.

“Oh” is all she said for a moment, her eyes with a neutral and thoughtful expression for a small moment.

“Well, all in all....we’re late for our classes!

Let’s. Go!” She said, running through the door and in the direction of whatever was her class.

We might get in trouble for running in the halls, or we might not, since there’s no teachers around right now. But...right now, it feels awesome and I hope Amanda will be my friend. The rush of the breeze as we run sweeps by us, it feels so exhilarating. I think, grinning at my thoughts, as I run in the halls after my

I-think-friend.