Clyde Goes to School. A Short Story, Part One.

 

Clyde was all ready for his first day of school. He had a new backpack, cool new sneakers, and a brand-new blue shirt. His mom had combed his hair and he was all set to get on the bus and see what school would be like.

“Have a wonderful day, Clyde!” his mother said. “Thanks, Mom, I will!” exclaimed Clyde.

The bus was big and very noisy, filled with children yelling, laughing, and squealing when friends reunited after the summer break.

Clyde sat next to a little boy in a red shirt who was very quiet. “Hi,” said Clyde to the boy. “Hi,” the boy said back. Then they rode to school together quietly, listening to the noise around them.

The bus driver was named Mr. Ramsey and he was nice. He smiled at all the kids, wishing them a good first day as they exited the bus to go into the school. Clyde was nervous and excited about his day. He found his cubby, hung up his backpack, and then found his seat with a place card that had his name on it. He saw the boy in the red shirt sitting in the front row.

The room was bright and sunny. One side of the room had a long row of windows, and the other wall had a giant board on it with decorations, including the names of each student in big, bright letters. Clyde decided this school was nice and he was going to like it.

His teacher was very tall with dark hair and a big smile. She introduced herself as Ms. Smith and she welcomed everybody. She had a new pencil for every student, and she walked around to each desk giving out the pencils as she talked about school rules.

Clyde liked his new yellow pencil, but it seemed to him that there were an awful lot of rules in this school. He knew that he was going to do everything he could to follow them, but he also knew it was going to take some work. Especially raising his hand to ask to use the restroom. That was going to take some getting used to.

The morning was fun. They sang a song about being happy, Clyde knew and loved that song! They talked about the letters of the alphabet and Clyde was proud that he already knew every letter. He wanted to tell the teacher he could say the alphabet backward, mostly, but he decided to be quiet.

Before Clyde knew it, the teacher said it was lunchtime. The students who brought their lunches from home had to walk row by row quietly to their backpacks to grab them, including Clyde. “Shush-shush!” the teacher reminded them. Clyde was one of the students who listened and was quiet. A lot of the other kids kept talking.

Clyde saw that the teacher did not like when students wouldn’t listen. She did not yell, but he watched her carefully looking at which kids did the most talking. Clyde knew he did not want her to look at him that way so he knew he would do his best to follow the rules.

At lunch, they all sat at long tables. The lunchroom was very loud, and some kids stood in line to get their lunches. Clyde’s mom packed him a cheese sandwich with tomatoes, a pickle, and a juice box. It was his absolute favorite lunch. He sat between a little girl in a puffy sweatshirt and a boy who kept making burping noises. Clyde talked to Anya, the little girl, but he did not want to talk to the kid who kept burping. Clyde was pretty sure that there were rules about not burping at lunch, and he did not want to get into any trouble by being part of it.

After lunch was recess! All the children lined up with the teacher again saying, “Shush-shush!” as they exited the building out to the playground. A bunch of the kids did not listen to her, running to the playground and yelling. Clyde saw the teacher watching them like she did when they talked while lining up in the classroom, so he worked extra hard to listen.

Clyde was not sure who to play with. He stood by the swings, but they were all already filled. One boy, Louis, got into trouble for standing on the swing. Clyde did not remember that being a rule, but he thought it must be one.

Clyde went to the basketball net where some kids were playing. As the children threw the ball at one another, one kid looked at Clyde and yelled, “Wanna play?” “No,” said Clyde, “I am watching.” Clyde was glad to be asked to play, he was too shy to join in the game.

Before he knew it, the teacher was calling everyone to line up again. Schools, it seems, is a place where they like lining up, thought Clyde. They returned to the classroom and now the teacher was going to talk about numbers.

Clyde was happy to be in school. It was loud and some kids never listened, but he thought his teacher was nice. He felt proud he knew his letters, numbers, and even some of the songs.

Maybe school was going to be fun after all.