It's loud with the sound of chattering amongst the children. And the swinging bags hitting others as the person carrying them pushes past startles me. The air is humid and my hair if not for it being up, would have stuck to the back of my neck. There are tight circles of kids as they stand with their friends looking inside the circle so they can see each other faces and making a wall with their backs so no one can intrude. It’s like each person has a group, a collection of kids, and although each person in the circle is an individual they are all one. I stand alone in between the walls that two circles have made. I look at the ground and then at the faces of the kids that I can see through the shoulders of others standing in circles. The bell rings.
Everyone starts to shuffle inside, so I do the same. We walk through the doors and split in two. The right hallway takes some children to another split which leads to their teachers, the left split takes the other half of us to the cafeteria to eat breakfast at school. I walk down the left hallway with the girl who sat with me on the bus to school. She had asked me what grade I was in on the bus and replied shyly that I was in the fourth grade. We sit down together and eat.
I finish my breakfast and head down the right hallway to my teacher's room. The bell rings to let everyone know that it's time to get in our seats. Each student walks around the room looking at every desk until they find the paper paw print that has their name on it. Then we all sit in our clearly assigned seats. As we pull out our chairs I only hear one or two squeaks. then I realized that all the chairs, with the exception of a few, tennis balls better cut open to allow each foot of the chair to be placed inside silencing the chair as it glides across the floor.The teacher walks in and talks to us for a little while. Then we play a game and color. Before we know it, it's time for lunch. We grab our lunch or lunch money and get in line. Each 4th-grade class has its own single file line, with the teacher acting as the line leader
Once we get to lunch I look around not knowing where to sit. I see eight pretty girls sitting around a table all with lunch from home. Then I see two tables of boys with perfect hair, brand new Nikes, and bagged lunches. Next I see a table with two boys and three girls, they all have lunch that they bought at school. Before I have time to look at any more tables, Cymphoni (the girl I sat with on the bus) grabbed my arm and lead me to where she sits there are three open seats, two for us and one extra. I sit next to Symphony, a girl with short brown hair, she seems nice but very loud. I sit and eat the lunch that I brought. I eat in silence but I laugh a few times when someone said a joke. Then we have recess on the playground the same people who sat together at lunch played together. I did the same.
All week everything is the same except I now have my own  group to stand in a circle with, my back has become a brick to the wall that separated each group.  We all stand together, eat together, and play together. I learned on my first day that, although we are all one, we are all separate.