But I'm only

In the outskirts

and in the fringes

On the edge

and off the avenue

And if you want me

You can find me

Left of center

["Left of Center" - Suzanne Vega]

Today was the first day of school and I've already fallen asleep in class. Twice. At least Deja was behind me to wake me up.

When I got to school, I ended up just sitting on the top row in the bleachers, next to the guys. All of the people I hung out with in seventh grade sat on the bottom row, but it was way too crowded. I hate feeling suffocated. (That's right, Rhianne, go ahead and make up lame excuses for your anti-socialness.) Looking around, I could already tell there weren't many people I got along with left. At least A'Jae is there now, though. She was a friend from Selma Street. (She was at the 2008 SET / Chess Tournament. I mostly hung out with her and Ashley because the only other person I knew was Caleb, and he and I don't talk much.)

I hate that I have the same homeroom as last year, but there are some new people in there. Jeremiah was in my homeroom this year (okay, he's not new at all, but his last name starts with 'S', so it was unusual; is it weird that I'm still not used to some guys in my class having the beginnings of beards / mustaches?) and so was Chance, Levi's neighbor. I didn't get an opportunity to say hi to him, though. It was a bit of a hectic day.

My first period was Reading. I'm not sure if I really like the teacher or not yet. To be honest, I forgot half of what she said. Lauren was in my class, and so was A'Jae, and I think Braxton was, too. (He dyed his hair black to cover up the blue. I expected it.)

And then there was Science, with the new teacher. I got assigned a new girl as a partner; I think her name is Alyssa or something. She's a Joe Jonas fangirl. Gah. I glanced over at her and she had a binder covered in Joe Jonas photos and scribbles like "Future Mrs. Jonas<3" align="center">

I think we went to Break then. I just stood around talking to Mark and Lauren and comparing schedules. I only have one class with Angela and one with Mark, but almost all of them with Lauren. When Angela said she had all her classes with Helen, then told me that she and I had different PE periods, I realized that I have PE with Kalyn. (Helen has Guitar. Guitar and Piano have the same teacher, and are therefore different class periods. Kalyn has Piano. Yes, I really do make these connections in my mind for no reason.)

Oh, gosh. Third period I had Social Studies. Everyone I had talked to beforehand was not kidding when they said Mrs. Peacock was obsessed with cows. Oh my God, there had to be over a hundred cow items in her classroom. I couldn't look anywhere without seeing black and white spots. I didn't even bother trying to correct her when she called me Amanda; no one else who I knew went by their middle names corrected her, either. We were all too intimidated. x.x She messed up the seating, so half the class had to scoot up a seat or two so that I would have a desk. It really sucks having the last name 'Williamson' sometimes. She doesn't seem too bad, but I'm not going to try to test that. She scares me a bit. I have Angela and Mayra and Helen in that class, but they're all on the other side of the room because their last names are at the beginning of the alphabet. Oh, and A'Jae. Noticing a trend?

Then, I think, I had English. I liked that class. It was hilarious. Mrs. Jordan, instead of just simply calling roll, asked us to each stand up in order and state our name and what we felt like eating at the moment. It was unusual, which made it awesome. This may be the first year I actually like English. Lauren and A'Jae were in it. Go figure.

The last academic class I had was Math. God, I kept falling asleep while she talked. I really do need to get more sleep. I don't want to wake up with kids giggling and telling me I just dozed off in the first week of school. Um, I don't think anything really interesting happened that period. Oh, wait, lunch. I had lunch. Well, actually, I didn't have it. I wasn't hungry, so I just set it off to the side and let Deja and Brandon (the Brandon who has the thick Southern accent who played my wife when we were reading out loud from A Christmas Carol in Reading last year; I was Bob Cratchett) have it. Then I struck up conversation with Arianna, a new girl. At least I'm not going to be the only person teased and called Rihanna this year, but it sort of bugs me a bit that everytime someone says her name I look up. (Her name is pronounced Air-ee-anna, not Air-ee-ahna; so it sounds like my name, but with an 'A' on the front and the end.) She seems nice.

In Computer, we just sat in Mrs. Jordan's classroom (I have her for two periods, which is awesome) and did a crossword puzzle. I was the only person who had almost all of their blocks filled in. Lauren and Mark were in that class. It felt lonely without Angela there. I'm so used to seeing her, Lynette, and Feng in Computer, but Angela and Feng have different classes and Lynette went to the other middle school.

Nothing really significant happened in PE, except for Lauren telling me she was a bit freaked out by my tomboyishness and asking me to do something pretty with my hair. I didn't really know what to say. I wasn't insulted, just confused because it shouldn't bother her that much. It still doesn't make sense to me.

I never mentioned on here that I started talking to Kalyn, but I did; I actually get along with her pretty well. Go figure. We talked for five hours straight on the last night I was in Florida. Today we didn't really talk, though. She acted pretty shy around me. I guess it's probably because we don't ever hang out with each other and our only conversation was on Facebook.

It was an okay day. I'm really tired, though. (Oh, and Austin moved. Nearly forgot to mention it.)