It's a Wednesday morning, and it’s Cassie's first day of her senior year. She’s getting ready with music blasting in her room while she sits on her bedroom floor, singing “The Chair" by George Strait, applying her makeup, and hoping for the best final first day of high school.
“Cassie!”
her mom shouts to get to the car since they live pretty far away from school.
“Coming!”
Cassie shouts back and grabs her backpack, then heads down the stairs.
When they get to school, Cassie gets out of her mom’s car, and kisses her cheek, and tells her,
“ I love you, see you later.”
She walks in and greets her friends, whom she hasn't seen the whole summer. She then goes to her first period class and she notices a set of eyes who looks at her with a look of disgust. Cassie is confused because not once has she had a conversation with this person. But Cassie wasn't the only girl receiving this look. It was every other girl coming into the classroom. That bothered her, but she did not do anything about it because Cassie is not trying to start any complications today or this school year, so she just listens to her assignment for her class. As she walked out at the end of class trying to find her next class, the hallways were filled with laughter and excitement from all the students ready to start the new year. Cassie finds her class and finds a seat ten minutes in and she catches a girl looking at her not once not twice but three times. She thinks to herself,
“ Do I have something on my face?”
“ Did I do something wrong that I don't know about?”
Class ends and she is on her way to her class. She passes by her best friend since 5th grade and she just looks and walks away from her. Cassie then finds her class and her only class she has, with her best friend Elena and sits with her and asks her
“ Okay… am I missing something? Why is everyone staring at me like I kicked their dog all the way to Mt. Everest?” Elena laughed and replied,
” NO WAY! I thought I was the only one thinking the same thing in my classes.” Cassie blinked.
“Wait, what?”
Elena leans closer.
“ I thought I was overthinking it or was going crazy. In every class, someone was looking in my direction and giving a look.”
“ This is weird,”
Cassie replies. Their class finishes and they are finally out of their math class and start walking down the hall together, talking over the noise of the slams of lockers and laughter echoing through the school hallways.
“ Maybe it's some dumb rumor,” Elena said.
“ But we didn’t even do anything,” Cassie replied.
“ At least I didn't.” Elena looked at her.
“ Me neither. And besides, rumours don't just pop out of nowhere.”
As they find their classes Cassie waves goodbye at Elena since Math is the only class they have together, disappointingly. Cassie’s music teacher is waiting at the door and greets her and asks about her summer, and if Elena and her have the same classes this year. As? she starts to reply, the girl from first period looks at her and says,
”ugh”
under her breath and enters the classroom. Cassie looks over and starts to feel her blood boil under her skin and her wrists start to make a fist but she remembers what her mom always tells her,
” if a person gets under your skin and makes you angry, instead of showing your anger, show the glory and the love of God through you and instead of showing violence, pray for them.”
and so that is what she did. Fast forward to her last period, Cassie looks at the clock, just waiting for the school bell to ring so she can go home and tell her mom how disappointing her first last day went. She was so over today.
I decided to write this story because it reflects a moment I experienced myself, realizing how people are always going to have something to say about you, but you just can’t let that affect and bring you down.This story shows the confusion and the struggle to keep moving forward despite other people's perceptions of you. It’s a reminder that you can’t control what people think, but you can control how you react to it.
This story deals with the ideas of being judged, which is something everyone can relate to. It shows how easy it is for others to make assumptions about you, but how hard it is to shake those feelings. Even though Cassie doesn’t know why people are staring at her, she tries to stay strong. The story is a reminder that, while we can’t control how others think, we can control how we handle it.
I chose to set the story on Cassie's first day of school because that’s a time when everyone feels nervous and judged, especially in high school. It’s a fresh start, but also a lot of pressure. By showing Cassie’s experience on this day, I wanted to highlight how small moments, like people staring and whispering, can feel so big. It shows how hard it is when you’re constantly wondering why people are judging you, and how those small things can impact your whole, or even your sense of self.
My writing process started with journaling in my AP Lit Class. In the beginning of class we always take 10 min to journal in our notebooks. On the second day of school our first journaling began, I reflected on my moment of the first day of school where I felt judged and confused, and then I created Cassie as a character to represent those feelings. One challenge I faced was figuring out how to show Cassie’s emotions without directly stating them. Instead of telling the reader how she felt, I wanted to focus on how she reacted to the situation. For revisions, I think I could add more details about her physical emotions to make her story even more vivid.
Writing this story allowed me to revisit a moment that once felt overwhelming and turn it into something meaningful. By exploring Cassie’s experience, I was able to better understand my own feelings about judgement and insecurity, and how those moments can shape the way we see ourselves.