As I was getting ready to leave the house for work this morning, I heard something I haven’t heard for months this early in the morning, the sound of kids talking. Yes, it’s back to school time. As I drove down the street, past a few bus stops, I realized something. None of these kids were “Fresh to death”. Nobody had on the hot new sneakers, or nothing. I started thinking back to how the first day of school was when I was growing up and one of my most memorable first day of school.
I would always spend the summers in Syracuse New York with my grandmother and my aunts. The thing I loved most was them taking me school shopping right before I went home to Virginia. I would always have clothes that no one else had because I didn’t have to school shop at Coliseum Mall, Newmarket Mall, or god forbid Peddlers Village like the other Newport News city school kids. The summer before my 7th grade year, I got hooked up with all types of nice clothes. I got bout 5 pair of new jeans, 6 or 7 shirts and 2 pair of Nike kicks.
My girl cousins in Syracuse even told me what new outfit to wear first and how to rock it. So when I would get back to Virginia about 2 weeks before school started I already had everything planned out. I took my new clothes in a carry on bag just in case the airline lost my luggage, or the baggage handlers saw my gear and decided to jack me for my new clothes. Then as soon as I got home, I ironed, and hung up my new clothes to make sure they were extra fresh. I ended up trying everything on about 3 more times to make sure it still looked right and to make sure I remembered how my cousins told me to rock each outfit.
So the night before the first day of school came around and I couldn’t sleep that night. Part of it was the anxiety of seeing all of my friends I didn’t see all summer who would be in my class. Some of it was seeing if Tamisha’s booty had gotten “phatter”. But most of it was me lying in the bed staring at that magical first day outfit and all its splendor. I swear, the room was pitch black but I could see that outfit as if it had a spotlight on it.
So after getting what seemed like 4 hours of sleep, it was time to wake up. This was the only morning that my mom didn’t have to wake me up. I was up before her getting showered and ready. I took my doo rag off and massaged my forehead so that I wouldn’t have that line showing by the time I got to school. After eating breakfast, I grabbed my new Reebok Pump book bag and headed to the bus stop.
On my way downstairs the elevator stopped on the 12th floor. I was praying it was Tamisha, who I hadn’t seen all summer because she spent her summer in NC. The elevator door opened and yes, it was her. She was rocking some tight jeans with a fresh hair doo, and yes, her booty had gotten phatter. As soon as I saw her I started smiling. She was like “Look at you with the new gear and new kicks, where you get that from”. I told her I got it in NY, and I could see she was digging that I wasn't going to be rocking the same gear as everyone else.
The rest of the day was me high fiving all of my partners that I hadn’t seen all summer and talking about which chicks came back better or busted. Everything about that first day was great except me getting the meanest teacher in the 7th grade. But even that turned out to be a blessing as she really pushed me throughout the year. I’ve always said that I’m so glad that I never went to private school or had to wear a uniform to school. What fun would the first day of school be if you were wearing the same thing as everyone else?
