A Trip down the Memory Lane to when I suddenly developed the power to have a proper memory. That was at the age of seven, one of the most horrific yet best days of my life.

It started as how someone would feel when they woke up on their birthday... And the first day of school. Excited as well as nervous. I got out of bed an hour before my alarm rang.

Being the middle child out of three, I was trained to dress up into acceptable clothing. According to mum, Levi didn't get mature enough to dress himself up till he was nine. I loved to use this point as an excuse to tease him.

Even in the early hours, the house was unexceptionally noisy, and that was because of my three year old bratty sister, Ashley. My wish was to get some peace and quiet on my birthday, but it was confirmed that it wouldn't be happening the moment I stepped out of my room.

I had just narrowly missed getting showered with flour by stepping back to grab my school bag. At the very exact moment dad decided to come out of his room.

"Honey, have you seen my ti-." The moment he saw the mess that had been made on the floor, he lost it.

"Levi, go and get ready for school! I do not want your teachers complaining about being late this year, and your 'I just stopped to help a cat that was stuck on the tree and missed the bus' excuses won't work this year. You are eleven and it's best if you started to act like one."

Levi rushed of to his room knowing he shouldn't dare to say anything back, especially to dad early in the morning. A mistake I had made was by standing there and watching Levi get scolded at, because dad wasn't done. Luckily, I had only been told – well, more like shouted at – to make him coffee.

I rushed downstairs to work on his coffee. Mum was already there dressed in her work attire – however wearing an apron on top – as she tried to feed Ashley. Dad gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and ruffled some of the hair that had grown on Ashley's head.

There was a loud scream that came from my younger sister's mouth, it would have been unusual if there wasn't one. I handed dad his coffee and helped mum with feeding Ash.

"Thank you, Amy, dear," She got up and untied her apron, picking up a comb and brushed my short, wavy brown hair. Ashley wouldn't open her mouth to eat her food, and I couldn't exactly force her to otherwise I would end up getting baby food on me.

The only way I was able to distract her was by giving her Bubbly, a stuffed animal that was a bunny. Ash adored Bubbly and would do almost anything after that was given to her.

"Levi make sure you eat your breakfast, you too Amy," She instructed. "Your tie is hanging by the door. I am so sorry Amy, I know it's your birthday but your father and I can't drop you off to school today, we already have Ashley. It's a tight schedule and you and Levi will have to take the bus."

Mum had lifted up her handbag, grabbed Ash and started walking out of the room as she said this. Dad too, had stood up, following behind her.

"Take care!" Came mum's faint voice as the door shut.

I deeply sighed. Finally, peace and quiet. Levi sniggered for no reason, knowing fully, that it would annoy me. I held in the urge to pick up a chair and whack him with it. Instead, I took a seat and started to apply butter on the bread. If you ask me, I felt as if I was the mature one.

Throughout the period of stuffing food into my mouth, Levi copied and exaggerated all my movements. It didn't help that he wasn't hurrying up as the bus was about to arrive. There was a hoot outside which meant that it was time to go.

Levi was the first one to stand up, leaving me to switch of the lights and lock the house. I jogged towards the bus, my mouth holding a piece of bread, my bad slung over my shoulder, and keys in my hands.

The bus driver honked once again telling me to hurry up. I climbed up the three steps that were there and the door closed behind me. Inside was pretty full and the only space free was at the back. There sat a group of boys around Levi's age.

I bit my lip and began to walk towards them, not wanting to give the bus driver a chance to scold me. Levi stuck his leg out – which I saw at the last moment. Luckily, because of that, I only staggered a bit. Yet, this still caught everyone's attention.

They laughed and whispered to each other. I blushed from embarrassment and took a seat, trying to cover my face with my short, light brown hair. The boys scooted as far away as they could from me, acting as if I had a huge toenail infection.

The ride was torturous, kids whispering about me before we had reached the school, and so, I was the first one to exit. I didn't walk much far from the bus, I decided on taking in my surroundings first.

There was a gate that had two adults – probably teachers – leaning on it. Around were a few baby trees getting ready to grow. As I got captured while looking at the school, I didn't notice that the boys from earlier were now standing behind me.

I only got a snigger as a warning before my face hit the ground. I lay there for a second, still shocked from what just happened. Looking up, I saw the boys had pushed me on the floor and one of them who had raven hair high-fived Levi.

The teachers who had stood there were too absorbed in their talk to notice what had happened. A tear rolled of my cheek and I wanted to cry in pain. "Oh look." The boy with raven hair pointed at me, "We've found ourselves a cry-baby." The 3 boys with him and Levi laughed as their group walked through the gate.

I pushed myself up, not wanted to get late for my first period and trudged forwards. A lady wearing a black and white jumpsuit stopped me right at the entrance. "Oh, dear me," She said looking at me with a slight disgusted face while chewing her gum extra loud.

"Come on, let's take you to the nurse's office and get you cleaned up," The lady said, walking in front of me. I guessed that I was expected to follow her, and so, I did. The bell just rang, and I got sad that I'd be missing my first class, which meant my opportunities of finding a friend before somebody else were low.

I noticed that each of the teachers had a name tag on it, and the one whom I was walking behind was Miss Higgins.

The school got bigger as we walked further in. For each year were two separate classes. Not much could be heard from inside the classrooms. Some had their doors closed, and in some it was only the teacher calling out names.

We went through many corridors as Miss Higgins blabbered about the school system. Her presence got pretty annoying because of the loud sound of her chewing gum. Finally, we took a right turn, straight into a room.

The sun was seeping through the window, and even with it being quite early in the morning, the room was pretty hot. There was a table in the middle of the room and a chair on the either side of it. The chairs were in horrible condition and flies flew around it.

A lady sat there, a white coat underneath her, with a newspaper on her face, probably sleeping. On her table was a name tag of Miss Burbage. Shoved into the corner of the room was a white bed and a broken, wooden cabinet next to it.

Miss Higgins rolled her eyes slightly and tapped on the table with her nails a few times till Miss Burbage gave a slight jump and removed the newspaper off her face with one hand. The other hand wiped the drool of her face.

"Higgins-," Miss Burbage began before her eyes fell on me. "Oh my, what happened to her?"

"She tripped," Miss Higgins replied. I opened my mouth to tell what actually happened, but decided against it because both of them looked as if they hated my presence already.

Miss Burbage stood up and walked – more like dragged her feet – towards me. She pulled me to the bed, talking out a half melted icepack from the broken cabinet and putting it onto my face.

I lay on the bed as she went back to sit on her chair. "Don't you have to go set up for you class, Higgins?" Miss Burbage asked as she put the newspaper back on her face. "You really shouldn't be sleeping, Burbage. Mr Hudson told you not to," Miss Higgins replied.

"It's not like anyone comes in here with an injury except for her," Miss Burbage said, though her voice was a bit muffled.

Miss Higgins lifted up her chin a bit before walking out of the room. "And you," Miss Burbage said into the air, "Can leave on the second bell."

I nodded wordlessly even though she couldn't see me. I sighed, what a first day of school. I barely got off the bus before getting bullied. It's not like my birthdays even felt like birthdays in the first place.

Levi had gotten money enough to go wherever he wanted to go to and could invite anyone he wanted. As for Ashley, she had gotten huge fancy parties, and she was only three years old. Only the richest of people were allowed during her party, and our house wasn't exactly medium size.

Ashley is the spoiled kid between us siblings. She still cries and whines all day long at any chance she gets.

Me being the middle child, I get the least attention. Like if I just got a cake I'd be happy. The only time I got one was when I was first born and that was inside the hospital with only a few doctors, Levi, Mum and Dad.

According to Levi, they hated how ugly I looked the moment they saw me but did not stop the 'party' because they didn't want to make a bad impression in front of the doctors. Yet, each year I get my hopes up hoping it will be a special day.

Time passed horribly slowly, everything was quiet except for Miss Burbage's snores. My assumed my bruises of my face weren't as bad because it didn't hurt every time I moved my ice pack to a different location.

The bell finally rang. I got up and placed the ice pack on the desk then walked out of the room. I had no clue to where I was supposed to go, students and teachers went passed me, none of them took more than a second glance at me.

It was only when a lady came up to me with a worried face. "Are you okay, dear?"

I shook my head and stuttered, "I'm n-not really su-sure were I'm supposed t-to go."

She smiled kindly. "I'm Miss Honey. What's your name?"

"A-Amy," I replied.

"Come on, then, follow me."

I just nodded and pushed my way through some of the kids with as little strength I had. Luckily I had not lost her as the students disappeared into to classrooms.

"Which year are you in?" She asked softly.

"Year 3," I said confidently.

As I walked beside her, I hoped that she was one of my teachers and not Miss Higgins. We entered a fine looking room – compared to the nurse's office – in which there were a few seats on both sides and a coffee table with had magazines on them.

In front of us was a lady behind a huge brown desk. She had a bun, and looked intimidating because of her sharp face, but when she saw us she slightly smiled.

After writing something down on a notepad - wired-phone by her ear - she said to the person on the other side of the phone," I'll call you back with the papers ready."

"Good morning." The lady nodded at us. "How may I help you today?"

"Amy, here," Miss Honey gestured her hands towards me, "Hasn't got her time table yet. She's in year 3."

The lady typed away on her computer and then looked at me. "Is your last name Gomez?"

I nodded. Her eyes averted back to the screen, she pressed a key and the machine behind her – a printer – began making noise. She turned around, took the paper and placed on the desk facing me.

"You were meant to have the first hour off, in which the teacher explains everything that is going to happen and how things work," She explained. "It'll be best if you told the teacher why you were late."

I didn't say a word as she said this. Was I going to get in trouble for missing the first hour? Tears brimmed in my eyes but I blinked them away, telling myself not to be a cry baby.

"You have Art now, which is a good thing because the Art room is right next door," She explained. "You don't have to worry about losing your way around because this week your teacher will show you where to go."

The lady pushed the paper slightly and front of me, indicating that I was to take it. "Thank you," Miss Honey said as she guided me out of the room and next door.

After one small knock on the door, that was covered with two big handprints – that was the colour of blue and red - and 'Art Room' written on it in black, Miss Honey slightly opened the door and peeked in. She then swung the door wide and walked in, me following behind her.

The class room quieted down immediately as we entered. I looked at all the children in the room. There were four rows and a table - that had different coloured paints - between two easels. The children mostly hid behind their papers, only the bottom half of their body showing.

Miss Honey whispered to the teacher of the classroom who was nodding and pulling her lip. She was wearing a pretty blue dress with white swirls and a dark blue, short cardigan. Her black hair that was just about shoulder length stood out most.

Miss Honey gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder as she left. The children were still quiet, waiting for the teacher to speak.

"Everyone, this is Amy. Please be kind to her so she has great first day like you lot. You can carry on with your work." The noise level went high again and the teacher then turned to me. 

"I'm Mrs Richards," She introduced. "As today is the first day of school, your task is to paint whatever you like. You could work here, next to Olivia."

She led me to the back of the room, to where a girl was standing there, her tongue sticking out slightly as she painted yellow on her card. Her hair was a beautiful color of caramel brown. Olivia looked at me and a warm smile appeared on her face, her dark brown eyes shining at me.

Next to her was a free easel. "Let your imagination flow," Mrs Richard said before leaving me to go check on other students. I silently went over to my place and picked up a brush. Olivia had gone back to her painting as well, but we gave each other glances.

Olivia had been attempting to paint some kind of yellow flower. I didn't exactly want to copy her work so I chose the pink paint and began trying to paint a rose. Olivia giggled and my attention diverted to her.

She had paint on her face. A smile cracked on my face and Olivia painted on my face as well. Before we knew it, we were pink and yellow laughing zebras. It wasn't long till the teacher came and started scolding us.

Olivia and I just shared a hidden smile knowing that we were now friends.