"Valerie's first day of sixth grade!" George said, taking random pictures of me with his phone.

"Dad! I've been in sixth grade before, I'm just going to a new school!" I yelled, grabbing his phone and throwing it on the couch. I gave him a quick hug and then the bus pulled up.

"Gotta go! Love you!" I said sheepishly, feeling slightly embarrassed. No one had ever made such a big deal out of me. And George had made me dress up semi-formally for the first day of my new school. I was wearing a sky blue dress with my hair done in neat French braids. I grabbed the blue backpack with my initials, V.A.S., monogrammed on them. 

"Your initials sort of form a word." Will said, pointing to my backpack. "Vas!" 

"That's not a word, Will." I said, rolling my eyes. "Seriously, I gotta bounce. Don't want to be late on the first day!" I gave Will and George both hugs, then I ran out of the apartment and sat on the bus. 

I noticed that there were a bunch of people on the bus, and the seats were nearly full. Except for one empty seat. I sat down in the empty seat and the bus drove off. Everyone was staring at me. I was pretty short for my age, and I was a little too young to be on the middle school bus. I skipped a grade. I didn't feel "cool" enough to be here. Like I didn't belong. 

A girl with short dirty blonde hair and black glasses got on the bus and sat down next to me. She was tall, and looked like she was cool and popular. Not the type of girl that usually interacts with losers like me. "Sorry, I should've asked, but hi! My name is Luna. What's your name?"

"Hi. I'm Valerie." I said shyly, tugging on my braid. "Nice to meet you." 

"You new? Where are you from?" Luna asked, pinning back her bangs with a bobby pin. I sighed, and said, "I'm a foster kid. I got a new placement and had to switch schools." Which wasn't a total lie. I just didn't mention that my dad was the lead role in a Broadway show. 

"Are they good to you?" Luna asked. "I was adopted a few months ago, and let's just say I've had some rough placements." I felt hopeful. Luna was just like me. 

"Yeah, they're the first good placement I've ever had. I ran away from this woman named Penelope Rafferty, she was abusive. I had a heart condition and just got a heart transplant. Two of them." I said. Luna looked shocked, then smiled at me. "I think you and me are gonna be great friends. What's your last name?" 

I thought over what last name I should use, I had 3 to choose from. But I used the one I wanted to use for weeks.

"Salazar." I said. I wanted to change it to Salazar-Roland, but no one but Gerard knew that yet. I wanted to wait until the adoption was official to tell everyone. 

"Woah, cool! My name is Luna Nelson. Welcome to hell-I mean, our school. The boys here are insane, just warning you. And the girls aren't much better." Luna said. I smiled and said, "I'm kind of a loner."

"Me too. But we have each other." Luna said. "We're here. Get ready for the craziest middle school you'll ever see, Valerie Salazar."

Valerie Salazar. Getting called that made me feel good. 

_________

It turned out that Luna was in 5 of my 7 classes with me, including all the advanced ones George made me sign up for. Which was nice. I had someone to talk to. 

We were in Gym class, our last class of the day, and we were getting ready to play flag football. The gym teacher was taking attendance, and she called out, "Rafferty?"

"Hi. It's actually Salazar, I'm getting adopted." I said, finally getting the confidence to advocate for myself. The teacher nodded and started putting pieces of paper in a little cup.

"Crap! Random team picking!" Luna said, adjusting her glasses. The teacher dumped the papers out and pushed them aside into two piles. Then, she started rapidly shouting out names.

"Jackson, Brock, Nelson, Salazar, O'Malley! Red corner!" the teacher yelled. Me, Luna, and 3 other girls went to the red corner. 

"New girl." a blonde girl said, pushing back her hair. "Good luck here, you're gonna need it. I'm Beth. That's Corey, and that's Jaidyn, though we just call her Jaide. And that's Luna." 

"I'm Valerie." I said. The girl named Corey started jumping up and down like an excited child. "We should make a team name!" 

I started thinking it over, then said, "I don't know. I'm not good with names. Like, coming up with names. I'm good at memorizing names. God, I'm making this awkward. Why am I so awkward?" Jaide quietly chuckled and said, "I like this Valerie." 

I smiled. I found people who were actually willing to talk to me!

"I would advise you to form a relationship with your team, because you're stuck with them for the rest of the semester for Gym Class Olympics!" our teacher yelled before blowing her whistle.

"Yes! We're all together!" Beth yelled, then picked up a football and started sprinting to the other side of the gym. "Guess Beth is offense. Val and Corey, you two can be defense. Stay on base. Me and Luna are gonna make sure Beth doesn't get tagged out." Jaide said, running off. 

I looked at Corey and shrugged. We kept playing the game and we were doing horribly. Beth got out right away, but Luna tagged her back in. 

Then suddenly, my adrenaline kicked in. I started to run. Gotta put this new heart to use. I started sprinting across the gym and grabbed a football from a boy's hand. I adjusted my hand and threw it across the gym, and it landed square in Beth's hands.

The gym teacher blew her whistle. "Red team wins!" Our team started cheering and Corey said, "YES! Valerie!" I smiled sheepishly, than the bell rang. 

I walked out to the bus with my new friends. 

"Wait! Guys, what country are we representing tomorrow?" Corey asked. We all shrugged, then everyone looked at me.

"Well, um, I'm a native Italian, so representing Italy would be cool." I said shyly. Everyone looked at each other and collectively nodded. 

Then, Luna grabbed the pen and wrote our names on the paper.

Team 4: Italy. Jaidyn Brock, Corey Jackson, Beth O'Malley, Luna Nelson, Valerie Salazar.

_______

"Valerie's home!" George said as I opened the door, my braids dripping with sweat. I hugged George tightly and then flopped on the couch.

"Hey, how was school?" George asked.

"Great. Made a few friends. Gym Class Olympics is tomorrow and we got to pick a country. We're the Italy team." I said. 

"Of course." George said, rolling his eyes. "Hey, wanna come to the theater with me tonight?" I nodded excitedly and we headed off.

________

"So, Val. We got word that you made a few friends. Boyfriends?" Stephanie asked. Her and Lauren were interrogating me. 

"No, shut up. They're all girls. Corey, Luna, Jaide, and Beth. Nice girls." I said. "Though, there was one cute boy."

"Valerie. You do understand that all these kids are a year older than you, right?" Lauren asked, and I nodded. "Calm down. I don't even know what the guy's name is. He's not on my team for the Gym Class Olympics tomorrow. First event, the Pacer test."

"What in the world is a Pacer test?" Stephanie asked.

"No clue, but Luna says I should be scared." I said. 

"Glad you made friends. We'll be keeping an eye on them, okay?" Stephanie said, looking at me suspiciously. I laughed. 

Maybe 6th grade won't be that bad.

AN: The Gym Class Olympics was honestly one of the best things I did in middle school. I was on the Germany team one year, and the India team the other year. Hope you enjoyed! Catch ya later!