We Were Only Freshman

Let me start with a little history.
In the three years I was in middle school (6th grade to 8th) I went to four different schools. I went from Ft.Irwin, to Barstow, to Texas, back to Barstow, and then back to a different school in Texas. My mom divorced my step dad when I was 11 and it made a major impact in my life. We had to move from where I had finally learned to make friends, to a new place where I knew no one. I started in the middle of a school year during the 6th grade at a school where I was a stranger. I had a hard time fitting in anywhere and it showed. Long story short, I bounced between my moms house here in California and my dads house in Texas. I dont know why moving me around seemed like the solution to either of my parents, but thats what happened.
So as you can imagine, I was pretty much on my own starting high school. I had one consistent friend at the time, J, who went to Barstow High School but of course I didn't end up at that school. My mom thought the environment of BHS would only make my rebellious nature worse, and she thought I would end up in too much trouble, so I started high school in yet another school where I was a stranger, Silver Valley High School. It is the local high school that is reserved for students from Ft. Irwin, Newberry, and Yermo. I think she figured if the military families had their kids there it must be good. WRONG. I got into more trouble at this school in one year than I did in the next three years at BHS. I'm not going to detail all of my troubles because the point of this is not to embarrass myself all over again. I just want to share what high school was like for me.
I'm sure that most people can relate to the nervous feeling of walking into a classroom where you know no one and everyone knows everyone. Not only was this my first year of high school, I was also walking into it all alone. For the first few weeks I was regarded as "the new girl" (annoying since I have a name), and I had a pretty rough time making friends that were really interested in really being friends.
When things started turning around I found myself having a core group of friends, C, R, A, H, & S. The latter of the four S, was a really good friend but she wasn't as good of friends with C, R, and A. H and I were from two different walks of life but I thought she was a so nice and so was her family. I cherished every friendship I made because I had by that time become well versed in the art of losing friends. C, R, and A were an amazing few girls that always made me feel like I was really their friend.
Moving on, there are only a few things that stick out in my mind from my freshman year of high school that I can say kind of impacted my life at that time. First was a theft that occurred. Of course it was small but at the time it was the absolute worst thing that could have happened to me. I had taken about three cameras worth of pictures at a school dance and also some a few days after. My mom paid the money to have all of these cameras developed and for doubles to be made so I could SHARE them with my friends. The day that I brought them to school I left them in my backpack (naturally) and I didn't think about them again until lunch when I wanted to pull them out and show my friends...when I went to do that, they were gone, and I was devastated. How could someone steal them from me...and why would they want to?? It was a mindless "crime" that did nothing but make me cry. Months later when our yearbooks came out, some of those pictures were in it. I still have no idea who did it, but I will always have my suspicions.
Another thing that kind of shaped the way my future would be was my first experience with alcohol. It was a New Years Eve party that my mom was fooled into letting me attend (sorry mom!!) I was only 14 (going on 15) at the time and I was totally duped into drinking. I used to be a major sucker for peer pressure and I just wanted to fit in with my friends and I drank some of the most disgusting drinks ever and got drunk. I threw up every where and passed out. Not so fun. I wouldn't take another drink for a few years.
One last thing that happened that I will absolutely never forget is how after all of the work I had put into that school year with regards to friends, I ended up nearly alone again. I dont know the details exactly but I do know that when I left the school for what I didn't know then would be the last time I would be at that school. I started the summer with only two of the same friends H & S. In my memory I cannot recall a reason that our friendships all faded away but they did. Now though after more than ten years has passed I am once again friends with every single one of those amazing girls and so very happy about it.

My freshman year can be summed up in a somewhat short paragraph. I went in very very scared and I came out the same way. I tried my hardest the whole year to make a place for myself within the school cliques and I didn't succeed. Luckily I got through it alive even if I was a little emotionally scarred. Looking back now I know that the small things I went through during my freshman year would be a drop in the bucket of the next three years of high school.