School+and+Sports

It was the last day of school and it was the best weather everyone had seen in weeks. As me and my classmates walked back from the morning assembly followed by the event of raising the flag, we went inside to find ourselves facing the worst day of school, period. It was Ranking Day.
 * 1st Grade Ranking Day, By Ghazy **

During ranking day, the teacher would call our names in an order of how we were doing in school, or our intelligence. I was only in 1st grade, but I wasn’t really doing that good, so I had a bad feeling about it. I so was nervous. I could feel both my arms trembling as I listened to the teacher’s announcements.

As the teacher called the first three people, I got even more nervous. Both my parents had been expecting that I would improve my ranking of last semester from 5th place, to an even better rank. The teacher called my name and I stood up on top of the podium with a bunch of other classmates. The most obvious people got the most obvious rankings. I could see the entire class from up there. I tried to relax a little but I was worried that I would fall down from the podium since it was made with tables that weren’t equal in sizes.

I actually got 4th place out of 20 or 30 people. it was awkward seeing my parents and the other parents looking up at us. I wasn’t proud, but my parents were. I didn’t really feel all that intelligent to be honest but I knew that I would get a new video game for improving my ranking so I smiled.

** The Hardest Day, by Kendrick ** “Hustle! Hustle!” yelled the coach. I glanced at the coach and ran towards him. The coach was calm and announced something with his big clear voice. "Today, is the day where I make cuts. Cuts like you don’t make the team! This is the tryout where you will push yourself beyond the limits and show that you have earned it in being on the Basketball Team. If you came here to relax, don’t come to this tryout. If you came here to prove you can be on the basketball team, prove it to me!”

I looked around me to notice if anyone came to relax and it seemed like they were all aggressive. After the coach’s speech, he made us run five laps for exercise. “Now, this is about the heart. This is going tell you how fit you are. How fast can you get up and down the court?”

I took a big gulp. //Fitness//?

“You guys are going to run 5 suicides to prove me that you guys are fit.”

My friends were nervous. They looked like they wanted to quit and go back home. I got down onto my running position, getting ready to explode and sprint the first lap. The coach blew the whistle and off I went sprinting as hard as I could. I looked to the side, left and right, to see if anyone was ahead of me. I saw about 2 people in front of me. I was hesitating. I didn’t want to be last, otherwise I will have to do 20 pushups.

I pushed myself to my limit, focused, and believed in myself. At the end of running, I got 1st place all of because of focusing; believing in myself, and pushing myself. And I didn't have to do 20 pushups. Running 5 suicides was difficult for me. Everyone took a big breath and dropped onto the floor.

“Hustle! We don’t have much time to goof off,” yelled the coach while we were shooting hoops for fun. I ran to put the basketball away and dashed over to the coach. “After running 5 suicides, I decided that I would give you an easy drill. This drill will show me your dribbling skills.”

I knew that this wasn’t good. I play as a power forward, not a guard. I picked up ball and started following what the coach did. After completing the drill, I was exhausted running 5 suicides and dribbling. My back ached from dribbling and my legs were starting to hurt.

We gathered around the coach and he announced,“ "This was an excelling practice today. You guys proved to me that you all want to be on the basketball team. But only 13 players will make the team. I will email Mr. Dyke the roster and he will post the roster somewhere.”

I walked out of the Auxi Gym having hope in making the next cut. I wouldn’t give up.

** First Day of School ** The thing I’ve been worrying about happened on my first day of first grade. As I got into the main hall of the school, there were bunch of kids in there with their parents. I was… nervous. Scared. Worried.

A person who looked like the principal of the school announced to us, “Everyone, please find a row and stand there, please,” and we all started to move. It was so crowded and I couldn’t even walk through the halls.

Finally, we were all standing in rows and columns. I thought that the principal would finally give an announcement of greeting us, but she didn’t. I just didn’t know what to do in the middle of bunch of new kids I’ve never seen in my whole entire life. I didn’t have any single ideas about what was going on.

“Dude, look at him. He’s bald!” I heard a kid talking.

“LOL, yeah.”

I hoped and wished that they weren’t talking about me, which didn’t have any single possibility because there wasn’t any kid with such short hair except for me. I looked up at them. Great. They were pointing at me. I tried to be calm as much as possible.

‘It’s okay, it’s cool.’ Well, that wasn’t true. I hated it. So much. (I wasn’t really bald, I just had short hair) At that moment, I didn’t want to be in this world. I didn’t know why I had to be embarrassed by others on the first day at my new school.

Suddenly, a guy came up and talked to me, “Hi!”

I had a weird feeling, but I responded to him. “Hey.”

“What room are you in?” he asked.

“3.” I said.

I noticed that he was in the same room as me. I suddenly became really happy because of the fact that I made a new friend on the first day of my school, and that friendship wasn't that easy to break. A friendship. It was much more worth than getting a bald haircut.