first day of school

[KarlaErikaCal]

So my character, Gracie, is new on the high school scene, she's a new sophomore coming out of homeschooling. It's all in first person.

I'm trying to decide what first day descriptions, cliches, etc. I should avoid.

Here's some cliches on my list:
-dropping your books and the cute guy you end up liking helps you pick them up


-dropping your lunch tray all over yourself

-not being able to find a table during lunch


Is a description about what the teacher does out of the picture? Seats in alphabetical order, classroom procedures, homework passes, introduction about the class. And I'll only give that description for the very first class, she'll mention briefly she realizes this is normal high school requirements. Unless it's okay because she hasn't been exposed to a real school environment. What's the correct term for a school that other students go to? I keep saying "real school" or "actual school" but I keep thinking there's something that fits better.

But yeah, main question: What first-day-of-school descriptions should I avoid?

[Sage]

I think anything that really strikes her as odd is fine. But remember that she's probably been exposed to stuff through books and tv and movies, right?

So some things might be like "Oh, my god, they really do that?" for something like a class intro. Only some high school teachers assign seats, but you could have her maybe expecting it, and then when they let her sit wherever, realize that she doesn't know anyone (or where to sit--will sitting in the front brand her as a nerd? Will sitting in the back make the teacher think she's a slacker?)

You could have her being excited about little things. Where I went to high school, all our halls were outside. You went outside to get from classroom to classroom and to go to your locker. But EVERY tv show has a high school with halls in a building, even when it's set in southern California. So when I walked into a school in Ohio and everything was inside and there were lockers lining the halls, it was like this televison version of a high school, and that delighted me for some reason.

And I might actually do two classes with her. The first one she thinks "So this is how it really is," and then when the next teacher does something totally different, she's thrown for a loop. For example, her English teacher goes through this elaborate process of finding nicknames for each student so he can remember their names (my freshman English teacher did this. He used "Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme" for me), and she expects the same time to be spent on an intro in her history class, where instead it is all "This is what we're going to do this year."

[Sage]

That of course, all depends on how much of the book is actually supposed to be spent with her getting used to going to high school. If it's a minor subplot, you might not want to spend so much time on it.

Also, does she have friends at this school when she starts?

[KarlaErikaCal]

Just first 2-3 chapters will be the get used to it most likely. I did forget about the media she could watch/read.

She has a really close friend she mentions right off the bat, but she goes to a private school, not the public school she's attending.

Thanks for helping me realize the media stuff she could encounter! That was a major plot hole!

This is what I'm planning on doing:

She's this book smart girl, and before she found out about going to an actual school, she's always reading textbooks or her mother's school notes to make sure she's following everything correctly. Her mother didn't expose her to those kind of things so she wouldn't be distracted from her studies. Her mother was a teen mom and could not go to college, so she took online classes to help become a better homeschooling-parent. Now I'm adding in this stuff: the summer before she starts attending an actual school, she dedicates to learning more about "teen society" by watching movies/TV shows, reading books. And the cool thing I'm adding in is mistakes sprinkled in. "I think that boy has a crush on you." "Really? He wants to beat me up? Oh wait, no. That's wrong...." I'm also considering how most YA books/movies are cliche about certain aspects of teenage life. So maybe she tries to compare everything that happens to her with those movies and books, but she realizes they can be far from reality. Also her best friend was off to a camp during summer so she couldn't help Gracie, which is why Gracie spends her entire summer trying to cram in learning all this stuff.

Is that enough to make for a believable story?

[jenelcc]

I think a little bit of the usual school stuff helps readers relate to the character, but I'd stick to those details that either speak to character or advance the plot.

[Stunted]

My first day of high school, I asked a senior where the math hall way was and he turned on me with the most bloodshot eyes I'd ever seen in my life, stoned as hell. That would be good to put in.

[Juneluv12]

I'd watch the opening of Mean Girls. Kady, Katy, whatever, has been homeschooled in Africa. She just gets up to go to the bathroom and the teacher is like, "What are you going?"

As a teacher, I usually go over the syllabus on the first day and procedures and stuff. She could be wigged out by the assignments or think it's really lame since a lot of times homeschooled kids worked faster b/c of the one on one.

[Epiphany]

When I went to a public school for the first time out of private school, I actually looked for the "supposed" cute guys, and they were all douche bags. One that I thought was particularly cute ended up being really mean to me. There were no cute guys that were nice. Of course, that was just my situation. However, that's how it was for pretty much all of high school. lol.

[lemonhead]

I went from being homeschooled all my life to public high school...and I was a 14 yr old junior. My first day involved extreme panick over getting to classes on time, panick over were my locker was.

Also you could include a lockdown drill..those were weird, and I had guys groping me in the hallways and once I slapped one and I got in trouble with the principle. Go figure.

[rsriem]

Or..it could be like any other day. Bland, insignificant, normal maybe? My first day of high school, I expected things to be way out there sort of like in the movies/TV, but it was like a continuation of eighth grade, only this time I was a freshman.

[kaitlin008]

Being homeschooled won't necessarily make her completely out of her element in high school. When I went for my first day of high school, I was coming from a much smaller middle school (as in a class of 21 kids to a class of 230 kids), so it was practically a brand new experience for me. And the way classes were split up, I had maybe one person I already knew in any of my classes, so I was pretty much on my own. There will of course be a difference in the structure, but we had a few previously homeschooled kids come to high school at the same time, and they fit in perfectly easily.

I would say that unless her being socially unaware because of being homeschooled is a big deal to the plot (like it is in Mean Girls) it might be best to make the transition reasonably smooth so it doesn't cloud your actual plot.

[bethany]

I actually think that starting with the first day of school is a little cliche in and of itself. If you can't beat

It is the first day of school, I have 7 new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomach ache

then I wouldn't try. Seriously, can you find a different place to start, and then work these observations in later?

[tilt190]

cliches:

--dropping her books in the middle of the hallway (no one ever does that on the first day)
--getting talked up/introduced to the really hot guy on the first day
--getting invited to a popular girls' table on the first day (unless MC asks them specifically, then said popular girls would let her sit there, but ignore her all of lunch)

Basically, the new girls lies low for the first week, and some people would talk about her and theorize about where she came from. And after the first week, she's basically been categorized in a group, set for high school.

Like Bethany said, though, don't start your novel on the first day--that amounts to WAY too much backstory and narration, instead of just focusing on the plot.

[KarlaErikaCal]

So should I start before or after the first day? Or does it not matter?

And thanks for all the suggestions, everyone!

[tilt190]

Before the first day, preferably.
That way, the reader can know a bit more about your MC before her first challenging sitch. It helps them get invested a bit more in the MC.

ETA: Check out the TWFT thread, if you haven't already. :)

[KarlaErikaCal]

That's what I thought. Thanks tilt! Hehe, I'm excited to write the new opening. Her summer is going to be full of interesting events. I'm making sure of it. :D

I've actually posted something on there a few months back. :P I'll check back again. :)

[Chasing the Horizon]

I was homeschooled my entire life, and tried public school it 8th grade. It was like being transported to another planet, lol. I had no idea what to do with anything, couldn't work the locker, and missed a bunch of assignments because I didn't know how to follow written directions (I was used to my mom telling me what to do, and getting to ask questions if it wasn't clear). I couldn't do the work in math class because it was two years ahead of what I knew, while in science class they were repeating stuff I had learned in 3rd grade (homeschoolers frequently become asynchronous in our academic development because we can pursue the subjects we're interested in above and beyond normal coarse work). The amount of time it took the classes to get through simple units of information was mind-boggling. I was basically bored or confused or both constantly. And don't get me started on what gym class was like for someone who had never participated in or even viewed team sports before in her life. I remember overhearing one of the gym teachers say to another something like "You know we have to make the kids work hard, because all they do at home is watch TV and eat potato chips". I walked up to them and told them that my mom and I swam 50 laps every evening at the YWCA, lol.

Socially, it was like being thrown in with a group of silly six-year-olds. As a homeschooler, I'd spent my life around adults and other homeschoolers of various ages. All my friends were homeschooled and older. I was so much more mature than everyone else in public school that I quickly decided it wasn't worth my time to talk to any of them.

I dropped out and went back to homeschooling after 3 weeks.

My best childhood friend had a similar experience when she tried public school for a few months (she stuck it out a little longer than me).

Frankly, I wouldn't believe that someone who was homeschooled their entire life would go to public school and not hate it.

[nayner]

I was homeschooled until college, and one of the things that bugs me about homeschoolers portrayed in books and movies is the idea that we're somehow socially stunted or don't understand subtlety in human behavior. We were homeschooled, not locked in a cage. I did fine both academically and socially in college.

I write YA, so I end up writing school scenes, and I learned enough about school through movies and books to write a convincing classroom setting. I like the idea of little details of school being anxiety producing or startling, either because they're unfamiliar or because "oh wow, they really do that? I thought that was a movie thing" so maybe you could play around with that.

As for social awkwardness, do it if it's true to the character, but maybe avoid blaming the whole thing on "well, I was homeschooled, after all" because tons of homeschoolers are just as close to normal as schooled children.

[KarlaErikaCal]

Oh i made it so she ISN'T socially awkward. I didn't see the need to portray it like that, especially because my book is YA contemporary romance and not just about homeschooled stuff. The homeschooled stuff was an interesting way for me to make her quirky and at times clueless in an adorable way, not a bad way at all, (says my friend who's read some of my scenes). And plus, it's a little like the movie, Mean Girls, with a few details like new girl invading on popular girl's guy, but it's Mean Girls with a twist. Instead of having the girl shy, I have her compete with the popular girl for the guy, not by normal "girly" stuff, but it's a singing competition. Yeah, definitely unlike Mean Girls. No one thinks of her as different in her school either, she's just another girl in their school, no negativity toward her in any way, (except for the popular girl of course.) I need an antagonist after all.

So I hope with how I'm writing it, it isn't offending, nayner.... I didn't consider what real-life homeschooled people would react to it to be honest. Ugh, that sounds like I'm insensitive, when I'm really a sympathetic person and feel others' pain like it's my own, even if I haven't experienced it at all. But I've dealt with being socially awkward (don't feel that way anymore), and I haven't felt the need to include that in my writing.

[nayner]

no worries, KC36, I wasn't offended. I just needed to put my piece out there on the topic. You asked about cliches, and I think the socially awkward homeschooler is a big one. It's a stereotype, and one that, if it's portrayed, needs to be handled well.

It sounds like you have a lot of good ideas for your piece, and I like the idea of her being homeschooled as just an added bit of character, rather than the entire focus.