15 minutes

Once his boots are on, and he is all dressed up, the boy wishes his mother a good day, opens the door, and leaves the house. The wind is cold, Halloween is around the corner, and the sun’s light holds no warmth. The kid goes down the stairs, looks left and right and then crosses the street. He crossed without hesitation; there were no cars on the street as usual. He then turned left. It was a longer way to school, but he had a chance to see her, so this was the way he chose. He walked in front of apartment buildings identical to his own; the whole street was filled with them. He was about to walk in front of her house, if he was lucky she might walk with him to school.

Today was like most days though, she would not walk with him. Her building was the only one with gray bricks instead of red. That is how he remembered where she lived. And so he turned right on the next street. The next street was short; it led to a small park. Since there was no snow, he could still cut across the park to save some of the time he lost trying to see her. The trees were bright orange, soon the leaves would fall. The park would eventually fill up with snow, and it would make the shortcut unusable. Reaching the fence, he took off his backpack, pushed it in the hole under the fence, and then crawled under himself. Since it had not rained on the week end, he could crawl without getting too dirty. Otherwise he would have climbed over the fence.

Now came the hard part, he had to run across the old man’s yard. Stories shared across the schoolyard mention a 6th grader who wasn’t fast enough. The old man caught him and when he finally made it to school; he could not sit down due to the spanking he had received. This is why you ran. That and the big dog tied to a flimsy rope. And so the boy ran while being barked at by the biggest dog he had ever seen. After he had gotten through the yard, he turned right unto a larger street. Now there were cars passing by. There was also a sidewalk, so he felt safe even if there were cars. He walked up to the crossing guard. The old man looked impatient, and tired. Why would someone who hates children become a crossing guard anyway? After waiting what seemed like an eternity, the old man finally decided to walk in the street and stop the cars so the kid could cross.

And so he was that much closer to the school. He saw a car turn on the street he was on. With a glance he saw that the girl’s father had decided to drop her off at school today. Maybe if he was lucky, he could play with her by the swings. He could see the school now; it was far off in the distance. Soon he would be there. He looked to his right and he was glad he did, there were bullies coming from a side street. He decided to play it safe and turn left. He would go through a friend’s backyard and avoid being seen by the bullies. He didn’t think they were mean, but he was convinced they were idiots. No one was at his friend’s place, his parents were at work and he probably was chasing people around in the schoolyard with whatever slimy thing he found.

The boy finally reached the street that would take him to the school. School buses passed by and he could hear people play around the schoolyard. He wonders about his first class. It’s going to be a math class, he hated numbers; they did not make sense. Adding and subtracting were easy concepts, but multiplying and dividing made no sense. It didn’t matter though, because after the math class, he would have physical education. An excuse to run around was always welcome. Then he would eat the lunch his mother made this morning. In the afternoon, he would learn about geography and music. Then he would go home. This day seemed promising. He crossed the street, walked in the schoolyard, and was greeted by his friends. It was a day like any other.

[No comments really, we all walked to school once, right?]