S - A Normal School Day

6:00 Time to get up. While I slowly try to get myself out of bed in the morning, my little sister thwarts my hope of a few extra minutes of sleep by jumping joyfully on my bed.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead. Or do you want to be late?" shouts Tetra far too enthusiastic for the time. "It's okay, I'll get dressed..." I reply, still very sleepy. Even in the morning she is always very energetic.

On with breakfast. A bowl of muesli with a little too much milk makes up Tetra's and my most important meal of the day. While it takes me 5 minutes to literally devour this delicacy, my sister takes her time and spends a good half an hour at the dining table.

No, she's not one of those epicures who ruminate on her food for hours. She forgets to just keep eating. She always lets herself be distracted by something and spends her time in her own world doing something completely different. If she didn't look so awake next to me, the permanent sleeper, one could believe that she is still dreaming.

6:50 Departure to school! On the way to the bus I meet my best friend in the stairwell, whom I have known for more than 10 years. He has lived for as long as I can remember in the same house with his family two floors below us. Except for a "Hi", he and I can't say anything that early in the morning.

7:00 In the morning it is always very crowded on the bus, so we rarely get a seat. One stop later Markus gets on. Every morning he greets us with "Hi Alex and Alex". Yes, my best friend not only happens to have the same doormat on the doorstep, but also the same name. Pretty complicated, huh? As every morning we greet Markus friendly sleepy back.

7:50 After the short bus ride, we board a train that takes us to our school. Once arrived, classes begin relatively soon, so it's time to say goodbye to my friends. Alex and Markus are together in one class, but I'm in another. Despite this, I know the people from my class only too well.

For one, there's Noel and Marcus, who I've known the longest of all. Yes, I know another Markus, but this time spelled with a C. Noel is the type of person who always wants to make the most of every situation. He always knows how to assess things correctly and that's why I try to trust him more.

I can't say much about Marcus. He's really good at some things. A real multi-talent, if you will. When push comes to shove, I know you can count on him.

And then there are their friends Noah and Jacob. Noah's a real smooth talker. If you're not really convinced of something, chances are Noah will talk you into it. Jakob is very familiar with all things technological. And this just scratches the tip of the iceberg.

This list could go on for a while, but that's enough to get you started. My class consists practically only of individual individuals.

1st lesson: English

English, peas and I will probably never become real friends. Maybe that's because both always make me vomit. The worst part is talking. To me, native English doesn't sound much different than the croaking of a frog, which can be quite amusing at first.

But when I try my hand at the language, it feels like a whole pond of frogs is about to be stuck in my throat, which is an incredibly disgusting and unpleasant feeling. In general, speaking has never been my strength. Why should I learn that in another language? No thanks! I'm far too lazy for that.

2nd lesson: P.E.

Yeah, who would have guessed, I suck at sports too. I am far too puny and have no muscle tone whatsoever to pull anything in any sport. I also have no special talents that make me stand out from the crowd in any way.

Even when strength and speed are not important, I'm usually worse than average. You could blame that on disinterest to change something about my figure, but I don't see it that serious.

3rd lesson: Music

Although music has always been easy for me to understand, I lack the talent again. Still, that doesn't discourage me from enjoying it. I play the saxophone in an orchestra and listen to a number of different genres. It doesn't matter whether a piece is classical or modern, new or old, as long as it stimulates it has done its job. At least that's my philosophy when it comes to songs.

And this is what a typical school day looked like to me. As you may notice, I'm not exactly the hardest-working person, which was also reflected in my grades. So I was a student who went unnoticed until the day everything changed.