A Very Different Place

I remember back in Elementary school when we had crushes.You'd go out to recess, huddle into a little group, and follow around/gossip about the cute guys. For one thing, in Jr. High guys aren't "cute" anymore, they're "attractive." Apparently there's a difference. Now, instead of the girls sitting and giggling about the "attractive" guys, your guy friends go around and tell everyone who you have a crush on. This often leads to rumors and embarrassment.

Another thing is lunch.
Before, we would go to the lunchroom and sit evenly spread out at the table with all of your friends. You would eat and then go outside and play or just talk. You waited until your teacher came out and then lined up in single file lines and waited for everyone to get inside.
Now you shuffle down the stairs and into the very tight lunchroom. There are never any chairs left, and people are standing by the tables and sitting on the ledges. Half of your friends have a different lunch time. The lunch lines are miles long and the food is gross. You finally get out of the crowded room and get to your locker. People are squishing you on all sides as you try to turn and twist an obnoxious dial to get the stinkin thing open. You switch out your heavy textbook for a different heavy textbook and break away from the wall of lockers. You wander around and bang into people until the bell rings and everyone scrambles to their different classes. If you don't make it to your class, you have to visit the evil lady and serve detention.

Before, no one swore. Most people said nice things to each other. Conversations were innocent and clean.
Now there's swearing left and right. Everyone calls each other bad names and a lot of conversations have suggestive content.

You used to have one teacher and everyone in your class did the same things at the same times.
Now no two people have the same schedule. You have seven to eight teachers and different teachers every day. You have five minutes to cross the whole school and get to your next class. You aren't allowed to have backpacks, so you carry around this huge "pillow binder" with all of your stuff crammed into it.

Looks are everything. The skaters with cool hair and new shoes can fail at any subject and no one cares, but for some reason really talented or smart people with normal hair and clothes can be completely shunned.

Believe it or not, Jr. High School is a very different place.

Pshh! Me, complain?! Of course not.