Malchik Gay

"Mum, I don't want to go. Well I do, but I don't want to have to be alone."

"Yulia, that's something your going to get over.Your five years old now and you should be able to spend a few hours a day in a class of people you don't know. There will be times in your life when you will be alone in the world, and you need to know how you cope with that as an individual. Besides, your a pretty girl, you'll make friends in no time." My father, a business man, told me wisely. He stroked my shoulder length blond hair and gave me a small light blue box containing my lunch.

I sighed and let him lead me out to the car, where he was driving me off to begin my life at a childrens group. I stared out of the back window at my mother, who stood waving me off from the doorway. I turned back and looked out of the window, watching the streets of Russia I knew so well whiz past us at 30 MPH.

As we drew closer, the big, looming school hovered high above my small frame. The principle came out to greet us. She was wearing a knee length Grey skirt with a white blouse and a blazer to match the skirt. I sized her up and took note of the noise of the school band playing somewhere in the background. There were several other families around, all speaking to individual carers about what their children were getting into for the next few years of their lives. The principle assured us all that the other pupils were friendly and welcoming, and that we had nothing to be afraid of. I was calmed quickly and we were led into a welcoming hall. We were shown slide show presentations of past pupils. All were playing and laughing. As a small five year old girl, I quickly lost interest in the boring pictures on the screen and looked around at my new school.

The hall we were in was big and dark wood paneled every square inch of the walls. We were all sitting round a large rectangle table and the floor was an old dark blue carpet. Older pupils were frequently looking through the small window in the door and pulling faces. I only saw the girls, and they were all wearing the same thing. A white blouse with a small red checked mini-skirt. Their white socks were pulled up to their knees and their little black shoes were all shined to perfection. It wasn't until I looked around the room that I noticed we were all wearing the same too.

Though, our skirts were a little less short and our blouses a little more tidy. Our neck scarves were higher and smarter than theirs. The older girls didn't even wear neck scarves, and their top button wasn't done up like ours, we could see their exposed chests and even a little cleavage on some girls. I looked down at myself and thought I over dressed I would look to them. I swore I'd get rid of the top button and scarf once our parents were out of here and we were safely in our class rooms.

I began in a small, yellow painted room. My dad had gone to a coffee morning in the school's main hall which we weren't allowed to attend and I was unsuccessful at removing my scarf as us little ones were not allowed. We were told that the older girls looked scruffy and inappropriate compared to us. Apparently, we looked beautiful and smart. We all sat on a bit of carpet in the center of our room, as our carer made us sit in a circle around the edges of the carpet. One by one, we passed around a small shiny rock, if we had the rock, we had to tell everyone our names and a little bit about ourselves. One girl, Katrina Corrina, swore her dad was a very successful business man and she had a huge house and her own pony. I didn't believe her at first, but in several years, I would find out it was true. I was the eighth to receive the rock from the small boy sat beside me.

"Well...I'm Yulia, I'm five, and I'd like to play the piano." I couldn't think of anything else to say, so I passed the rock on, but the carer halted the circle.

"So Yulia. Do you have any previous experience with the piano?" I blushed and looked at the ground, aware all eyes were on me.

"I sometimes play my mum's piano in the front room but I don't actually know how to play properly."

"We can always hook you up to piano lessons here if you want. If that's what you want to study then you can do that." She smiled warmly at me and let me finally pass the rock on.

I sat quietly for the rest of the introduction session, a little disgusted at the boy beside me repeatedly picking his nose. There were two girls sitting opposite of me in the circle. Both identical with long, curly blond hair. Their sparkly blue eyes burned into me. I felt really self conscious under their piercing stares. I twiddled my fingers and listened subconsciously to all the names and the bits of information about everyone.

The day seemed to last forever and all we did was hear information about the school and each other. We listened to lectures from various carers about various things we could study.

"Okay children. We have Guitar over in the left, Piano at the back, Violin to the right, trumpet is at the other end of this room, and vocals right here. You can only sign up for one, Yulia I already have you down for the piano. So go choose."

All thirty two pupils shot off in various directions, four stayed put including me. There was at least five at all the others. The teacher on the vocals option pulled me closer to her.

"I thought you wanted to do Piano Yulia." The teacher asked with her hand on my shoulder.

"I did. You said you'd put my name down, but I don't know weather or not to do singing instead." The teacher gripped my sleeve and pulled me away from the four other pupils in the singing group.

"If your willing to stay back after school and put in extra time at break and lunch times, I could coach you privately but you can't tell the others, or they'll all want to do it."

I grinned and nodded enthusiastically, before leaving to go stand in the Piano group. The hall we were in was dark and a little scary, but I was too happy now to care.

I looked forward to going home at three PM and explaining to my parents about my extra after school vocal lessons.