I Feel Our Memories Fade With Time.

No School.

“Tyler? Wake up, you start sixth grade today.”

“No school, dad,” I mumbled.

“Another trait you share with your mother,” he said with a laugh. “She hated school too. Come on, get up!”

I waved him away and got out of bed. I went for the bathroom, showered, got dressed, and brushed my teeth. I went downstairs and grabbed a bowl of cereal.

“We’re going out on a tour soon, who do you want to stay with?” dad asked.

“Can I stay with Aunt Ana and Aiden?”

“We’ll ask her this weekend.”

“Cool.”

“So, middle school. You feel old yet?” he asked, ruffling my hair.

“I dunno. I always feel older.”

“You act older than you are. You’re eleven, act it.”

“Uncle Frank told me that once. When we visited mom on Christmas.”

“I’m shocked, because Frank never acts his age,” Dad said with a laugh.

For some reason, him mentioning Uncle Frank made me wonder. They hated each other for a while right after mom died. At least dad hated Uncle Frank, but uncle Frank was just sad.

“Come on, let’s get you to school.”

I finished my breakfast and threw the bowl in the sink. I grabbed my backpack and put my shoes on. Dad pulled up to the school and I stared, hesitantly.

“Tyler, it’s not so bad. You’ll like it.”

“I’m just afraid. What if my teachers ask about my family? I’ll get made fun of.”

“No you won’t. Just tell them the truth.” I turned to look at him. “You don’t want to tell them about mom, don’t you?”

“They’ll make fun of me.”

“No they won’t. The teacher won’t let them say anything. Go on in, you don’t want to be late.”

I nodded. “Bye, dad.”

He ruffled my hair and gave me a pat on the back as I got out of his car. He drove of and I walked up the stairs into the school building. I wandered around and found my locker. I put my books in my locker and grabbed what I needed. Then I looked at my schedule. Math room 103. I walked to that room and walked in. A few students were already seated and some were talking to the teacher. She looked kind of young for a teacher, but she seemed like a nice lady.

“Hello. I’m Ms. Peterson, I’ll be your math teacher,” she said, obviously in a very happy mood. Then she picked up her list. “And what’s your name?”

“Tyler Way.”

“Ah yes. The one with the famous father,” she said quietly.

“Oh?”

“They told us that we had a student with a father who’s in a famous band.”

“Oh. Okay.”

She smiled. “And on the first day we do the whole ice breaker thing. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.”

“Okay.”

“Well, your seat is right over there, behind Kyle.”

I nodded and took my seat. It was the same throughout the whole school day. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t really enjoy it. I did make friends with that Kyle kid I sit behind in math class. He was a nice kid. I just couldn’t wait to get home.