Why would this happen to me? Why would God make my teeth look so terrible? What did I do to deserve to get this terrible punishment? Why me? “Do I have to go to school today?” I ask my mom. “I don’t feel very well.” This was some what of the truth. I got sick to my stomach thinking of what my friends would think of me if I went to school with these monsters on my mouth. For all I know, I am the only one with this curse. Well, me and my brother.

“No you have to go to school, sweetie.” My mom said.

“Fine,” I say back not trying to fight with her.

I pull up to the school in my silver Honda van and hop out. I sit in the jumbled up pile that is my class line just waiting for my day to be over. I keep thinking to my self When will my friends find out? Will I ever tell them? When will I open my mouth again? Will they even notice me not talking?  My friend Zachary walks over to me and asks, “What’s wrong Eli?” I quickly spin away from him and shake my head violently back and forth. When he leaves, I spin and cover my face with my hand. Is this a good reason to lose my friends?

We all say morning prayer and the Pledge and go to class. When we all sit in our brown desk, the one thing I dreaded happened. Mrs. Block called on me. “Elias? Do you know the answer?”

What was I supposed to do? Would I ignore her and get in trouble? Is it worth getting in trouble for? I finally make my decision and cover my mouth and speak, but everything that comes out is jumbled words muffled by my hands.

“You are going to have to speak up Hon ,” Mrs. Block said
I uncovered my mouth, praying that no one and said, “I don’t know the answer.”
“Okay. You need to listen to what I’m saying next time Okay?”

Did anyone see me? Did they see the ugly beasts glued to my face? What will they say to me later when they see me alone? My life is going to end.

At recess I just decided to sit on the bench and do nothing. Of course, my friends would occasionally say, “Come play with us,” or “What’s wrong?” but I just shook my head no or shrugged them off. Then I got this feeling that my friends thought of me as a jerk for not talking to them, so I felt sad. At the end of recess, I trudged over to the end of the line and opened my mouth to sigh. Big mistake made by me. I left my mouth open and exposed to the world and everyone could see.

Now when I look back at it, it was foolish of my 5th grader self to think my friends would make fun of me because of my braces. I now know that I wasn’t the only one with braces in my school. I was mentally preparing myself for the humiliation but, no one cared. All this time I was wasting my time on being self conscious about my braces but no one cared about it. I realize now that I was being helped by my orthodontist. I learned from this experience that your friends don’t car about what you wear or do. They are your friends because they like you for you.