It was one of those days where nothing seems to go right. But in Jacob Lipinstick’s case, that was every day. It was Sept. 3, 2019, the first day of school. He was entering 7th grade. He woke up that day and said to himself, I will not be a klutz. I will not be a klutz. He woke up and got dressed in his back-to-school outfit, which consisted of a short-sleeved button-up shirt, red jeans, a black bow tie, and white sneakers.

He could smell breakfast cooking - bacon and eggs, his favorite!

He raced down the stairs  into the kitchen and straight into his family’s housekeeper and nanny, Reynalda, who was mixing up the eggs. The bowl went flying and landed on him, the yucky, yellow mixture smearing the front of his shirt. Seriously?, he thought to himself, stumbling upstairs to change.

He sat down at the table where his little brother Ryan, aged 4 and baby sister Maggie were sitting. She was eating Cheerios while he had four bowls of food, because he was picky and couldn’t decide. As Jacob went to sit down, she knocked over her bowl sending it spilling onto his head. Bits of Cheerio stuck to his hair. Not again, he thought to himself, grumbling on his way back to his room. 

By the time he came downstairs, he realized that it was 7:30 and he had missed the bus. He ran after it, not noticing that his shoelace was untied. He tripped and landed on his face, right in a puddle. The splash from his falling left mud streaks all over his clothes, which he didn’t have time to change again. 

He wiped off his face and jumped on his bike, muttering under his breath, but not before triple knotting his shoelaces. As he searched for his locker, he was not paying attention to anything but the timetable printed on the sheet in his hands. He didn’t notice the hundreds of students milling about….. or the girl in front of him walking the same way, a stack of books that almost touched the ceiling covering her view.

Splat! The books went flying. He suddenly realized what had just happened. He bent down and helped her pick up the books. As he stood up, he started to blush. The cute girl in front of him had choppy, short blonde hair and was wearing big, black round glasses that brought out the green in her eyes. “I’m Jacob Lipstick...I mean Lipinstick...sorry about walking into you,” he said, stuttering. 

“I’m Marion. Marion Ringus. It’s okay. I probably shouldn’t carry so many anyway,” she said stacking them up and putting some in her bag. 

“Well, um I gotta find my class so bye. I’ll see you around,” he said. He showed up to Science class, his first class of the day, apologizing profusely for being late. He managed to set his pants on fire in the first 20 minutes, knocking over the Bunsen Burner that they were using to do an experiment on velocity. They were supposed to be heating up different liquids and then pouring them down a tube and into a bowl to see which liquid was the fastest and which one was the slowest. That took a backseat as he danced around the classroom, trying to get it out. Everyone laughed. He, however, was miserable. They were able to put the fire out but he had to tie his mud - streaked sweater around his waist for the rest of the day.

Lunch finally came, but the struggle to make it through in one piece kept going. Within the first two minutes of walking in, he tripped on a banana peel, spilling orange juice on himself and tripping on his shoelaces in front of the entire cafeteria.

He heard a giggle from a nearby table and then everyone started to laugh. That was when he realized that there was now a giant wet spot, from where the orange juice splashed on the front of his pants. As he was contemplating whether he should die of embarrassment under the table, he saw a pair of black boots walk towards him. He saw a hand in front of his face, and he grabbed it. The hand pulled him to his feet. Looking up, he realized it was Marion.

“You're having quite the day, aren't you?” she said. He nodded.

“Why don’t you come to my table?” she asked. 

“I would like that,” he said. She helped him mop up the mess and took his hand, guiding him outside to the soccer field. He met his match that day and the two quickly became friends.  

Now, when he thinks about that day and tells the story to their kids, he laughs. Why? Because it was all thanks to his favorite meal, bacon, and eggs. 

Carissa Fortin

She is a massive Harry Potter Nerd. She loves mac and cheese. She would love to travel the world some day as a career. Her favorite place to be is in my library.