Well, reading everyone's posts about schooling, I feel like adding my perspective. I'm going to go farther back though.
In South Africa, kids were not really segregated into groups in the school. We wore uniforms.. so no kids appeared richer or poorer than any other kid. We were not allowed to bring in toys or anything like that, except on special occasions for a project or something. We all seemed to be the same as eachother.
It was the later half of the school year when I moved away to America. I came into US schooling close to November in 2nd grade, so it was early in the year sorta. Immediately I noticed people were in distinct 'groups'.. I didn't know how it happened.. I actually thought it was the teacher's doing. I was placed in a seat near AJ (same one that Calliander mentioned) and JeffM. JeffM was instructed by the teacher to show me around, help me with things, etc. He was more than happy to take on the task.. I was not the normal new kid.. I was a new kid that talked funny. I was living in the 'slum' of Branford, my neighbor was actually Seeds.. who was also in the class. JeffM seemed like a good kid, and so did AJ. Everyone wanted to know me (being foreign an all). I got a lot of attention (which I did NOT want) and went through a tough time of missing my friend Simon from SA annd my pet cats and my chameleons.
I went through a lot of crap in 2nd grade because I was quite upset to have moved. I still didn't understand the 'group' system. I mainly hung out with JeffM and AJ and their friends just because.
When 3rd grade rolled around, it came time to be at a different school. I was placed in a class with a whole bunch of different kids. I started to fake an American accent (which actually caused me to end up being yelled at.. er.. spoken to by the speech therapy lady who did not approve). I did not want to be different, and there were a lot more kids in this school who had a million stupid questions for me. A few weeks into the year, I got sent down to take a test in the cafeteria during the day. This was just before my teacher caught pneumonia. I took the test with a whole slew of other kids. Things progressed slowly, I didn't really make any friends. I started to hate school again.
Then one day, I was told by my teacher that I was being put into some program called 'B.O.P.'. I was told to go down to a room to talk to the other teacher about it. I thought I was in trouble again... I hadn't done any homework in my workbook for weeks.
I walked into the BOP classroom, and the room was fairly empty in terms of people. The teacher was a short lady who was awefully friendly for someone about to yell at me for not doing any work. I sat across from this weird looking kid who had this odd smile on his face near the window. He had a couple of pencils in front of him, and he was reading something, or had been. I sat down and waited. A bunch of other kids (about a dozen total) showed up in the next few minutes. One was a really loud girl, Kate who would not shut up. Another was Cotton who looked like he was in trouble too. I suppose Syn was there too, but I don't really remember him from that day.
Anyway, the weird kid with the odd smile had been talking to me a bit, and he seemed neat. He reminded me a lot of Simon.. I wondered if he played marbles or had a bike. I didn't know anyone with a bike or could play marbles.. two things that I missed doing in the company of others. I didn't catch his name on the first day.. he told it to me twice, and I knew it began with S.. but I couldn't remember it. It sounded more like the name of a yo-yo brand...
BOP had meetings pretty much daily. Eventually I learned the weird kid's name.. Stone. Er, that wasnt his name, but that's the name you know. Stone and I became good friends. He lived near the water, and had some awesome toys.
I also joined the school orchestra... a LOT of kids joined up, and it was huge. I chose the violin.
When fourth grade started, things changed a bit. My parents finally saved enough money to move out of the 'slum' and into a house. The house was on the edge of town, and was on the same street as JeffM. I was psyched.. I was sick of being in the slum with the bigger kids always throwing rocks at us. I did not want to be near the Italian-American club anymore.
In fourth grade I had a whole new group of kids in my class. Cotton was in the class, and so was Kate.. in fact, most of BOP was in there.. Stone was not though. In the class was one of the Trumpores, who played bass in the orchestra (one of the many bass players). I spent most of my time in school with the kids that were in both bop and normal class. We generally got away with murder, and I felt comfortable around them generally. The trumpore kid was interesting.. he said a lot of stuff I thought.
I also meet KMR (currently, he does nothing I believe) and Devon (who went to a different high school, was good friends with FlyingTim, even in 4th grade I think, and now goes to Cornell).
Now, I have left out one huge aspect throughout all of this... and that is computing. In 2nd grade, I started using the computer. Since I didn't have any real friends, I'd spend recess on the computer. Fourth grade progressed even more, especially since KMR was into computers and had access to more programs than anyone else i knew.
Anyway.. I am tired and going to leave things off here until I continue. Part 2 will be a bit more interesting since it will tie into more of everyone elses story.