It can only improve

Bella’s first week of high school was abysmal. There’s not a single person she knows in any of her classes. There are over 1400 students in the school, the corridors are long and are laid out in a kind of maze, and Bella got lost once. 

One of her teachers is mean and said if they come to see her for help on their homework, she will charge them $10 an hour. (I think that should be against the law. The woman is being paid to teach them.) Bella has been assigned to an algebra class and a physics class, even though her math and science skills are not great, and most of the other students in the physics class are second and third years. 

She tried out for the volleyball team. Three teams are open to first-years, and she was placed in the middle one. That team has so far lost four and won none. They practice after school five days a week. She’s feeling pretty bleak, and it’s all I can do to restrain myself from going over there and knocking some administrators’ heads together. I told her it can only get better.