It was a normal day in the second grade. The sun was shining, the leaves were green, and it was reasonably warm. I was just minding my own business at recess thinking, I want to climb the blue thing. The “blue thing” was this tall, plastic ladder of sorts that resembles a mountain. There were grooved footholds, allowing a way to ascend it. I stood in front of the “blue thing” thinking about going up it when I suddenly looked to the left at other people with my mouth open, a bee chose that precise moment to fly straight in my mouth and under my tongue! I left my mouth open, freaking out on the inside while trying to remain calm on the outside. The hairs on the bee’s body hurt! They were poking me in multiple places. I put my head down towards the ground (still with my mouth open) and let the bee fall out.

It felt like millions of tiny needles, poking me into submission. I wanted to cry but held it in for now because I was a big boy so I wasn’t allowed to cry at school. I kept my mouth shut, not wanting to talk because it hurt to move my tongue.

I noticed Cambria standing over by the tree to my left with Rose. Cambria’s always been nice, I thought, she might help me. I walked over to them and just stood beside them awkwardly, watching them do whatever they were doing (I wasn’t paying attention at all) trying to hold back the crashing wave of tears that wanted to overtake me.

Cammy noticed me and asked, “Are you okay Andrew?” I shook my head, not wanting to talk. She could see the tears forming in my eyes.

Finally, after a few moments of Cammy waiting for me to explain. I consented, “I got stung by a bee under my tongue.” I expected her to laugh because it was a very unusual thing to happen.

“How about we take you to the nurse?” she enquired. I nodded, a little bit surprised at her seriousness and not finding it funny at all.

Cammy led me to the playground supervisor and I explained what happened to me. The playground supervisor led me inside and to the office where they again asked me to explain what happened. Then, the secretary told me to open my mouth and try and show them. I was less than successful. They gave me some ice and told me that for the rest of the day I had to keep ice under my tongue. The ice helped the thorn bush in my mouth wither away a bit.

I was sent back to class late and had to walk in and sit in my seat, which was at the front of the room, in front of everybody. We had a sub that day which made it worse. “What happened, Andrew?” someone in class asked me. I just watched the teacher feeling my face explode with embarrassment at walking in late.

Usually at the start of gym class, we run laps around the gym. Since I was in agony, Mr. Leo let me walk instead of run. When I started to walk around the gym, almost all of the girls in my class walked with me asking what happened and said things like, “That must’ve hurt,” and, “Are you okay?” I told them I was and that I was grateful that they were walking with me (I didn't realize at the time that they were probably just walking with me so they didn’t have to run).

The worst day of my school life was also one of the better days. It started out like a normal day, turned into an atrocious one when I got the bee sting, then it transformed into a pretty good day. It’s crazy to think about how precise of an angle the bee must have been flying at to run right into my open mouth when I turned. I mean how likely is it that a bee is flying right at your face and then flies into your mouth when you turn your head in its direction! In the end, I look back at this situation and laugh at how crazy it must have been to listen too and how crazy it actually was.