BRACES

We were pulling in front of the orthodontics office when I started feeling scared for the first time ever since I heard that I was getting braces. Would it hurt? Would I get sores in my mouth? Will my lips get really chapped? Would I be able to smile the same? Would I be able to talk the same? Will people make fun of me when I get back to school? Chills ran down my spine.
“Why don’t you go on in and I’ll go park.” My mom suggested. I nodded and got out of the car. I walked through the door way and headed towards the elevator. I pressed the button up and stood there waiting, while tapping my fingers on my thighs. The elevator dinged and the door slid open. I stepped in and pressed the floor 3 button. It lit up. I felt the elevator start rising and I jumped up and down for the fun of it. It seemed to boost my spirits. The door slid open and I walked out, heading down the hall to where the door was. It was nicely decorated. I realized I was stalling in my head and pushed the door open. I entered my name in on the digital touch screen and pressed enter.

“Birthday countdown, 7 days to go!” the screen read. I smiled. That was right! I’m getting braces a week before my birthday! I walked over to my favorite part of the waiting room. The video games. That’s why I loved my orthodontics place. You could watch movies while you were getting braces worked on and play video games in the waiting room. It was pretty awesome. I sat down to play a harry potter video game, but they called my name. I swallowed and stood up, walking over to the dental chair they had directed me towards. I sat down and looked at the orthodontist. She smiled at me and said,

“Don’t worry, people say it hurts but it doesn’t really. My daughter told me that it only hurts for about two or three days” She gave me a reassuring smile and got some stuff. She explained how she had to put a “cheek retractor” in my mouth and it will keep my tongue out of the way but show just my teeth. She als0 explained how if I had to swallow or spit or anything, I could flip a switch and these things in the back of the cheek retractor would suck the spit out. It was pretty cool. Eventually she picked up a big red cheek retractor and put it in my mouth. I practiced flipping the switch a few times before the orthodontist went to get the Dr. Lisa Kochis, the main orthodontist. She was pretty funny and pretty awesome too. I sat in silence as they put on about 18 brackets. Then I groaned and tried to grimace as they put on wires. Actually, it didn’t hurt that bad. Then they put my expander and I was done. The expander had to be the worst because every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night I had to push back and itty-bitty dial that made it widen out. It gave me instant headaches. I couldn’t say words that and “e” sound either, like beat, eat, feed, or need. It was ANNOYING!! Once it was all over, I got an excuse slip and went to school. When I was passing the school to go into the parking lot, I noticed that my class was outside and was drawing stuff with chalk. One person saw me driving by and started to shout hi at me. Eventually, it was like half the class. I stopped hanging out the window looking at them and put my hand out, waving at them like superstars do to crazy girls. When I pulled into the parking lot and went to sign in. I went over to the drama room and went out the back to where I had seen my classmates. Almost the exact second I walked out there people crowded me and started asking if they could see. I kept shaking my head over and over and finally I showed them. Since it was green, some people said “Ew!” and others told me it was cool. Some even laughed at me and said

Ha ha! You had to get braces!” Oh, yeah, it was Nathan. Yeah, you over there! The rest of the day was painful but great, and I’ve finally got used to my braces.

THE END