Yeah, Year 7+8 can be a bit of a rough time adjusting from primary to (in many cases including ours anyway) a huge school with kids nearly a decade older than you. Luckily I escaped the brunt of it but some of my mates were bullied by older twats in the early days.

Then again I hear American middle schools can be hellish so ymmv... think the actual quality of the school and resources it has etc. are much more important factors. )Just in the last couple weeks at my ex-secondary, someone was stabbed in a corridor and had to go A&E, while someone else was brutally beaten up by a group of guys and had their nose broken. That place is going to shit I tell ye...)