A Change of Scenery

Chapter 1: A New Beginning

My name is Colton Barnaby. I'm 15 years old and am currently attending summer school. I used to be part of a Baptist School since kindergarten all the way to freshman year in highschool, Pritchard's Parish Christian School. I couldn't stand it. Not that I have anything against religion, I don't, but never in my life have I seen anyone as judgmental as these assholes. So I quit, I decided I wasn't going to be forced to be part of a religion that treats themselves superior to other human beings. I failed two classes, Spanish and Algebra, which is why I'm in summer school right now. However I went to summer school in a different place, somewhere where I sought freedom of individuality, that somewhere was Chamber Heights High School, a place that would eventually change my life.
I'm a chronic depressive though I'd like to think of myself as an optimistic pessimist, believing everything will go wrong but still having the hope to stay alive. I only tried to kill myself twice this year, that's a new record!!! I went to my first class for the summer, Algebra 1. I've never liked numbers, meaningless symbols whose only purpose in existence is to count. Words, however, words can move mountains. Words are the way our soul communicates with those around us, words are pure emotion and emotion is what makes us human. As you can tell, I'm a words kinda guy.
I behaved very well with my teacher in this class because she deserved it. Back at Pritchard's, My friends and I were the black sheep of the school. Dean, Lucas, and I were a riot. The students loved us, and the teachers despised us. Each had their own reason to misbehave but I'll tell you my own. I'm rebellious when I need to be, and in the authoritarian government that is Pritchard's Parish Christian School, there was a necessity, an absence of rebellion, and I decided to provide it. I know teachers are older and we must respect our elders but that's all a bunch of bullshit, they're human and I am as well, we are equal. And I will not stand for the injustice of judging someone different. This teacher seems nice though so I'll let it slide.
Lunchtime came and I met new friends, but the one that impacted me was Dianne. She was the right amount of fucked up for me to actually want to be friends with her. I hate ordinariness, despise it, I find no creativity in it. That's why I enjoy being weird. However, despite of this new start, this change of scenery, I felt empty. The emptiness has always been with me. Even before my parents divorce or all of my countless losses, the emptiness has been there. It's my only companion. In a world full of people that surround me daily, where I am not alone for 5 minutes, I feel like I've never been emptier in my entire life, I feel that these people around me are apparitions, only there to fill the space of matter in this world. I feel alone, I've always felt alone, and will always be alone, no matter who I'm with. This was my mentality and sometimes still is, but all of that changed. I walked into my next class, Spanish. The foreign yet familiar language flowed with my breath as I spoke it to the teacher fluently. She was impressed and asked me how it was possible that I failed. I responded with a shrug though I know the real reason, I pissed my old Spanish teacher off, and he in turn failed me, proving the corruption in what was supposed to be a holy place. All these feelings of despair, anger, confusion about whether I left the lights on back home, flowed through my brain as the teacher stood up to give the lecture. Every student had their eye on her but me, I was too busy seeing the daydreams my mind had the courtesy of providing play back like a movie. Then something happened, something that interrupted the class, my train of thought, and the entire stability of the universe. Something that will forever be imprinted in my memory as the new beginning of time as I knew and comprehended it. She walked in.