The Matters of Power

Chapter 15- Fall Festival, Missing Star [6]

*Current Perspective: Carl Thompson*

As far as I knew, I was always a San Anton resident growing up. My parents gave birth to me back in the big city of San Antonio (I know, how both places have similar names is beyond me) but I don't remember much of my early life there other than the usual sounds of cars, trucks, and constant traffic in our little apartment that was overlooking the highways. They really didn't want me to live with such distractions and had a relative in touch up north near Austin, so when we visited one Christmas vacation and were fascinated at the rural lifestyle and potential quality-of-life, we had moved quite the distance to get there. Getting used to the countryside life wasn't something I had to struggle with since I wasn't used to city areas as an infant, and by the time I was entering elementary school I grew quite fond of this life. Even though for the first few years of school my family had to switch to different houses to rent because of financial issues, I got close to the peers I was learning with, and even got a reputation for being a tough guy in small wrestling matches when the teachers weren't looking.

Fast forwarding to the start of 4th grade, graduating from my elementary school to an intermediate school, San Anton was starting to grow in population and industry because of the "rural lifestyle trend" that was going around, where we got more fresh faces in the school districts and was when I first met Payton Moon after the first week of school. It was after school had ended, where we mostly waited at the bus stops area to wait for our buses to pick us up, and the friend groups started to form and hang out. I was mostly by myself since I never really trusted myself to be with any group who would talk smack about others because use children didn't about how that one kid dressed or the look of their face when they said hi. I could see that there was an abnormal amount of people that weren't in groups and that they would want to be alone, but then I saw a small group of girls sitting at one of the benches that were doing their homework. Apparently, one of the guys nearby thought that was dumb so he thought it would be comedic to distract them from their work, and it kept going on for a little bit even with the girls grumbling under their breath until I decided to intervene. I shoved the guy and told him off to stop doing such things, but he was one of those guys who was all bark with no bite and kept berating me and the girls, and they looked like one of them was ready to confront him. By then, I had already pushed him away and slapped his arm in an aggressive warning, and he cowardly retreated away to where I can finally face the girls.

One of them didn't seem too happy about what I did because she hissed at me, "What did you do that for? It would have been fine he didn't get any reaction from us and would stop to bother someone else, but you had to violently push him away! Not cool, man." At the time, I wasn't sure why I was the one who was getting chewed out when I saved them from being picked on. "Woah, what? I just stopped someone from bugging you and you immediately yell at me when you should be thanking me? What's gotten into you?" She just stared at me, looking disappointed and frustrated at my response. She then quotes, "'No man is above the law, and no man is below it'. One of our Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, said that. Do you know what that means, sir?" I shook my head, surprised that anyone would use that type of discussion. "(Sigh), well, even with someone doing something bad one shouldn't resort to doing worse things thinking that they are doing something good. You just proved that to me today. Listen, I don't like you people who try to act tough and think that violence can somehow can fix anything, so I rather would stay away from you unless you can prove me wrong. (She extends her hand) I'm Payton." I wasn't used to shaking at girl's hand and just left it there, and nodded. "Uh... my name's Carl. Carl Thompson." She lowers her hand, "Fine then, Carl. I hope that I don't have to deal with you in the future, because I have my own issues to worry about (she waves her homework sheet that she was holding)."

Her bus arrives at the bus stop and that's the end of our first interaction together. After that, I found her in my classrooms more often that I didn't think she would be in, and would sometimes try to strike up a conversation with her, but my efforts were wasted as she initially gave me a cold shoulder and try to keep up with her studies. The more I thought about it, Payton was the most unique person I had ever met so far in my school life that I couldn't stop thinking about her. She was very studious, always wanting to study more in History class and one time was part of the Class Officers as a Vice-President, quiet yet was one that could always be relied on in a group project to lead and keep everyone in line, and could act much more mature than any other girl in the school that she completely disregarded rumors and gossip. Even though some guys and girls would tease her for these qualities and make fun of her, she payed little mind to them until I roughed them up a little if I was nearby (which more often than not I was), where she chewed me out for my "violent" nature and would always wish that I didn't antagonize every person. Though we may have known each other for a long time (through unfavorable circumstances), she still doesn't seem to like me as much as barely tolerate me even though I've been trying to get on her good side by not trying to defend her every single time, but that's taken a toll on my self-esteem.