That Scandalous Year

1. The Last Hurrah

SEVEN MONTHS EARLIER

CLEAD

It was still early that June morning. The sun hadn't reached its peak yet, but the street was already busy. The line of cars dropping kids off was unusually long. It was also hot. Like it was summer all over again.

Clead gently closed the door of his dad's car, instantly feeling the heat outside. He turned away and stepped onto the sidewalk, running a hand through his hair as he did. He walked on, taking two steps at a time.

The jitters slid down his stomach as he welcomed the first day of Senior Year. The last first day of high school. The last hurrah before college. The last year to enjoy being a kid.

Clead considered himself an average guy. From the top of his head down to his feet, there was nothing that set him apart from anybody else; nothing to flaunt; nothing to hide. He wasn't too tall, but he wasn't short. He wasn't fat, and he wasn't skinny. His eyes were dark and round just like almost everybody else's. His nose wasn't pointy, but it wasn't flat or big. He didn't have an extra finger, unlike one of his classmates. He thought he got lucky that he didn't go through the acne or the braces phase. He looked okay, as he'd say it.

He was, for his standards, dressed neatly that day too. He wore the set of wardrobes he hastily picked the night before. Plain moss green polo shirt, dark blue jeans, black Vans. And an almost empty old black backpack hung on his shoulders. The first day of the school year allowed them to casually dress up. The next day, they had to be in uniforms.

He reached the gate of Holy Rosary School and walked inside. There were hurdles of small groups of people welcoming each other from the summer break.

His summer was simple but memorable. That is if you considered video games on Tuesdays and basketball games on Fridays with your two friends as something to commemorate. But he'd carry it like a remembrance once he was bound to attend college in the capital. Because it wasn't what they did that mattered to Clead, it was the time they spent together. He was a little sentimental in that regard. Also, they made up for the time and space his girlfriend, Richelle, left in those two months. Even though they talked almost every day, it wasn't the same with her hours away.

Richelle got accepted into an internship for an indie film. Clead was both elated and sad for her. Elated that she was chosen among a lineup of equally talented young students from all over the region, and sad for the obvious reason. She only got back home the week before and spent those days with her family. The first day of school was also the first time he'd be seeing her since she left in the second week of April. Excited couldn't even describe his feeling.

But it was one of Clead's friends who showed up first. Vladimir. The guy who swore he was born in the wrong decade.

"Yo! Cleeeed!"

He came from the walkway west of the quadrangle. The grassy open field in the middle of the four main adjoined buildings of the primary school side of the campus.

Vlad was that guy who could easily be a target of popular kids who made fun of others for no reason. He was skinny, lanky, and pimply. His name also sounded like a vampire's. But vulnerabilities aside, he made up for them by being that guy who was always ready to say something to anyone, be it a response to an insult or a graded recitation.

Vlad was recently fond of discovering elements of pop culture during the nineties. He felt like he could relate more to that time than the present. The 2010s sucked, as he put it. The early 2000s were too girly, he once said. And the eighties were too complex. So, the nineties were his thing. Last year, he juggled between the Vanilla Ice and the Puff Daddy eras. This year, he was all about grunge. He was even sporting a Nirvana t-shirt that day. It was one size too big for him, but he didn't seem to mind.

He had a handful of mint candies in one of his hands when he greeted Clead. He must have bought them from the snack stand in the school cafeteria. Vlad offered Clead some, but he thought it was too early for sweets. He shrugged, and Vlad asked him what was up.

"Do you think we're going to be classmates again?" He asked when Clead didn't answer the first question.

He hoped not.

Vladimir was fun and nice to be around. There was never a dull moment with him when he was with friends. He was alright outside the classroom, but another if in it. He was always talking about something and eating something like he couldn't rest his mouth for a minute. He was a teacher's favorite to reprimand. Clead grew tired of people asking him why he was friends with someone as lousy as Vlad.

Clead gave his friend a snorting laugh as a reply to his question. Vlad disregarded it as they joined Edward to complete their trio. Clead also thought it was unusual that his friends arrived early to school. It must have been the first day high.

Edward was standing near a corner of the walkway leading to the high school building. He joined his friends as they walked up the stairs to the top floor. The Seniors' floor.

Edward stood as the tallest among them. He was also another kind of weirdo. He came into school wearing a green and white plaid buttoned shirt over a white long-sleeved shirt, loose jeans, and sneakers. It was about thirty-five degrees celsius outside, and tiny beads of sweat already formed on his forehead. But he always got out of their house in layers of clothing, so he was used to it. Whereas Vlad liked anything that screamed 'the nineties', Edward was fond of adapting German things. He even asked his friends (and some of their kind classmates) to address him in Deutsch. Edvard. This obsession came after he watched and liked the film Freistatt and explored other German films he got access. When Clead and Vlad asked why, he just said, "Because I liked it. Wilkommen in meiner Welt."

They skimmed the lists printed on white papers taped at the doors of the classrooms. There were six rooms for Seniors. Six sections. They found out they weren't classmates for that year. Clead's in section Compassion, Vlad in Justice, and Edward's in Prudence. Clead also looked for Richelle's name. She's on the Wisdom list.

The guys went into their separate rooms after saying they'd see each other again in the afternoon.

Clead was the least eccentric of the three. He didn't have any unusual fascination, unlike his two friends. One can argue that he was the most "normal" in their trio. He was even dating a girl! He enjoyed sports as much as any fifteen (and about to turn sixteen in a few months) year-old guys. He played video games and card games. He read comic books and manga. He watched movies and anime. But compared to most of their male peers, he wrote for the school paper. And he loved doing it. Last year, he took charge of the sports column. This year, he was hoping he'd level up to the editorial page.

Clead entered his classroom and selected a chair in the back corner to sit on. It didn't matter if later or the next day their teacher would rearrange their assigned seats. He felt less visible there that morning. And that was how he liked it.

He dug his phone from the pocket of his jeans and texted Richelle.

I just got here, she wrote back after Clead told her he was in school already. Settled and all.

I guess I'll just see you at lunch, she added. Her classroom was in the far corner of the floor.

See you later. I miss you, he typed.

He surveyed the almost full room and recognized that he knew everyone there. They'd been his classmates at some point since kindergarten. He nodded at Greg, Jed, Linda, and Cindy. They were also in the same section in the previous year.

Clead leaned back on the chair and took a deep breath. He checked back his phone to see if Richelle replied and realized that he didn't press send earlier, so he did.

The teacher stepped inside from the door on the side of the front of the room. Clead hid away his phone. His classmates also stopped moving around.

Wilkommen in Senior Year.