Blurred Lines

Part Two

Although my best friend was tempestuous by nature, we continued our friendship throughout our younger years. When I reflect upon the circumstances of our friendship, I often wonder why we clung so closely to each other. Trouble followed my friend no matter where she went, and I guess I was there to pull her back before she went too far. 

Of course, she wasn't my only friend. I was never among the most popular kids in school. I had my nose in a book most of the time and studied a lot, achieving the highest grades. I excelled in English and history but sucked at math and science. I had several special friends and a particularly special boyfriend who lived next door. 

The middle school I attended was a tough school. My friends and I attended the island school but suddenly found ourselves at the mainland school. We were caught between two warring factions. There were fights in the corridors between classes every day. Someone would yell out FIGHT, and everyone would run to find out who was involved. Girl fights were always worse than boy fights. We cheered and hooted like mad for whoever we supported until someone yelled out TEACHER. Then, everyone scrambled. 

My friend got involved with a rough crowd. She got involved with drugs and drinking and started to drift away. However, she would pull herself back and become even more clingy than usual. The situation at the middle school became so tempestuous that my parents sent my brother and me to a private school. Many of my friends attended also. It was a cozy learning place, and we participated in many outdoor activities and field trips.      

The private school broke my ties with my friend. Her parents couldn't afford to send her to the school, so she remained at the middle school. Her drug addiction escalated, and her attitude declined drastically. When we did see each other, she expressed her jealousy against me. She always viewed me as having more than she did and hated it.

Finally, my parents decided to move. My father, who was always in poor health, couldn't live in the cold northeast climate. We moved to Florida, where I attended high school starting my sophomore year. I gained a whole new set of friends, and my life moved on.  

I came home from school one day to find my New Jersey friend had arrived with her family. This is a whole different story--one I hope to address in my fiction writing someday. To make a long story short, my friend's mother stole her boyfriend and had a baby with him. So now my friend had a sister whose father was her ex-boyfriend. (Fodder for a great story, huh?) 

My friend's father kicked the mother out, and she brought her 'circus' to our doorstep. She thought they were going to move in on our family. Well, she thought wrong when my father put them out immediately. I never saw my friend again but know what happened to her. I'll return to that thought later on. 

I took an alternative English course on Science Fiction during my junior year. It provided a great opportunity to read a few great books, but mainly, we were assigned writing exercises. It really sparked my interest in writing. I will claim that this was the beginning of my love for writing fiction. It opened doors for me and my future. 

My Senior year English teacher passed out notebooks to his students to keep a diary. He said we could write what we wanted but also assigned writing tasks. They were simple descriptive exercises. 

I began writing my first novel in that notebook diary. Instead of writing day-to-day events, I filled the pages with sentences and chapters. I have to admit, I was quite uneducated in writing fiction, and looking back upon that early book, it was the roughest of rough drafts. I pursued the story for a long time and, finally, set it aside. I graduated from high school and began working in a department store. 

I often wished I hadn't gone to work. My desire was to become a novelist. However, there are pros and cons to everything in life. I'll address those in the next chapter. 

If you have read this far, thank you.