SR ε: Dry Veins (2021)

Ch.2: I Walked

A Minor's Minor Gripe about Grapes
September 7th

Quincy (a pure-blooded french kid) and I had an argument about Grape Crash. He said it was just like the real thing, and that it was even more delicious. My tongue's been reeling all day from the sheer nerve. I brought him an actual grape, and asked him to compare. He refused to eat it, and gave me some memetic excuse that he didn't eat anything that grows on trees, because it doesn't have enough blood. One of those jokes you hear on TV from absolute denialists of any kind of progress or self-improvement. The kind that mostly smell like ass and processed cheese, and shave their noses.
Anyway, we looked up the ingredients, and it turned out to be a beet extract and a chemical synthesis of "grape-flavor-inducing taste simulative", which means that it's about as natural as bleach. I probably shouldn't have drank it anyway, but what's the harm? It's just sugar and several chemically-engineered additives, preservatives, solvents and dissolvents. Nothing weird there.

Slipping Up
September 9th

I have the worst luck out of anyone I know. Or at least I would, if I knew anyone. Someone stole my bike right off the rack, cut the lock and everything. I just had it fixed, too. I'm lucky I had another one, but it's busted and I can't afford to fix it. Neither can Daisy. Aside from that, I feel like a chubby, nervous wreck. I've been getting thinner, but every time I eat meat or milk I bloat back up. There are kids that pound down the animal proteins and they look like a pepperoni stick. How do they do it? I think I'm just obsessing at this point. As long as I stick to my diet, everything's gonna be fine eventually.
I've been trying to relax, hang out with some people, but the only friends I have are somewhere else. I can't seem to connect with anyone here, we just don't have anything in common. Not even in that "isn't it funny that we're all kids and school is a mandatory re-education facility" kind of way. Okay, yeah, I guess not having an education would suck, if the bad-ass little girls from the Middle East have anything to say about it. Maybe it's just a local thing. Does it have to be so soul-crushing here?
The girls here definitely don't like me. They think I'm weird and slow, and kind of gross. I don't blame them. I look like I'm gradually replacing my inner organs, and I guess I kind of am.

A Friend, In Need
September 11th

I met a guy named Jaijit, from the ninth grade. He's fifteen, lean, and tall. Kind of tan. His accent is a thick Indian flavor, and it colors more than just his voice. Every movement is like a dance with him, it's effortless. I don't think he's "exotic" (there's a lot of Asian kids in this school), but he's different. Something about him... it feels like he gets you, before you do.

It drew me in, this past month, and I wanted to be his friend. He'd smile at me and ask me to tell him a joke. So I did. We started hanging out at lunch, and he told me his parents were vegan but that he was "exploring his options". That meat wasn't all bad, that there was even such a thing as Halal. That's when the animal's stomach is sliced open while it hangs over a bucket, and the blood drains from its body. The bible says you can't drink the blood of an animal, only its flesh. It's more of a spiritual practice, though, cause most people I know think animal blood is delicious. Pretty dark, though.

Jaijit's dad says that your spirit helps protect your mind from darkness. That's why he wears a symbol. I told him I'd been struggling, and he gave me one too. It's a cross made of wood, with a leather strap. "All-natural", he said. That's not exactly the Indian way, he said, but it's theirs. Jaijit says he doesn't wear them because he doesn't believe in any big sky daddy. Something tells me he's already got one.

A Friend In Deed
September 14th

I dunno why I thought I was so special, or whatever. Jaijit said today the only reason we've been hanging out is because his dad gave him Fieldwork, which is like homework for the outside world.