Pita, continued

Chap.17, Whoops, squashed.

Remember what I said before? Before I told the story of birthday party? About how I felt like whenever I was this close to getting into a relationship that wasn't with Haris, the universe would shut it down? Well, that summer, history repeated itself. My family's Christian, so I always went to church camps. I enjoy them, I really do. I actually find them fulfilling and usually take a lot away from them. I've never been particularly religious. I don't know if it's a symptom of my autism, but I could never really get into it. Not to mention all the religious trauma I'd had from my childhood. Anyways, while we were at camp, we me these boys from Farmington Missouri. One of them was named Tyler. He had a really nice charm to him. He had a southern accent, he was really funny, and I thought he was cute. And I developed camp crush (CC). I actually really liked him. And for the first time since Emil, I felt like I had found someone who I could possibly move on from Haris with. And I flirted with Tyler for the rest of the week at Church camp. ...That was until I heard from someone that he was 17. Which, at the time was a problem because ya girl was only 14. So obviously that would not work.

I still liked him though, and by the end of the week I was about ready to ask for his number. It was the last day of church camp, and I thought that I might never get the opportunity to talk to him again. So, I decided to just go for it. I wanted to ask for his number. The last service of camp when everyone was getting ready to leave, I searched around desperately trying to find him. But it couldn't. So, it seemed like once again, my plans had been squashed.

I was disappointed, but not crushed. I mean, if he was 17, then maybe it was for the best. Besides, I still had Haris. There was still...hope? I had decided I wasn't going to give up yet, so why start now? I remained hopeful that summer. Sad, but hopeful. I was quite excited for high school, which I hoped would be a lot different from middle school. And oh boy, was I in for it.

You have no idea. I had no idea! I'm going to say this right now, this is about to get a lot more hectic. You thought my middle school years were chaos? You're not ready for freshman year, and neither was I. 

Before the year had even started, I had been complaining about back pain to my mom for a while. In August she finally decided to take me to the chiropractor, where I was promptly diagnosed with scoliosis. So that was great. I was told things like,

"Has your doctor ever even checked you?" and, "I can't believe no one's ever noticed this before!" 

And I ended up having to do months of physically therapy, which was even more fun.

But despite that little setback, I was still incredibly excited to start my freshman year. I had told myself that if Haris was even in one of my classes that year, it was a sign from the universe that we were meant to be together. So, you can imagine my shock when I arrive on freshman orientation day, and sit down in my first hour class (history), and wouldn't you know it? .Guess who walked in? I was excited at first, then the anxiety started to kick in. It seemed like I had no friends in the class that I had  with Haris. But to my relief, Anesa walked in.

A tidbit about Anesa Kelmendi. Anesa is albanian. .Again, wouldn't have anything to do with anything except for the fact that she is VERY passionate about it. It's one of her most esteemed personality traits. Take it from her, not me. Anyways, most people find Anesa loud, which she can be. And it's a bit annoying to be around. But I didn't mind. She's funny and always speaks her mind. I mean, this chick has absolutely no filter. Which I find admirable. Even if her lack of remorse can get her in trouble sometimes. I swear this girl has never felt shame a day in her life. Another reason I liked being friends with her is that it's never a dull moment. It's literally impossible to get bored around her. I had computer and PE with her in eighth grade, and we didn't really talk much. Me, Adriana, Tawana, and Anesa would usually group together and often find ourselves dying of laughter. Anessa went to kosovo on vacation before the school year was over, and I saw her a few weeks before school started at the grocery store. For some reason, I decided to say hi to her. She then sat down beside me.In history, freshman year and a friendship blossomed from there.

In freshman year, I tried to be more socialable than I had in eighth grade. I was still desperately fighting the "weird kid" allegations. I think it was around that time that I knew over the course of a year, the girl who I was in seventh grade had died. She didn't exist anymore. Which, in my opinion, was for the better. I could tell that seventh grade harris had died too. I had thought he was growing his hair out again, but he cut it shorter than the last time. It was now fluffy, with the sides shaved. Extremely attractive in my opinion. Anyways, I was no longer the "weird emo fairy girl." I had kind of been labeled as. Now I was just...Avery. Who was that? I didn't know. But it started to seem like I was figuring it out. During the summer, I started writing a book and took up photography more seriously. I also started drawing and painting more often. I also got really into cars for some reason. I was actually decent at volleyball, and now I was considered one of the older girls at dance, and I felt like I actually knew what I was doing. Physical therapy sucked, but I was pushing through it. I actually liked my classes that first semester. I had none with Adriana or Allie, though. That kind of sucked. My schedule was as follows:

A day

1st hour: History with Haris (woohoo) Anesa, and Macie. Actually, you really liked my history teacher.He's probably one of my favorite teachers that i've ever had.

2nd hour: Geometry with Alexa, and Tarik o (boo), and my new friend Tori. My geometry teacher was... Interesting.

3rd hour: biology with literally nobody, a decent teacher, though.

4th hour: Journalism with mary and definitely my favorite class of the year. My favorite teacher of the year too.

B day:

5th hour: english with Anesa

6th hour: ANP (study period) with Mary, Alexa, Stella, Aaron, and our new friend Sophia. And Haris's friend Aden.

7th hour: spanish with Anesa, Chloe, Aaron, and a great teacher.

8th hour: Art. Worst class of the year. Awful teacher, but funniest new friend group.

During orientation day, we had gotten splitten up into our ANP classes for the tours. ANP is basically advisory, aka study period, but you're with the same teacher and the same kids for all four years of high school. And Haris's friend, Aden, is in mine. As well as his friend, I had never met before, Muki. Aden began teasing me immediately after he found out I was in his ANP. Typical. He said to Muki,

"Hey, this is the girl that used to have a crush on Haris P!"

Muki looked surprised. "What? No way!"

Oh dear, I thought. This is going to be a long, four years. At least he said, "used to." Maybe it'll be fine.

I don't know why Muki seemed in such disbelief that I liked his friend. Maybe he thought I was too pretty for him. Or maybe he thought I was too weird, I guess the world may never know.