Memoirs of a Pothead

"School Spirit"

The light contents of the bookbag jostled around as my black high-top converse pounded against the asphalt. Toad barreled past me at a surprisingly fast speed for someone of his size, and to add insult to injury he was also holding his cargo shorts up with one hand to keep them from falling. Eric had just reached the door and was holding it open, motioning for us to hurry up. I turned my casual run into a sprint, the bookbag thumping rhythmically at my back with each stride, until I reached the door. I gave Eric a slight head nod as way of thanks, and entered through the double doors. I had officially arrived at the first day of my last year in high school.

Toad was resting against the familiar dark brick walls in the entrance area of the school, small beads of sweat beginning to form just above his brow. His eyes were only slightly open but I could still see their bloodshot tinge.

"Dude, next time we decide to wake and bake before school, we gotta remember to let out the hotbox smoke before we get into the student parking section?" I laughed at our stupidity. We'd all just ran across the parking lot, trying to get as far away from the dank smell we had released into the atmosphere as fast as we could.

"Yeah, we were tweaking." He looked up at me. "You think they're gonna check to see what car it's coming from, though?"

"Nah, bruh. It's never that serious." I answered quickly, hopefully putting his worry to rest. Toad was paranoid even when he wasn't high, but when he was, he grew almost obsessive. While I really didn't know if the school had the means or the desire to track down the weed smell, if I expressed any type of doubt to Toad, he wouldn't be able to think about anything else for the rest of the day. And today was an important day for all of us.

"Yooo!" Eric exclaimed while clapping his hands on my shoulders. "Are you guys ready to fuck shit up?"

"You do know we're going to school and not a rave right? Cool your jets, brah." Toad said. We walked through the double doors, into the school we'd all spent the last three years at, and began walking towards our lockers. The walk was practically second nature now, I didn't even need to think, my feet just knew where to go.

"I'm not talking about school though bro." Eric looked at Toad with an obvious expression on his face.

I looked from side to side, seeing a bunch of unfamiliar faces, but no one was really in audible distance. "I think he's talking about the street pharmacy, bruh." I added once I'd deemed it safe enough.

Toad's head whipped around quickly, then once he reached the same conclusion I had he replied. "Oh. Yeah, I'm ready."

"Are we talking about the weed?" Rock said, a little too loud for all of our liking. But then again, Rock said everything a little too loudly.

Instead of answering the three of us just quickened our pace, leaving Rock trailing behind slightly, and hopefully giving the impression that we weren't with him to any passersby. We hadn't even made one transaction yet and Rock was already well on his way to getting us bumped*.

"Dude, this is why I said Rock should just be the muscle. He doesn't have the brain capacity for this." Toad glared at me.

I'd been taking up for Rock for the jump, even though I knew there was more than a grain of truth in Toad's words. You know how every girl seems to believe that there's a perfect gentleman deep down somewhere inside every bad boy? Well, I'd like to believe that somewhere, deep, deep down in Rock there's a brain, and I'm sure one day he'll show it.

"Bro, he's Rock. He says everything loudly, plus no one heard him. But yeah, I gotta jet bros, not trying to be late for my first day in AP Physics. I'll catch up with you guys later." I fistbumped with both of them, and gave Rock the "Iight, bro" head nod, before walking over to my locker. I turned around just in time to catch them before they turned the corner, "Yo! EYES ON THE PRIZE!"