The Ugly Club (On Hold)

Issue No. 1: Twenty Seconds of Pure Bravery

If this is to end in fire

Then we should all burn together.

-I See fire, Ed Sheeran

______________________________________________________

Testosterone pumped wildly through the halls, steps like a pounding heartbeat thundered down each vein, and creatures resembling ape experiments gone wrong ran rapid like a bad nightmare about Planet of the Apes. But this wasn’t the jungle- our teachers assured us- it was my high school on a spring boys’ soccer game day. And those ‘apes’ as I called them were just boys who had extended No Shave November a few months too many.

Marnie and I lagged behind the pack of spirited and pepped students, waving their blue and gold pom poms like trophies as the team continued their run to victory. I would have made a comment to Marnie about the fact that no one would remember or care about that night’s match against our hometown rivals next year. Or maybe laughed about the fact that such a momentous display of pep wouldn’t be in the yearbook because Simon hadn’t been in attendance at the pep rally.

But I didn't.

That corny display of bluejay pride had gotten me out of eighth period chemistry and a quiz I certainly hadn't studied for. So there was no room for complaint.

Marnie and I walked along at normal pace down the hall. She clutched her books and notes to her chest tightly as more royal blue varsity jackets whirled by. Partially to protect herself from any unidentified flying objects, but mostly because her side bag contained two dozen peanut butter cookies. And not just any peanut butter cookies: Simon’s mom’s cookies. And they clearly needed more protection than her French notes.

“Come on,” I said, taking her by the arm quickly and dragging us both down the back hallways behind the library. Which would lead us all the way to the back stair case, which would take us all the way down to the “The Backwoods” part of the school as some called it; even though Mr. Nelson with the strong Kentucky accent had long moved back to what he called Heaven’s Stairway, formally known as the southern Appalachian Mountains. But we just called it the basement, even though “The Backwoods” made complete sense because to get to that part of East Ellis High, you always had to take something ‘back’.

I flipped on the lights casually as we walked by ourselves down further, the fluorescents flickering in their strangled manor. Down at the end of the hall was a light at the end of the tunnel where the rest of the Journalism Club was waiting for us. (And the cookies.)

“You know, I don’t get why everyone gets so excited over a silly game. It’s not even regionals.” Marnie said, shifting her books to flip a stray lock of her rusty ginger hair behind her shoulder, almost dropping her books.

“Because we have been raised in an emulous society that believes in beating someone else in order to find true self-worth.”

“Emulous?”

“Desiring to equal or excel.” I responded.

She only nodded.

“So, what was today’s mission?” I asked. Marnie was the type of person that would squeeze every last waking second out of the day. She really tried to live for the moment. But it had gotten to the point where she had become so obsessive with bucket lists and to-do lists that she had invested in a calendar that would give her one inspirational thought or command each day. As far as I knew, she had completed every one. Some more reluctantly than others. Gluten-free-Monday just doesn’t have a good ring to it.