Fall in May

~6~ A Day of Firsts

The Devil asked me how I knew my way around the halls of hell?
I replied, that I did not need a map of the darkness I knew so well.
~ Edgar Allen Poe

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Monday - September 7th - First Day of School

It's the first day of school and for once in my life, I am not on time. And no, I am not even running little late. I am actually early to my first day of school in well ...maybe forever? Unfortunately for both of us, ol' Aces has taken it upon himself to drive me to school. The whole three streets up the hill from the House of the Rising Raisins. The whole three streets, that I probably could have crawled in less time than it's taken for him to make it to the second stop sign up the street. 

Of course, Aces has insisted that this first-day ride is a "Dean family tradition". Which is total bullshit in my book, as I'm pretty sure grandpa guy just wants to make certain that I actually show up to my new institutional learning facility. So now thanks to this traditional family first day drive to not so higher learning, we are stuck in the suck of the traditional first day of school traffic jam leading up the hill to Hell.  

San Fallcon Hills High School, known as San Fall Hills High or in local lingo just "Hills High". Or maybe more accurately as Hell on the Hill. And yeah you guessed it, this thing sits on top of a bluff on Hill Street. One thing I've noted about San Fall is they are not exactly real original with naming things around here. Ergo San Fall Hills High on the top of Hill Street, the Home of the Falcons.

Yeah, some things are just so meant to be the way they are, that you just have to go with the flow. I mean seriously, what else could they really do besides San Fallcon Falcons? Home of the Grim Reapers? Or maybe the Blazing Raisins? So as of today, while Gromit and the rest of my comrades are Seaside High Raiders, I am a flocking Falcon.

So no thanks to this family tradition, we are now trapped behind an eternally long line of cars to the drop off spot at the foot of the stairs up to Hell. Edging up at a slow crawl, just so all those freshmeat parents can have that last final cry goodbye with little Freddie Falcon. Maybe impart that last second piece of "Don't Do Drugs" wisdom on their little flocking fledglings, before they take their first tentative steps towards traumatic mediocrity.

Just by the jaded looks of the flocks of falcons lazily drifting past us up the sidewalk, it seems most of the older flockers are being heaved out at the bottom of the hill to make the long walk. Obviously by parents who know better, and apparently having already long ago dispensed with "good flocking luck Freddie"' speeches before the traditional traffic jam.  

Sadly as we edge up the long line up the hill, I can tell that Aces is considering having a go at some first day final thoughts on life moment. Find something truly profound, meaningful or inspiring to say to me on my first day here in Hell on the Hill. But to his vast disappointment, over the summer he's learned the hard way that I am not that kind of kid anymore. Not that I can really ever recall being that kind of kid to begin with in the first place? The one he'd like to remember as being in need of his sage counsel, and folksy old world Raisin wisdoms. But then again in all fairness to him, outside of a few forced family holidays at Denny's we never really hung out much after my dad got dead. So it's not like he really ever knew me as "that kind of kid" in the first place. Naw not, I'm the kind of kid that you wait for me to ask first...then offer advice and sage counsel. 

Unfortunately for Aces, I don't really talk much as it is? So it's safe to say, I don't want to hear his advice about my life or anything else, and certainly not enough to ask for it on purpose. Because I am the kid that doesn't need any more talking time, cause I got plenty of voices in my head for that. God forbid that I happen to have a problem bigger than I can put my fist through. Just ask all the voices in my head and they'll tell you that I am cool. Except for El Diablo ...but that's a whole nother kind of monster that lives in the darkness that is my mind.