First Straw

Episode 1

Rnnng!" Rnnnngg!! It was easy for me to
switch between dreaming about Jake and
bonfire night, and reminiscing in disgust ,
the 'not so priceless' all action alarm clock,
Santa had inauspiciously dropped off on one
of his yuletide voyages.
Sophomore year was kicking in faster than
the rising sun and plans where being put in
place to commemorate the "ground breaking
event" (in Harley's words).
Jake and Harley had literarily highlighted our
junior year and could be said to be the
backbones of Herdfordshire junior high. I
had been crowned Homecoming Queen, but
even a blind man couldn't dispute the fact
that Harley would have been deserving. Her
towering height and radiant smile could light
up three grids running dead transformers.
But she wasn't going to get me through the
first day of sophomore year.
The clock had struck 8:00 when I managed to
peek through my heavy lids in search of the
snooze button. The lecture bells go off by
8:30am, I remembered. I wasn't going to be
late for the curtain raiser of one of the most
important years in my life. In two minutes, I
hurriedly slipped the silk gown off my head,
revealing the morning models of perfectly set
breasts to compliment the bottom part of the
now famous 'figure 8' which every girl would
kill for. That wasn't important now, I had to
multitask if I was to make it unscathed.
Brushing, sorting and bathing didn't seem to
be difficult to manage at once.
Breakfast was certainly out of it. I had to
throw on a simple jean pair and a warm
sweat shirt to combat the bad weather as I
made for the door. Mama was bound to ask
questions which I wasn't ready to answer,
dad was away in Chad , on an assignment. If
I was ever gonna make it out in time, it was
simple, I had to RUN! The stairs hadn't
seemed so difficult to take on, I breezed
down in calculated and well timed speed,
with the front door directly in front of me,
calling out in a sonorous high pitched tune,
until...Dad?!". Sergeant Capoue had been
assigned to military duties in conflict torn-
chad. His latest high profile assignment to
aid his rank coloring.
Five months stroll by when he's on the
addictive bullet spray zone. He's used to it,
we're made to live with it - not like we have
issues coping. Danny and Fanny had learnt to
blend with the trend, my seven year old twin
brothers were more open to the idea of
greater bonding time with each other than
fatherly parental control. This kept them
away from me and my stuff though - talk
about a win/win. The only problem with this
picture was, Dad hadn't been gone two
weeks. He wasn't scheduled to get a leave
permit for at least two years, that's if my
memory served me well though.
But there he was, sitting next to the kitchen
counter and sharing a laugh with mom who
was perfectly positioned to aid the execution
of my escape blueprint with the cabinet in
her line of vision, and her back to the door.
"Good mor..n..ing dad!", I managed to utter,
trying as much as possible to sound
inquisitive while combatting the thought of a
potential bad impression on the new English
major teacher. Halting the laughs and
spinning round in swift succession, Dad
managed to take notice of my presence,
leaping to his feet, arms stretched in a
manner that would imply that we hadn't seen
in years - It was just two weeks. "My Reserve
Ammo has become a senior, I'm so proud".
Dad had stuck to modifying my name from
Evelle to 'Reserve ammo' and I had grown to
answer that for 17 years. "Dad, I gotta go...
please", I pleaded in sincerity. I wasn't going
to drop in late today, not today.
It was never difficult to cook up a pout and
doll eye looks to cajole dad into giving in,
today was a little less difficult. In seconds I
was racing against vehicles averaging 60km/
h, bending at the alley restricted to staff use,
leading to the school's 'grand canyon'. I
hadn't been bothered by the distance, my
bike pedals could take that, the problem was
TIME! A late attendance was bad, getting
caught in the staff alley was unthinkable. My
eyes on the road(literally) wasn't my fault,
the potholes and inflicted blindness could
have instigated its tailoring to pedestrian
adult use. Was I going make it in time for
English? I wasn't sure, would I get
detention? Not a good start. Would I...
"thump", the impact couldn't have been
worse.
Two three seconds and I'm on the ground
with two wheels rolling in a distance. How
didn't I see him? Well he wasn't meant to be
there in the first place, he was probably not
a year older than 20. That didn't matter.
"Watch where you're going man, you almost
killed me." I must have sounded angrier than
I was permitted to, after all, I hit him, and I
wasn't meant to be there in the first place.
Well, neither was he. "You dropped this", he
said, ignoring my early rant and offering my
bag which I had sold to my thoughts as I
grabbed up my cycle and books. "You're an
asshole!" I barked, grabbing the bag and
racing off to class, infuriated by his
willingness to play defensive.
Jake and Heather had been more than
overjoyed to start the year with me. We
exchanged pleasantries before lectures
(thankfully) as the lecturer had chunked 15
minutes off his time by not being present. I
must have been screaming for joy in my
head, had it not been for the ugly alley
episode. My thoughts were cut short though
when he walked in, tall and fair, nice crew
cut and well shaven beards, the blue eyes
were visible from seven rows away. I was
either prior blind or my thoughts played
tricks on me. He looked familiar, but I could
safely say I didn't know him, he couldn't
have been a year over 20.
My year had just begun, this under-20 angel
had picked up a chalk, strolled gracefully to
the board and spelt out the title of my
sophomore year troubles - "Mr. Edwin Flaw",
for one who looked flawless in many ways,
that was quite a name. If I was going to
learn anything in sophomore year, I could as
well start with the name Edwin Flaw, the
alley bump.