Caleb's Neighbour

Chapter 3

The school had those ugly walls that were painted in a colour so obviously from home depot, on sale too, I could tell from the way they peeled. Still, everyone else here looked really happy, there were this couple in-front of me, holding hands and all, and they were walking so slow I felt like pushing both of them over like dominoes. One after the other. It would've been funny as hell too, because everyone else was in the hallway as well, but it was too early in the morning and in the school year for me to be fucking with people. 

My first class was AP History, it was in the really old part of the school, where the walls and practically the teachers were lined with dust. The damn dust, I could never escape it, I swear. But the room was on the south side of campus, in this big old building where I knew the library was. I had sort of googled the school before I came, I wanted to see the new prison I was being transferred to. You gotta scope out the competition before you arrive, right? Anyway, the hallways were painted with posters about some dance or something that was happening next week. I mean, I don't hate the idea of dances, as long as I know someones going to spike the punch I'm there.  But this one looked preppy and everything, I could tell by the font they used. I once read a book about fonts, I think I find interest in weird things like that. But the book was actually pretty good, and if it taught me anything, its that using comic sans is a death trap. I don't think the graphic definers of the posters understood that though, because not only were they coloured in a way that the colour was the same as my unmarried aunts acrylic nails - the orangery pink (vomit coloured) type - the font was comic sans. I felt like tearing them off the walls for some reason, but it was my first day, and I didn't want to make a whole big deal over fonts. I mean, as interesting as they are, they're not that important. Also tearing them off the walls would make me seem like some drama queen from a show like Glee, I don't really watch TV that much,  my mom loves that Glee show though. So does my sister, but I think she only half-ass watches it because she doesn't understand it. I understand it though, I understand how crap it is that's for sure. I would choose a book about fonts over a episode about over saturated teenage characters any-day. 

I was thinking too much about fonts when I realised I was lost. Not lost lost, I knew where I was. Well sort of, I think I was by the PE department or something, because there was this big gym hall behind me. I didn't go inside it, but I could tell it was a gym hall because of how obnoxiously big it was. I mean, I've never been good at sport, so I can always tell when I'm about to be thrown into some big hall where some bullshit competition is going on. I can smell those events from a mile away. Maybe it's because they smell so much of sweat, maybe its because I catch on quick because I really don't want to go. I turned around and tried to retrace my steps, and I kept on going in this loop. I was starting to get frustrated too, because I knew where I was, I just didn't know how to get out of this stupid hallway. It was either this building was in a circle shape, or I was just really dumb. It was probably the latter, so I just gave up. I sat on the floor, under one of those really ugly posters, and pulled out a book out of my bag to read. The floor wasn't that uncomfortable, I did the same thing I did in my room, just sat and played one of those really shitty mobile games. I don't know why I downloaded them, I would say for my sister and long car rides, but it was probably for moments like this. I don't know how long I was there for before some woman asked me a question, I didn't want to miss all of my class, but that's what I probably had done, I always run away with time like that.  

'Are you Caleb?' the woman asked. She had a really caked face, she looked sort of white. Like pale white though, and I could see the powder lined on her face, every time she raised her eyebrows, which was far too many times, the makeup would fester itself into a clump. Her eyebrows were drawn on too, but into a shocked expression, it made me pretty uncomfortable. I didn't say this to her face, but she looked like that woman from the hunger-games with the white hair and everything. Once I realised that it creeped my out even more because I watched that film in sixth grade and I remember not being able to sleep because of that character. I didn't respond quickly, even when her face relaxed, she still looked like a clown mixed with Elizabeth the first. I remember learning about that British monarch the same time I saw the hunger games, and thinking about that just made me think more about middle school. I sort of got lost in my thoughts about Elizabeth the first, I remember learning that she brushed her teeth with some weird ass stuff, so I looked up again at the woman and her teeth were yellow as hell. I wanted to vomit for real now, because while this woman spoke to me, piss infested teeth and all, I couldn't stop looking at them. They were almost blinding, in a really gross way though. I shifted about in my seat, she was still speaking, and I was still only concentrating on her damn yellow teeth.