Perspectives Change

"Laurence?"

'Play dead', that's all I could think, just 'play dead'.

"Laurence," I could hear her irritation growing, "I know you are not asleep."

Play.Freakin.Dead.

I could hear her heels clopping on the classroom floor as she slowly walked closer. When she was within a few feet of me I sat up quickly. I leaned back far in my chair as I let out an obnoxiously over exaggerated yawn. The front two legs of my chair left the ground and my head lie upside down on the desk behind me just long enough to see my good friend grin and roll their eyes. Before I could smile back Miss Snipley stamped her foot down on my hovering chair leg, jolting me forward.

"Ah Mr. Lee, first day of school and you are already asleep in class." She snickered, clearly proud of her attempt at an insult.

"Ah Missss Snipley," her name even sounded like an insult, "first day of school and you've already put me to sleep. Bravo ma'am, I do believe that's a new record" I snapped back

"Laurence!" she growled. 

"Is my name." I replied with a smile.

"Leave." she barked. 

"Is a verb." I bounced back as her scowl intensified

"Now!" she commanded as she pointed a bony finger to the door.

I walked through the empty hallway as I contemplated when and how I became That Kid. The one no one really likes. The one no one really has a reason to hate. That lonely middle ground where you feel your only real purpose is to piss every one off. So you do it.

Most people like me have a reason for getting like this: a girlfriend cheated, a parent abused, a friend backstabbed. My reason?

I was murdered. 

...

Yep, murdered, it's a neat story, I'll keep it short.

My real name is John, John Smith. (Yes, my parents had the creativity of a lawn chair.) I was walking home from school along the sidewalk when two cars got in to a wreck. A third car swerved away from the wreck and came straight for me...

It missed me by a good 6 feet and slammed into the wall flinging shrapnel in all directions. A large hunk of metal from some shredded part of car was flung in my direction. I saw the scrap in what seemed like slow motion come right for my face. I remember thinking how pretty it looked as it shimmered from the light. What a funny last thought.

Luckily that wasn't my last thought, the shard skimmed my face leaving a clean slice across my cheek, but nothing fatal. Now at this part you are probably wondering how exactly I died, I mean I survived a car crash happening right next to me, now it seems like any less extravagant death would just be insulting, I mean what better way to finish that story than, then I peed on an electric fence and got electrocuted. But alas, I did not die of pee-lectrocution.

The driver that had caused the initial accident was drunk out of his mind, but had some how managed to clamber his way out of the vehicle. He stood, well half crouched while swaying, on the sidewalk opposite mine, and the other driver was swiftly moving towards me, presumably to see if I was ok. He was about three feet from reaching me, and before he could say anything the drunken man let out a garbled bellow.

"Hyou freakin moren, ya hit my car, things spensive!" he yelled in his half decent attempt at speaking, take from that what you will.

He flailed his arms while speaking and as he raised his right arm into the air a silver glint from his hand caught my eye. He held in his hand a pistol, and he began to aim it at the other driver. I was only three feet in front of the other driver, but still I yelled. "Look Ou-" was all I could say before the gunshot rang out. Luckily for the other driver the drunken man could not possibly aim, he missed his target...by about three feet.

Luckily for me, he missed me as well, by about six feet. Did I get you there? that's where they always think I died...anyway. After the initial shot the drunken man collapsed unconscious, and so did the other driver out of fear. I figured if I didn't get out of that area soon a meteor might fall from the sky to finish me off, as if these drivers were earth's incompetent hit-men.

I was tired of the sidewalk, so I decided I would walk through the back alley way, no cars there, maybe a few armed drunks, but non that had a problem with me, so I took a chance. I flipped back and forth from screen to screen on my phone, I had no real reason to, the light just made me feel safer. I was in the alley no less than ten minutes when I felt a sharp pain in my back and a hand around my mouth. Things started getting fuzzy when my attacker dropped me to the ground. I twisted as I fell in an attempt to at least see my executioner before I passed out, which turned out to be an extremely painful process. The man, or should I say boy, standing over me was Laurence, a quiet student from my class that id never even spoken to. Fear was evident in his face, like I was the one about to kill him.

Stabbed in a dark alley, I should've peed on the electric fence when I had the chance.

Part 1 Fin.