Chapter 2
September, 12, 2011
To Whom It May Concern,
School was worse than I had expected, it was pure an utter hell. Not only did most people ignore me, but the people who didn’t, bullied me. Both verbally and physically. My body and my heart hurt. I don’t care how much that sounds like it came out of a B-movie. It’s true. My eye is swollen and bruised.
I am scared of what my mother will say when she sees me. She will be absolutely mortified. I do not want to stress her out any more than she already is. How will I explain this to her? I fell? Yeah, I fell face first into some jackass’s fist. A totally believable rock solid alibi right? Yep, not really. This is what really happened;
I was late to homeroom, so naturally, everyone stared at me when I entered the mildew scented classroom. It was suddenly dead silent and everyone’s gaze shifted to me. I felt an overwhelming sense of pressure weighing down upon me heavily, suffocating me, and threatening to choke me. But pressure to do what? Not trip on the 10 step journey from the door to the nearest empty seat. I thought I could manage. Thought being the key word there. Apparently, as I was racing from my locker to my homeroom, the double knotted laces on my grey convers all-stars somehow managed to untie themselves. Though I had failed to notice this at the time.
So, when I took a step towards the empty desk, I tripped on the loose lace and was sent flying forward. I jammed my ulnar nerve, or ‘funny bone’ into the corner of the empty desk I was planning to sit in. I did not find this very funny at all. My classmates however, being the immature middle-schoolers we are, thought it was hysterical. They erupted in laughter. Their amusement boomed through the room, reminding me of a herd of hyenas on anesthesia. My teacher, Mr. Something-Or-Another, made something of an attempt to stifle his laughter before sending me off to the nurse’s office.
As I walked down the cold, deserted hallway, I could still hear them in there, mocking me. I knew Mr. Something-Or-Another was making no attempt to stop them. Hell, he was probably joining in. What a great way to start off the first day at a new school. I didn’t get back from the nurse’s office until nutrition break. Nutrition break is basically a 15 minutes break between 3rd and 4th period where everyone sits around and pretends to drink green smoothies so they look healthy. During nutrition a group of kids approached me. The boy, who appeared to be leading them, looked like the kid out of the Ness-Quick commercial. He’s the one who spoke first.
“Nice face plant in class today!” said the boy
I had already retorted with, “It wasn’t so nice for my face.” When I realized he was being sardonic. Crap. Now it sounded like I was challenging him. I hate how teenage boy fights work. He narrowed his green snake-like eyes at me.
“You want to pick a fight, faggot?” He spit the venomous words at me. Reminding me even more of a viper. So me, being the sarcastic hard-ass that I am, replied back with,
“Totally, tickle fight!”
Some of his friends laughed, but quickly shut up when he shot a death glare in their direction.
“Watch your back, pansy! This is my turf, and it isn’t big enough for your fat ass.”
With that, he stomped away, and his pack of minions followed.
I tried to avoid people who hung out in cliques the rest of the day. Although, that appeared to be 99% of the school, except this one girl, who I noticed staring at me a few times, seemed to keep to herself. Not necessarily a loner, but at the same time, she wasn’t a part of any social group. She hung out with individuals from different packs. She had geek friends in math, she had drama friends, she had popular friends, gothic friends, and she knew everyone. Except me. I had classes 4th and 5th with her so far. I’m not sure about 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th or homeroom yet.
At lunch I didn’t bother staying in the cafeteria after I saw that girl wasn’t eating alone. However, I’m not sure if I would have even talked to her to her if she was eating alone. I considered talking to her a few times today, and from the looks of it so has she. Neither of us said a word, though. I escaped to the roof for the last 40 minutes of lunch. I needed some fresh air, and peace and quiet. I dug through my back pack for my crappy trac-phone and dialed Natalie’s number. It went straight to voicemail, which meant her phone was off. The sound of voice on her voicemail calmed me instantly. I left her a message and told her how my first day at school was going so far and to call me as soon as she could I also told her I loved her and missed her. Next I called Nathan, my best friend. It rang twice and then went to voicemail. Douchebag rejected my call. I left him a similar message to him, minus the ‘I love you’ part. Then before I had the chance to call Hannah, the bell rang, signaling my doom.
I slacked off during my last two classes of the day. I daydreamed and sketched anime characters in my notebook. When the final bell signaled freedom, I raced out of there like a bat out of hell. All I wanted was to go home and eat cookies and watch anime. I knew my Oreo and Death Note binge would be delayed when I ran smack into the Ness-Quick commercial look alike, who I’ve nicknamed the ‘The Viper’ and his group of minions in the parking lot.
“Going somewhere?” The Viper shoved me into the corner of a broken fence. The edges of the jagged metal cut into my waist. As he got closer, I noticed his lip was pierced on both sides, I believe their called snakebites. How ironic.
“W-who are you?” I stuttered, careful not to release tears.
“They call me Snake.” He hissed at me. Oh, how fitting. I thought to myself. “Like I said, faggot, this my turf, and it isn’t big enough for both of us.” His pack closed in on me like a pack of hungry lions. The first blow was to my stomach, it knocked me to my knees. The second blow was a knee to my left temple. I felt what seemed like a thousand feet kicking and stomping me from all sides. “Get up, faggot!” yelled Snake. Another blow to the face, and then he grabbed me by the collar. Once again he jammed me into the fence. He automatically unloaded on me. Every hit felt like a steel hammer to my face. Blow after blow to my eye and my temple. I was beginning to black out when he kneed me in the groin. I instantly fell to my side, this time I didn’t bother trying to hide the tears that escaped my eyes, which had already begun to swell.
They left me there crying, and bleeding. Fucking pussies couldn’t finish me off, could they? Anyway, I’ll right more later. I only got a few hours to watch Death Note.
-Andy Monroe
