color me beautiful | m.c.

one

Many adults in my life have said that high school is the best four years anyone can experience. Personally, I do not see what the big deal is. High school was four years full of awkward and horny teenagers who cared too much about little things that never mattered, myself included. I think those adults who think that just peaked in high school, because I cannot imagine the rest of my life being worse than that. Not that all of high school was bad though, it had its perks from time to time. I had some friends, I found some devotion in my hobbies, I also had some decent teachers, I can say I've met some cool people.

Some people on the other hand did very much enjoy high school. They were the people that you could just tell would turn out to be the same adults that will be telling kids that high school was top tier. Those same adults that would get together with their same old friend groups and reminisce about the good old days of getting drunk at parties that would soon end up shut down due to noise complaints from other adults just trying to go to sleep. They would look back on the times they played on shitty sports teams - that somehow the school still heavily funded - and who wore what to homecoming dances and prom.

And then there were people like Michael Clifford. The type of person you just couldn't read and was just kind of there for all of it. He was definitely one of those people that you would think was at his peak in high school, but there was something about him that was not the same as the others. I didn't really know him well, unless you count the times I catch him and his friends being way too loud and obnoxious in the hallways like any typical popular guy would. Not to mention how annoying he acted in classes with his friends. But when he was by himself, he was just oddly behaved. I did make my judgements of him and his friends based on how they acted, but I digress.

That's why I was happy to finally be done with the place. Don't get me wrong, high school graduation felt pointless to me, but I still went so my parents can finally see their oldest child walk the stage and become first in the family to even earn a high school diploma. It was such a long ceremony that contained speeches of moving onto the next chapters of our lives and how we're never gonna forget each other, etcetera, etcetera. The only people who eat that up are the parents, teachers, and best friends.

Anyway, today was my first day of college and I decided to start off my first two years in a community college. That seemed like the safest and cheapest option since I was not entirely sure about what to even study. I had also heard that the General Ed. courses were so much more interesting in community, so it was definitely a better option for me. I did not want to risk spending more money than I should be on college especially if I am unsure about my future now. At least this path will give me time to figure it out.

I was walking into my very first college class, an introductory darkroom photography course that I signed up for to fulfill one of my elective credits. It was the most interesting option to me of the vast variety that were offered (and seemed the easiest). I was received with an unpleasant surprise as I walked through the door into the photography lab.

That unpleasant surprise happened to be Michael Clifford.

In the same class as me.

Now I knew what I was getting myself into by going to King Community College. It was the closest community college to anyone that was at my high school, obviously there's going to be a lot of people from said high school attending the college. I definitely was bound to have a class or two with a couple of people I knew.

But I really was not expecting to see freaking Michael Clifford in my first class on the first day of school. Especially for him to be here early.

I walked to the opposite side of the lab while we waited for the class to start. I glanced at everyone in the class, desperately trying to avoid eye contact with a certain someone. Of course with my luck I had to have a class with him of all people. I would have taken anyone else over Michael. Well...maybe not, but that's not the point.