My plan was to fake being sick. That way I could just stay home and avoid complete annihilation. Then my dad had to mess up everything. He came in my room at 6:30 and shook me until I woke up.
“You better start getting ready for school, or you’re going to be late again. And you know that if you’re late too much you get detention. So hurry up and get going.” My dad said.
“Dad, I’m sick, I can’t possibly go to school. I could die, or give it to some other kid you know. That wouldn’t be any good.” I said adding a little cough in between sentences to make it realistic.
“I’ve been your father for 16 years, and you think you can fool me? I know all of your tricks, and it actually saddens me that you think I’m so gullible. So get up and get ready for school. Are you gonna skateboard there, or take the bus?” He read right through me, and I just groaned in resignation
I just ignored the question and got out of bed shooing my dad out of my room. Okay, time to think of a different plan. I could ditch school, but I probably would get caught because I just look like trouble.
I walked sleepily to my bathroom and wearily looked up at my reflection. “Ahh!” I shouted when I saw my reflection. What the hell did I do when I was sleeping. My short brown hair was bent in odd places, and looked like it hadn’t been washed in days. My light brown eyes seemed empty and my face just looked tired in general. I had gone to sleep in my boxers, and as I looked in the mirror my eyes drifted to scars that started on my back and wrapped around my side. I ripped my stinging eyes away from them before the memories could flood back into my mind.
After taking a shower and waking up, I looked my usual self; depressing and uninteresting. I put on a dark grey v-neck and worn out skinny jeans which sagged slightly revealing the waistband of my boxers. I slipped on my vans, grabbed my packed backpack and my skateboard, then headed downstairs with my music blaring through one earbud.
Dad had left for work right after he woke me up, and I noticed it was 6:45 and I had 15 minutes to kill before I had to leave for school. So I fed my dog, then made my way to the kitchen and stared hungrily into the fridge and the cabinets looking for something good to eat. In the end I took an apple and sat on the couch next to my dog. She looked at me with eyes that begged to play fetch with her. But I didn’t feel like it, and I need to leave. I got up from the couch heading towards the door with my German Shepherd following me. I said goodbye to Shiloh, then left the house and was on my way to school.
I had decided not to ditch, because I knew for sure that I was going to get caught, so I just headed towards school, hoping that I don’t die young. I guess I was thankful for the fact that I hadn’t gotten in trouble by the school for participating in a fight. I was lucky that I had gotten out of The Pit before the teachers had broken it up.
Elroy High School loomed ahead of me, and I could see the buses unloading all the tired and miserable teenagers. Nobody was outside, despite the fact that it was nice weather, and there were many benches all around the area. As I walked through the big glass doors, crammed full of bodies, I got bumped into many times.
So far I hadn’t seen Trent or any of his friends, and I hoped it would stay that way. I made my way through the crowded lobby, and in the middle of the lobby The Pit taunted me. I had really punched Trent Lancaster, the smartest, most athletic, and best looking guy in the whole school. How could one guy have all that? Aren’t athletic guys supposed to be dumb or something?
I walked down the hallway which was plastered with all sorts of posters and turned left into the second lunch room where I saw my group of friends sitting on top of two lunch tables. Kyle waved at me to come over by him, as if I wasn't heading that way anyway. I dumped my backpack on the table, and hopped up right next to him.
“So do I need to plan your funeral yet? Because you are so gonna die today. Or do you plan on somehow turning invisible?” Kyle said to me.
“Ha ha, very funny Kyle. I planned on ditching today, but I couldn’t pull it off. Where’s Ryan, I noticed he isn’t here.” I said back to him.
“Ryan and Trent both go in school suspension, so you won’t have to worry about Trent. It’s his friends that you have to watch out for.” Kyle told me.
The thing about Trent, is that he has a ton of loyal friends that would do anything for him. And they would beat the crap out of me at the snap of Trent’s fingers. Trent isn’t even all that important. He just happens to be athletic and have friends. He’s popular, but not anyone special. The only difference between his group of friends, and other people, is that Trent and his mates hate my group of friends.
You could call us the Montagues and Capulets minus the Romeo and Juliet. The only thing about Trent is that he’s not always mean. He has his nice side, and that's the side that most people like about him. His friends on the other hand are always jackasses, and nobody likes them. Maybe that's why they’re friends with Trent, because other people wouldn’t be.
I was finishing up some homework that was due today when the bell rang at 7:26 giving us four minutes to get our books and head to class. As I walked to my locker I saw Jessy across the hallway, but forced myself to look away. If she wasn’t going to give me the time of day, I better do the same.
I saw her again in homeroom, and I swore under my breath when I caught myself staring at her. What is wrong with me? I ripped my attention away from her and tried to focus on my homework. She was shy, and tried to avoid attention, but that just made her stand out even more. She wore some makeup, but it wasn’t plastered to her face like most of the girls here.
“Quit staring dude, you’re being creepy.” Kyle whispered into my ear.
“Shut up, I’m not staring. My eyes just happened to look in her general direction. And I’m not creepy.” I said back to him, trying to be quite.
The teacher glared at us when he heard our voices. I swear that he mastered that glare. It was the perfect combination of shut your mouths right now, and you are the most annoying human beings on the face of the Earth. Such attitude in one look could kill someone I’m pretty sure.
I finished the homework after some “help” from Kyle, which basically means that we both cheated off each other. That’s the cool thing about our friendship. He always knows the answers I don’t know, and I know the answers he doesn’t know.
I looked over at Jessy for just one second and saw that she was sketching in one of her composition notebooks. Earbuds were in her ears, and her head slightly bobbed to some unheard beat. Her hand moved smoothly over the page as her pencil left marks of art. Just seeing her drawing, made me start scratching into my desk with a pencil. I drew a dumb smiley face with its tongue sticking out, and I felt completely accomplished. Until Kyle flicked the back of my head and commented about how lame my doodle was.
I turned around and punched him in the arm playfully, which drew the attention of the teacher over to us. Quickly we turned around, and sat there fiddling around as if we hadn't done anything. We always goofed off in class, and even though we are loud, we rarely get caught.
The bell rang again signaling the official start of torture and learning. And so Kyle and I headed off on our separate ways. I put my head down looking at the ground as I walked, and held my books with one arm, using the other to brace myself from all the clumsy walkers. The freshmen walked like they didn’t have a sense of direction, the sophomores walked on the wrong side of the hallway, and the juniors bunched up in groups. All the seniors had it down, and just got annoyed at everyone else.
And so I faced the rest of the day, hoping that I wouldn’t run into trouble. And hoping that my good deed towards Ryan wouldn’t get me injured.
