Non compos mentis

Chapter 1

Ask any 15 to 20 year old and they will tell you that walking down the hall on the first day at a new high school is the worst. I happen to disagree. In my personal experience, the worst walk down a hallway is the last day at a hospital, especially the psych ward of a hospital.  But the absolute worst is experiencing both within a week.

My mom was yelling at me to grab the last of the boxes from the moving truck. I stood up from my mattress that was without linen or anything and made my way downstairs. 'BATHROOM' it read on the box in all caps. That does not mean bathroom, it mean BATHROOM! I mentally rolled my eyes. I'm not allowed to do it physically anymore. They say that I hurt my families feeling this way. I got dibs on the bigger room, so I had my own bathroom in my room.

I put the box down and then laid back down right at the same spot. I should have probably unpacked, but what can I say. It was about two hours later when my dad entered my room.

"Rob, your mom made dinner. Feel like coming downstairs?"

I knew that my dad was weirded out by me laying in bed looking at the ceiling for the past two hours. He was weirded out by me a lot lately.

"Sure", I answered, not making a move to stand up.

Half an hour later and I was back on the same mattress this time watching the door.

The next morning my mom woke me up. She came into my room, caressing my cheek with her soft little hands. Honestly, my mom is the only person in the world that I feel any love for. She is a petite woman and has Italian heritage. She just loves me so unconditionally. The only person who does not deserve this world's shit is her.

"Robbie, you have to get up. I'm sending you to that god awful place called 'school'. I didn't want to, but the FBI was very set on it."

I let out a little chuckle because I knew that she was expecting it.

I got ready. A washed out black jeans and a half clean white shirt. Nothing big. My mom had received my timetable a week before. She was really looking forward to me continuing my education after taking a year off. I knew that deep down she was worried that I would never continue. The first lesson was homeroom. I hated homeroom. besides questioning the whole educational system of the United States of America, I also questioned the use of homeroom. It was like the group sessions we had at the 'special place' they sent me too. That was code for the psychiatric ward of the Marian Hospital. I found the classroom quickly because this was a very small school in a very small town. The teacher asked me to introduce myself, which was to be expected. I did my whole routine of "Hey, my name is Robert. I am 19 years old because much like everybody else in this classroom, I'm a moron and took a year off to not murder my old class. I just moved here from non-of-your-business and can't wait to make lifelong friends." Sarcasm is a bitter man's best friend. I sat down and did what everybody should do in high school. Kept to my goddamn self.

It was the third week of school until someone recognized that I was alive and walking down the halls of this school. It was a redheaded little kid. he was probably my age or like a year younger, but with his 5'10 built next to my 6'6 but he looked like my illegitimate child with an Irish bartender during St.Patrick's weekend. 

"Well hello, there good sir. My name is Tommy. And I am the class president of this humble, but proud school community. It has come to my attention that you are what society calls a 'lone wolf'. I am ready to become your friend and join in on your wold pack," he smiled so wide I could see all of his teeth.

"Yeah, no thanks." I walked past him into the hallway.

He might have had tiny legs, but he sure power walked the shit out of that hallway. "Well, my fellow. I can't take your rejection of my heartfelt declaration of friendship, because you said yes first. So."

"Ehmmm. Okay?" I really had no way of getting rid of him.

"Well, amigo. What is your name?"

"I'm Robert," I answered walking into the classroom.

"Dubidy Bubidy bup! What a surprise I am also in this class," he made weird sounds while sitting down on the seat next to me.

"So, hot-shot. I know everyone and assuming that I have not heard of you until now I assume that you have been an outsider as written by S.E. Hinton. A couple of things you should know. First, don't sit in the front during Mr. Handros classes. He sweats a lot and refuses to come in contact with water. Second, skip lunch whenever it is Mistry lasagna. Believe me, you do not want to go to the hospital because of food poisoning. And lastly, try to avoid the topic of death for the next couple of weeks. Well, until you graduate really and you're a senior so it shouldn't take that long."

I looked at him and raised my eyebrow. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, the food is really confusing actually. I have no idea what they put in it, but taking into consideration that Mystery Lasagna is always on Friday's I assume that they put all of the food from the previous..."

"I meant the death part."

"Ohhh. During the summer a student named Maggie died. She really was one of the best people ever. It really was a shame."

Tommy looks at me with puppy eyes. I knew what he expected me to say. He wanted to hear the 'I'm sorry for your loss'. I always found that phrasing stupid. I did not kill her, why should I apologize? Also, me telling him that I'm sorry does not help her. It does not make her any less dead. 

Oh, it also brings back horrible memories.