if you look at him, he'll kill you!

3: all hail the newest prisoner of ball high school

a/n i don't live in galveston, so half of the stuff i say here is gonna be wrong, but ball is a real high school. but literally nothing about it is actually factual. if it is, it's a pure coincidence.

woo hoo.

the first day at a new school that joshua definitely didn't want to go to.

it was already a few weeks into the school year and josh knew for a fucking fact that he wasn't going to let any of his teachers force him to speak to the class.

ball high school.

how great.

josh's mother gave him a reassuring look at she pulled up to the front of the school, grabbing his hand and squeezing it gently.

"you're gonna be just fine. i've looked this place up and i've talked to the principal. they know about your situation-"

josh cut his mother off with a groan. "mom, no. why'd you have to tell them? now they're gonna treat me like some fragile flower that can't be damaged."

"but," she continued, ignoring her son's words, "they promised not to speak of it at all unless something happens and it's a required topic of conversation."

josh looked skeptical but he soon smiled a bit. "okay. fine. but if they so much as look at me like i need protecting then i'm leaving and we can sign me up for online schooling, deal?"

"we're not basing your education on a look. if they bring it up five times without an actual reason to, then we will think about online, got it?"

"make it three and it's a deal."

"okay, joshua. now get to class."

★

his first class was geometry.

josh was pretty good at math, but he hated shapes and angles and all that shit.

he wanted a career in music. and he didn't need to know the radius times pi of a fucking parallelogram or whatever the fuck to hit some drums.

but he needed to pass because him and his mom had a deal. if he gets all A's, she'll cover half of his first drum set.

and that was a deal he couldn't turn down.

so here he was, standing outside of the classroom of a mr d. weekes.

he knocked on the door, and it opened a few seconds later to reveal a tall man with floppy brown hair.

"you must be joshua, correct?"

josh simply nodded, looking as uninterested as possible with the hopes that his teacher wouldn't make him introduce himself.

"okay, class. this is joshua. he's new here so... all hail the newest prisoner of ball high school." and then he pointed to a desk in the front of the room.

josh reckoned that he'd like this teacher.

-

456 words

published on june 20, 2019