Retrospect

School

          Some people like school.  Some people really like school some people don't.  Likewise, some people don't like it, and others detest it.  I would say that I am in the meh, s'cool category (I am not cool, please note, but I tink that school is, and I couldn't pass up that golden pun opportunity sorry)  At least until a few weeks ago.  I'm not really sure what category I am in now, but my experience at this new school has not been without excitement.  It has been very action packed, and before I start being too boring I will now tell you why.  At first, as I arrived at the school, it was compltely new and foreign.  Then eventually things started to settle in to a sort of routine.  There were a few - okay, a lot of people who are weird.  There was one who would do almost anything for a dollar.  I'm pretty sure that he would even try setting fire to the school if you paid him enough.  There was antother who was pretty much a rock.  I don't think that I've ever seen him run.  Or walk.  Or anything except for sit, stand, or amble at apace slower than an oyster.  Oysters don't really move.  There was also one who would never let "good" food go to waste.  If you throw something out that he wanted, he would first, scream at them, and then, after threatening to die, he would go and eat the thing, right our of the bin.  I remember one particular memory of him, wanting a chicken wing.  Disgusting.  Anyways, he asked another person for their chunk of chicken, and when they didn't say yes, stole it.  The person didn't mind though.  There is a thing at this school that if you aren't entirely sure that you want to keep your food, it is pretty much a free for all.  So, when he took that horrible piece, he immediately took a bite, before the other person could take it back.  Deciding that he didn't like it though, he threw it on the ground.  Unfortunately, a teacher saw the whole thing.  Worse yet, it was one of the strictest teachers in the school.  She flew off the handle at him, over the fence, and embedded into the poor person's wall who lived across the street.  She started a furious tirade, about how that was a waste of food, rude, and not our grade behavoir.  Actually, she never got past "that was a wa-"  before he picked the thing off the ground, wiped it on the table, in a pitiful attempt to at least rub some of the dirt off, but only succeeding in making it much dirtier, put it in his mouth, and swallowed.  The teacher had no idea how to handle that.  She atared at him with a look of complete astonishment on her face, and jaw hanging wide.  He then, rather than apologise, belched in her face, let out a rude giggle, and ran off to play tag, leaving the dumbstruck teacher behind.  You may be wondering why I put this in, but that person is sitting right next to me, begging to be included in this.  

          Later that week, after he had been sufficiently punished, we were playing tag once more.  We made the mistake of running onto the sports court.  The basketball players, or the "cool" people, played there, thinking that they were the best in the world.  They're not - probably - but that was what they thought.  They also, as it turned out had nasty tempers.  The same person that was sitting next to me - gone now, that he was satisfied that his story was in here, crossed right in front of the players.  This annoyed them way more than it should have, and they complained to the teachers.  The teachers then said that we were only allowed on the sidelines.  We followed this rule without deviation, but they were still unhappy.  They wanted the whole thing to themselves, even though the whole point of the sidelines, is to mark the places where the people are not allowed to go.  The teachers said that this was unfair though, so rather than kicking us out entirely, they just told the basketball players to deal with us on the sidelines.  I don't think that anyone thought this was fair though, because a few days after, the person who would eat the ground food decided that he was cornered, and ran screaming across the court in front of the players.  They got very mad at him, and the teachers also gave him, and the rest of us, a ban from the court entirely for the rest of the week.  Most of the people that usually play tag got very upset with him, but because he eats food off of the ground, he was forgiven almost immediately.  Once the ban was over, we all were very glad that we had another escape route.  We all congregated there, because all of the taggers were on the outside.  Then, the taggers ran on, so we ran off.  This whole time, we were on the sidelines, and even on the bleachers.  All of which we were allowed to do.  (Actually I wasn't on the bleachers, because it seemed too disrespectful, but most people didn't like that decision, because it usually led to myself getting tagged, and then tagging the other players "at annoying speeds" as they said.  Again, about a week and a half later, there was only one person who was it, but they were targeting me, and they were almost catching up.  In the end, they realized that they weren't able to catch me on their own (I don't know why, I'm not that fast)  and I walked on to the sports court along the sidelines, for a bit of a break - although if someone It came in, I would still have to run - and apparently, as one of the basketball players thought, I ran across the court in circles stealing the ball.  (What really happened, was I leaned against the wall to rest for thirty seconds, then continued on)  He saw me there though, and turned a lovely shade of pink.  Most people get a bit red when they are extremely mad, although this boy - I am going to call him Jam, thanks to a suggestion from a few friends (if they will consider me that much) had a rosy complexion to begin with, turned VIVID pink, and blotchy.  He called for the ball, and rather than running toward the net, he turned around, and ran the wrong way, with the ball over his head.  At this time, while we are on the topic of heads, his had now turned an unnatural shade of red.  Sort of a firey-magma red, and even with some orange splotches too.  All of the other players did not know what waas going on, because they had seen that I had done nothing wrong, and were completely baffled as to what had possesed him to do this.  He kept on running towards me, but now screaming profanity.  It sounded like this !#$%^&*((&^%*)(&&$()&)(&%_${#}}:#{>"":<":*!  But a lot louder and profanity...er.  I had no idea what he was doing, until he stopped swearing unintelligibly and started warn me that he would throw the ball.  In my head, I thought that his throw would probably be terrible anyways, as our Jam, was not very athletic.  (Perhaps he was eating too much of his namesake) I started to jog away, managing to keep a steady distance, even though he was sprinting and I was not.  He realized that I was going to get out of the court, and decided that he should throw the ball before it was too late.  With a bloodcurdling scream, he launced the ball towards me, and I realized that while he was not in the best of shape, I had neglected to remember that he was at least two years older than me, and he liked to throw things when he got mad - like now.  He was also the best on the school shotput team, but that's not really important to this story.  Thanks to his scream, I turned and stopped, just in time to see the ball barreling straight at my face.  To my incredible surprise, and his absolute astonishment, I had miraculousl caught it cenimeters from my face.  His astonishment quickly turned to worry though, because now I had the ball, and while I could not throw very well, I could run a lot faster than him, and I had the ball.  His face went from a purple (for it had been reddening and then even purpling inhumanly fast.  It had been like watching a movie, where the hero slowly loses consciousness and it fades from red to purple to black.  I was ready to call an ambulance though, if his face started to turn black, because at the time, it was a magenta so deep that I didn't even know existed, let alone on a human face)  to a blank pale, and sweaty.  Rather than do what he thought was coming, though, and what all of my classmates thought I should have done, I gently tossed the ball back.  He caught it, then dropped it in surprise, and then picked it back up again with a nasty grin... But also with apparent anger still, because his face was doing that cool colour shifting thing again.  He didn't waste his time winding back with the ball though, he just marched right up to me, and before I get to this next bit, you should know that I am rather tall for my age, and he is quite short for his.  This meant that when he started to threaten me with a big windup for a punch, all of my classmates, a good number of the basketball players, and pretty much everyone else that was watching, dissolved into giggles at Jam, craning his neck, almost 80 degrees up - for he had gotten rather close - at me and winding back put him off balance, and he started to stumble.  I took this opportunity though, to sprint - not jog this time, off of the court and into the rest of the old closed off school car park that we were palying in.  He screamed in rage, and for all I know, actually did turn black and pass out, but I didn't really care.  There were at least a few teachers who saw the whole incident, and saw how I had dealt with it, and were keeping a watchful eye on his temper.  I continued to play tag, for the rest of the 20 minute lunch break, and when I went back upstairs to class, he had the incredible nerve to say, when I apolgised, that "I just didn't want you to get hurt.  You could have tripped over the ball when you were running, and broken a leg."  Seriously!  Does he not realize that he was the one who was making me run and trying to break my legs!!??