Heartworm -
When you can't get a relationship out of your head, even after it's ended long ago. Replaying memories, songs, scents that remind you of them or just their name on loop in your head is referred to as Heartworm.
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Luke was my boy...
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Merriwether College Prep was a good school. It was one of those 'progressive' schools in downtown Manhattan. That basically meant we sat on beanbag chairs instead of at a desk, and we don't get grades and the teachers wear jeans and rock concert T-shirts to work.
It was great. Percy and I both have ADHD and dyslexia, so neither of had done great in regular schools even before they kicked us out. The only downside is the teachers always looked on the bright side. A little too much if you ask me.
They seemed to live in a dreamy world where everything works out amazing in the end and every problem can be solved with a little bit of patience and will-power. That was great and all, unless you had stopped a war breaking out between the gods and having some evil titan manipulating your boyfriend into working for him.
And the kids at school, weren't always... well, bright.
Take my first class today: Percy and I shared English. The whole middle school had read this book called Lord of the Flies, where all these kids get marooned on an island and go psycho. So for our final exam, our teachers sent us into the yard to spend an hour with no adult supervision.
Sounds cool, right? Think again.
What happened was a massive wedgie contest between the seventh and eighth graders. During this, I fluttered back and forth between Percy and Tyson, and a group of girls in my theatre class.
They were nice and chatty and we talked about our last exam for theatre. It was musical performance where we got to choose what song and choreograph a dance for it.
I excused myself from the conversation when I saw the school bully, Matt Sloan, creep up to Tyson, ready to try and deliver a wedgie.
Sloan wasn't big or strong, but he had a big ego which meant he acted like the world's most important kid. He had eyes like a pit bull and followed you, eyeing you up like prey, and shaggy black hair. His clothes were always expensive, but looked sloppy on him, like he wanted everyone to know how little he cared about his family's money (who definitely had more money than you). One of his front teeth was chipped from the time he'd taken daddy's Porsche for a joyride and ran into a PLEASE SLOW DOWN FOR CHILDREN sign.
I stalked up to Percy and Tyson. Sloan didn't like to mess with girls he deemed 'hot'. He'd make some crude remarks and would wander off.
Tyson was a sweetheart, despite looking like a giant. He reached up to two metres tall and was built like the Abominable Snowman, but he cried a lot and was scared of just about everything, including his own reflection. His face was kind of misshapen and brutal-looking. You had to crane your neck just to look at him. His teeth were crooked and his voice was deep, but he talked funny, like a much younger kid - I guess that's what happens when you never go to school.
Tyson was also the only homeless kid at Meriwether College Prep. As near as me, Percy and mom had figured out, Tyson had been abandoned by his parents when he was very young.
