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Addict
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Tennessee, U.S.A.
Posts: 121
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A Beautiful Day In September
There is nothing more painful than being awoken at 6:00 a.m. on the first day of school. Or so I thought as my mom flipped the lights on in my room and exclaimed cheerily that I needed to get ready to leave. "Mom, it's six o'clock," I groaned after glancing at my clock. "School doesn't start until eight."
"Yes, but you wouldn't want to be late for your first day."
"I'm not going to be late; it'll take me half an hour at the most to get ready, and it's a 15 minute drive. Why--"
"Because I said so, and I'm your mother." As inexplicable as the reasoning behind that statement is, it bears great power coming from one's mother, so I did as I was told. Twenty minutes later, I was sitting on my living room couch waiting for my mom. About an hour after that, she was ready and we left.
My first class was math. I've been doing trigonometry and calculus since I was 12, so pre-algebra wasn't the most challenging thing for me. It was the first day, so we didn't have assigned seats, and I ended up sitting next to a guy named Jack who talks a whole lot and thinks he's the coolest guy at school (sadly for him, nobody else shares that belief). "How's it going, Timothy?" he asked.
"My name's Thomas."
"Bodily waste, whatever. How's it going?"
"Fine."
"Glad to hear it," he said, and his attention was focused on the toothpick that was moving back and forth across his mouth for the rest of the class. I got through the class (toothpick boy, monotonously droning teacher and all) without falling asleep more than twice, and went off towards my next class, which was Contemporary Issues. Before I got there, Peter Avon, a popular kid who talked to me for reasons I have never understood, stopped me in the hall.
"Hey, Thomas." Peter was a nice guy. He was one of the very few who hadn't picked an annoying nickname for me.
"Hey, Pete. Have a good summer?"
"No. No, I didn't. Y'know, Thomas, I've been thinking, and I don't really like being popular. My friends are all jerks engaging in sexual activity."
"No offense, but you're a little late in realizing that. Being a jerk is a requirement for being popular."
"I guess...but I'm afraid if I stop hanging out with them I'll be a loser."
"Join the club. What's so bad about not being cool? It isn't like cool means anything to anyone but the cool people."
"Yeah. Yeah, thanks. I gotta get to class, I'll see you later."
"Yeah." Sometimes I really feel like a therapist. All I do is point out the obvious. Can people not do their own thinking?
The Contemporary Issues teacher was reliable enough to be absent on the first day of school. The sub didn't know what to do. Naturally, the class debated God's existence (what issue could be more contemporary?). And I assure you that I mean that in the most sarcastic way.
My assertion was that it's impossible to disprove God's existence, but it's just as senseless to believe he exists without a good reason. I see no such reason, so I don't believe he exists. Why I bothered to say this when I knew full well the Jesus Parade over in the corner would flame to no end for it I don't know. "You have to have faith!" one of them contributed.
"Faith? Why have faith that he does exist? Why not have faith that he's a figment of our imagination, or that there are multiple Gods, or that God is not omnipotent but just more powerful than humans?"
My opponent glowered at me. "I pity you," she said, not sounding like she actually did at all. "You of no faith." I rolled my eyes. The kid sitting next to me felt the need to share some New Age philosophy.
"There is no truth," he said.
"If there's no truth, it cannot be true that there is no truth. Way to contradict yourself," I said sarcastically. The guy shut up after that. So did I, for fear of having more hot hair blown towards me.
Between 2nd and 3rd period is lunch, which is my least favorite part of school. At least there was something to focus on in class; in lunch, there was nothing to do but listen to the morons sitting around me spout nonsense about how great the sex they never had was.
"That girl Sara's condemned to hell hot," said Jason.
"Yeah, she's got a having sex tight donkey," continued Trent. And so on. That's how it always is. Just a load of nonsense.
Next period was English. Surprisingly, it wasn't a miserable class. The teacher was nice and, beyond all hope, knew how to teach without consulting a comittee. I passed Jack again on the way to my next class. "How's it going?" he asked.
I sighed. "Still doing fine, Jack."
"Glad to hear it." He walked on, fiddling with his toothpick.
Fourth period was Business. The teacher didn't have anything to tell us, but she was one of those who tried to get the students to like her, so we didn't do anything the whole period. I pulled out The Fountainhead, flipped to the bookmarked page, and began reading. Being a jock, this kid John just couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Why're you reading, dude? Have some eternally condemned fun."
"Reading is fun."
"Yeah," he said. "If you're a having sex loser."
"If loser is synonymous with future rich guy, I'll gladly be one. Let me know what kind of brilliant career your skills in swearing and trash talk get for you." He bristled, but he did shut up, so I was happy.
Mom works during the day, so I have to take the bus home. I got on and took an empty seat near the back. A few minutes later Jack sat down in front of me and stretched his legs out across the seat so nobody could sit beside him. "How's it going?" he asked.
"It's going really horrible, Jack. My mom died of cancer yesterday, and my dog got arrested for dealing crack. I think I'm going to hang myself tonight."
"Glad to hear it."
Overall, though, it turned out to be a good thing that Jack thought he was so cool; as a result of him covering the whole row with his legs, the only seat left on the bus by the time Sara Johnson (who was generally held to be the hottest girl in the school) got on was the one next to me. I'd never met her before, but she turned out to be real nice, and she gave me her number before I even asked.
I got home, went inside, and turned on the news. "Earlier this morning, Congress voted to make gravity illegal," a reporter was saying. "Two men were arrested an hour ago for falling off the roof of the house they were working on and landing on the ground. Authorities say--" I switched the channel, not wanting to hear any more. What a beautiful world I lived in.
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