not expecting anyone to read this, but i;m putting it in anyways It was the first day of school, my tenth grade year, and as I’m walking down the back hallway I saw John Lang walking towards me. It has been over 3 months since I’ve talked to him; he’s been in Montana with his uncle. Lang was a liberal to the extreme. He was about 5 foot 10 inches, brown hair down to his eyes and brown eyes. Lang was an ass to everyone for no reason; it was just Lang’s way of being a human, his only downfall. Lang and I started catching up on some things that happened over the break, and as we were walking, Mark came up behind us and drilled us into the lockers. Ah, nothing like getting slammed into dull metal at 7:15 in the morning at your least favorite place in the world. “Hey guys,” Mark said as he helped us up. “Was that really necessary, Mark?” Lang questioned. Lang was a bit of a pansy, he always complained about getting hurt. “It’s about time, Mark, what took you so long?” I asked. “Well, isn’t our normal meeting place up in D-hall?” Lang and I nodded a yes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Mark, Lang, and I made our way up towards D-hall, and we saw Evan being the little weirdo he was. He has his headphones on, his dirty blond hair hanging over his eyes and his shirt on inside out. Mark took this perfect opportunity to put Evan in a headlock. Evan retaliated in his usual way, squealing and punching Mark in the chest. “What the hell Mark?” he screamed. “Ha…gotcha little man.” “Let me go...” As Mark had him in a headlock, some one came through the gym door in the back halls and said, “Hey, muscle man, let the pip squeak go.” We all turned around surprised…we should have known; it was Coop. “Coop, how ya doing man,” Lang said. “Where’s Marty…he told me he’d be here,” Coop didn’t even say hello, that was just his way. As Coop was asking us if we had seen Marty, he jumped through the door with his feet extended, head shaved, and sporting the overalls. Some people thought Marty was a skinhead, but he was the nicest kid out of the group. Coop turned around, wearing his clogs and his purse-backpack. “Are we going to go up to D-hall guys?” I asked “Let’s wander first,” Marty suggested. We wandered around the school for 10 minutes before the bell rang for 1st period; we never made it to D-hall. I walked into 1st period to see my new homeroom, World Cultures with Mr. Sloan. There weren’t too many people I knew, just CP and Roberto. World Cultures wasn’t that exciting, not yet at least. Mr. Sloan went through the normal beginning of the year bull crap, and then the bell rang for second period. I walked out of room, and looked at my schedule…second period, math. I started walking down C-hall, into the back hall as I heard some one scream my name. “ELLIOTT!” I turned around; it was Tory. Tory was my Latin buddy from last year, one of the coolest girls I’ve ever met. I didn’t see her at all that summer, so it was great to see her again. Tory was a pretty girl, 5 foot 4 inches, with a gorgeous everything. Her hair came down to her shoulders. Tory was an athletic girl, had been doing ballet all her life. She was wearing pink; her favorite color. “Tory, how have you been? You look amazing.” “Awe, thanks, I’ve been good, where are you going?” “Math, room 64 with Rylands.” “We have math together, Elliott. How exciting!” We walked down the back halls to room 64, catching up on some old times. Math was really boring; the usual first day “let the teacher get to know you” was already annoying me. Mr. Rylands made us fill out these personal cards with our favorite movie, food, and a lot more. Tory and I also had Latin together this year as well. As we walked up F-hall, I saw Katie walk out of her classroom. Katie is the person I turn to when I need help with anything, and I mean anything. Katie always took her friend’s needs in front of hers. Katie was, in my opinion, the most beautiful girl in the school. She had long blond hair, gorgeous green eyes, and an amazing body. “Elliott, how are you?” “I’m good, Katie, how was your summer?” “It was awesome, I spent a lot of it up in my cottage in Canada with my sister, my boyfriend, and Paul. It was a lot of fun.” “That’s awesome, hopefully I’ll see you later, but I got to go to C-hall for Latin, it’s a bit of a walk.” “All right, I’ll see you later Elliott.” Tory and I continued to Latin, making our way through main hall and many bodies. We eventually walked into class right as the bell was ringing. Latin, what a class, not only was it Tory and I in there, they were many jokesters: Dave, Jester, Junda, Lurp, and Rex. Rex wasn’t his real name, but that’s what I always called him, it means King in Latin. I could tell Latin was going to be a fun class, a lot of funny kids in that class. Mrs. Klein was a cool lady; my family has known her for a while. We picked our names on the first day, I took Brutus just so magistra could say “Et tu, Brute” when I did something bad. After Latin, I had English with Mrs. Ackerman in D-hall. Oh, the layout of our school, it might help a bit. Kwellen Intermediate was a large school; it could keep up to 1500 kids in it, and 2 grades…9th and 10th. This is one of two high schools in Kwellen School District. There is a main hall in KI that houses the rooms numbers 10-19. Off the main hall come 6 off branches, A-F. A-hall holds 6-9 and the gyms. B-hall holds 21-29 (28 and 29 are in the back hall) and the library. C-hall contains rooms 31-39 and is mainly the Social Studies hall. D-hall controls rooms 41-49 and is all English and English electives. E-hall is 51-59 and in mostly math, along with rooms 61-69 in F-hall. The science rooms mostly fell in the new part of the school, what I like to call the new hall. It has rooms 81-90…you might be asking, where are the 70’s, that’s tech ed…and Chem, Bio, and all other science classes are found along there with ROTC, Spanish, and Social Studies taking a few classes. Mrs. Ackerman’s room was in D-hall, room 42, and first one on the left. I walked in; I was the first one there. Latin in room 12 was very close, just one hall down in the main hall. A couple kids walked in, I didn’t know any of them. Then CP walked in, I really don’t like him, but I know him from lacrosse. CP is very annoying, looks up to me because I start JV. Then I saw Holden walk in the room, what a relief. Holden was a bit weasley. He was one of my better friends but he didn’t fit in with the Group (Lang, Mark, Evan, Coop, and Marty). Holden was about 5 foot 5 inches, very liberal, and funny as hell. He’s a big fan of music, just like I am. He wears his opinions on his shirt so everyone knows his stance on everything. Holden was not fond of Kwellen; in fact he hated it. High school, so far, wasn’t nice to Holden. I saw some other kids I knew, but the only ones I talked to were Holden and Paul. After Mrs. Ackerman’s 40-minute speech in which she said nothing important, I could tell English was going to be bad this year. I had lunch 5th period, what a break. As I walked into the cafeteria, I saw Lang and Coop in line for lunch. I went and got my usual nachos and paid the lunch lady. Lang and Coop were sitting in their usual spot, in the middle of the table most near the middle of the room. Everyone notices the kids on the outside of room and the ones that decorate the exterior, no one ever noticed the middle, and so that’s where we sat. I sat next to Coop and across from Evan, who came from nowhere. I was hoping Marty would be joining us for lunch again like last year, but he wasn’t. The lunch group started catching up on some times, Coop being the general ass as always. I never really got along with Coop, he was the newest member of the group and to me, it seemed like he was ruining it. I had gym on A days with Mr. Hosler. Mr. Hosler was a, uhh, hilarious man. He was overweight and he waddled when he walked. My gym class was full of hilarious kids: Nelson, Brady, Grant, Moobs, and Jones. It also had some really hot girls; gym classes were coed this year. Most notable was Cait Cames. Cait was a gorgeous 5 feet 10 inch brunette with the most athletic body in the world. She played soccer and was one of the nicest people I knew. Last year she didn’t wear the same outfit twice. Cait could get any guy she wanted, but she didn’t think she was good looking at all. There were some others, mostly freshmen that I didn’t know. I think one of them was named Mackenzie, brunette that caught my eye. On A days I had Chemistry once a day, on B days I had it twice. I went to chemistry only to find that most of the sophomores in my gym class were also in my chem class. Mr. Mark gave us all seats on the first day, luckily for me I sat next to Cait. I’ve known Cait for a couple years now, but I’ve never had the privilege of sitting next to her. Mr. Mark decided to give us a demonstration on the first day. We all sat down as he filled up a rectangular box up with soapy water, we soon found out it was called a pneumatic trough. He hooked the trough up to a gas pipe, and bubbled started forming. As the bubbles started releasing from the soapy water, he lit his Bunsen burner up. When the bubbles were near the ceiling he took the Bunsen burner and set the bubbles on fire, producing a large fireball that lasted about 1 second. He then explained that the gas nozzle that the trough was connected to was releasing methane. Methane is a flammable gas, and when he put the Bunsen burner near the bubble filled with methane they went up in flames. Chem was looking promising. I’m a bit of a pyromaniac so it seems this class was going to be enjoyable. 8th pd. I had a study hall with Mr. Ruffing. Mr. Ruffing was a science teacher who enjoyed making fun of students. Evan was in my study hall, which was going to be enjoyable. After study hall, I had Anthropology to end off the school day. Anthro seemed like it was going to be a fun class. Only 14 kids were in it, and the guys in there were hilarious. Max was a lacrosse buddy that I have known for many years, and he’s the funniest kid I know. The first day of school didn’t go as bad as I thought; it was good to see everyone again. Things seemed like they were going to go well this year, and I hope that they do. The first couple weeks of school went by too fast. The only thing that happened was going to the first football game with Tory and Lang. Lang and I met Tory at the game. Tory looked especially good tonight, Lang and I both knew it. We bought our tickets and walked down towards the stands. “Elliott, I have someone I want you to meet.” It was Sarah, Alan’s girlfriend. Alan was one of my neighbors, rode my bus and helped me out when I needed it. “All right, take me to this person.” “It’s Dianne.” Dianne was Alan’s ex-girlfriend; I had a crush on her for a while. She was gorgeous, like all the girls I seem to know. Blonde hair past her shoulders with marvelous hazel eyes put together with a great athletic body…just what any guy would want. She was with her boyfriend, Grant. It was the first time in two years I had seen her, and she looked better than ever. “How are you Dianne, it’s been a couple years.” “Yeah, I know. I’m good, how about yourself” “I’m great, quite happy, for once. Sorry to leave you guys, but I got to go…people are waiting for me. It was great seeing you again. I’ll see you guys later.” “Cya Elliott.” They all said. I walked back towards Tory and Lang, and then we went and sat in the stands. We talked for a while about school, politics, and many other things. Kwellen lost the season opener, and Mark was going to be pissed. I went to go get a drink, and I saw Katie walking with her friends and boyfriend. It got me all depressed because, in a way, I love Katie. For a while I thought it was just a crush I couldn’t get over, but it never went away. The only thing I think it could possibly be is love…and it hurt me to see her with someone else. But then I realized that it was something more than that; this wasn’t just a crush or love…she was like my sister. I got my drink and sat down near the stands with Alan and his girlfriend. Seeing Katie with her boyfriend got me a bit depressed, and Alan could sense it, I guess. “What’s wrong, Elliott, you’re looking a bit down.” “Katie, man,” I mumbled under my breath. “Excuse me? I didn’t catch that.” “Just look dude. You know who I’m talking about.” Alan looked towards the snack bar and saw Katie with her boyfriend. “Dude, you need to get over her. She’s happy…let her go.” “I know she’s happy…why do you think I’ve been so happy lately. I see her smile and it makes my day dude…I’m just upset that I’m not the one making her smile, I missed being the one by a week.” Alan lightened my mood, like he always did, and his girlfriend just looked confused. I picked up my head and took a sip of my Pepsi. I decided it was time I went back to Lang and Tory; I left them for a good 15 minutes. They seemed to have been talking the whole time I was gone, but I had no idea what about. “What took you so long Elliott,” Tory politely asked. “I was talking Alan and his girlfriend, sorry bout the delay. How’s the game coming along?” “Who knows, no one pays attention. It’s football, no one cares,” Lang so pleasantly said. He always did have a way to make someone or something feel like it wasn’t worth anything. Tory, Lang, and I went down to the fence when it started to rain and found some shelter under an umbrella of a friend. It was a long night, and Lang and I both realized that we didn’t have a ride home. Lang called his dad and he said he’d be able to pick us up at Ski North, a ski store about a 20-minute walk from the stadium, and he’d be there in 15 minutes. Tory told us her sister could give us a ride to Ski North so we could be there on time. Tory’s sister picked all three of us up. Tory’s sister was in college, I didn’t know much about her, I didn’t even know Tory had a sister until that night. “So which one are you?” She said looking at me. “I’m Elliott.” “And how about you?” “John Lang.” “Tory, are these good kids?” “Of course, otherwise I wouldn’t hang out with them.” Tory and her sister seemed to be mocking us, oh well. They dropped us of at Ski North and Lang and I waited for his dad. “Whom were you talking to for so long?” “Alan and his girlfriend. It’s been a while since I’ve talked to them, I decided to night was a good night.” Lang’s dad picked us up and drove me to my house. After my good nights I went inside and listened to Spoon for a couple hours. The next couple of days went by pretty quickly. In school a couple days later I decided I needed to ask someone to homecoming. Last year I asked 5 girls and all of them either had a date or said no. Last year wasn’t a good year for girls and me…actually; no year has been a good year for me with girls. I held off asking someone for a couple weeks. I decided I’d ask Tory, if she said no, I’d know homecoming was a no go this year. If I’d go with anyone I’d like to go with Tory, she’s one of my best friends. I asked her on our daily rounds from Math to Latin. “Hey, Tory, I was wondering if you’d like to go to homecoming with me.” “I’d love to Elliott, but I’m going with Lang. He asked me a while ago, sorry.” That was the last thing I expected. Lang had the courage to ask someone to homecoming, what an amazing surprise. I was really shocked, that was the last thing I expected from Lang. I guess this homecoming was a no go, again. There wasn’t anyone left to ask, Tory was my safety, and the only one I was going to ask. The fall went by with out much of anything happening. Lang eventually asked Tory to be his girlfriend, and she said yes. I found out that Coop set them up. I never told anyone this, but I never thought it was a good idea. Tory and Lang were two of my closer friends, and they started acting differently around me. The whole attitude of the group changed. A normal day in the morning at D-hall went something like this. Lang, Coop, and Marty were always the first ones there. They talked about who knows what, and then I arrived with Evan. Marty drank is energy drinks while wearing whatever strange item of clothing he had on that day…and army helmet, his leather jacket, even goggles. After our general making fun of people we didn’t know, Mark came along and did whatever he does. We never really did anything other than make fun of people, and I hated it. Once Lang and Tory were going out, things changed. The morning now went like this. Coop and Marty talked until I got there with Evan. We then sat around and waited for Mark, talking about semi-meaningful things. Then Lang showed up with Tory, and there was silence. No one said much. It got to the point where I didn’t bother to take of my headphones when I got to the group; I just sat in a chair and listened to whatever was in the cd player that morning. Things may not have actually changed; but something didn’t feel right to me. Instead of the screwing around we normally did, it was more about talking shit on people and making fun of each other, seemed to always be me they were making fun of. Everything kind of fell apart, slowly. I never got any time with Tory, just the walk from 1st pd. to Math. On your walk form Math to Latin, Lang joined us and talked with Tory, and I just kind of sat there, I started to not walk with them. I never liked seeing them together, I don’t know why but it just didn’t seem right to me. I had an online journal, something I wrote my thoughts in that no one read…at least that’s what I thought. I kept everything in there, all my personal stuff. Some things I thought about Lang and Tory together, some about Katie and her boyfriend, and general gripe. I wrote it for months, and none of my friends said anything about it, so I kept writing what I wanted. Christmas break came around; a good two weeks off of school is just what I need. The break wasn’t that exciting, just a lot of snow. Christmas was pretty cool; I finally got my Fender Jazz Bass. I’d been saving up for it for a while, and my parents decided to get me it for Christmas. Christmas break was pretty cool; I got invited to try out for a band with some of my friends. Before school started up again, I got a message from Lang. “You, Me, Coop, and Tory are going to meet at the counseling office on Monday before 6th period.” Now what the hell could this be about? School started up again, I went to the library to meet some of the kids I’d be playing in the band with instead of D-hall. I met Mike in the library so I could met the other guitarist, Louis. Louis was a pretty cool kid, long wavy hair down to his shoulders. I avoided Lang in the morning, didn’t want to talk to him. After first period I talked to Tory on the way to math. “So what is this all about? What’s going on?” “I don’t know; it wasn’t my request.” Both of us were confused, something had to have happened between Tory and Lang. I didn’t know what, but something happened. I found out later that they broke up. I saw it coming; I was surprised it took that long for it to happen. I was happy that they broke up. I went down to the counseling office before 6th period to see what was going on. No one was there. I walked around a little bit to make sure I didn’t miss them. They weren’t there, made me even more confused. I went back to chem; hopefully Leonard and Cait would lighten my day a little bit. Once I got home I expressed my opinions in my journal, as I always did. It wasn’t until about 7:30 that I got an IM from Tory. “Hey Elliott.” “Hey Tory, what’s up?” “Eh, nothing much, yourself?” “Just trying to figure out what this meeting is about, since no one will tell me. If you know what its about just tell me.” “I don’t know what its about, honestly. I guess we all need to fix some things” “Lang told me you were the one who brought it up.” “No, I wasn’t, I promise that. It doesn’t matter who brought it up.” “Well don’t expect me to show up whenever we ‘Meet’. And how is Coop involved in this?” “You two have never gotten along. Joe and I are in this because of what you did to us.” “And what the hell did I do to you?” “Oh, let’s see...’I hate seeing you two together’.” They’ve been reading my journal, great. What made it even worse was that it wasn’t about them. Well, not completely about them. I didn’t like seeing them together, but when I wrote anything in my journal that they thought was about them, it was about Katie and her boyfriend. “It’s great hearing that from a ‘friend’ Elliott.” She wasn’t happy. “That’s not about you and Lang. Katie and her boyfriend, the majority of it.” “You had our names in there, you said you were happy we broke up.” “I am happy you broke up.” “Why would you lose trust in us? I don’t get it.” “I don’t get it either, I just did. My two best friends were going out…there’s certain things I tell you two that are reserved for you two and no one else. I just feel like I couldn’t tell you guys anything anymore.” “Elliott, that’s ridiculous, I never tell anyone things meant just for me.” “I was more concerned about Lang than you Tory. He and Coop, well, and everyone has been picking on me lately, treating me like shit. He’s become the kind of kid that would tell you the stuff I don’t want you to know. I still don’t see how Coop is involved in this.” “I don’t know the relationship you have with him.” “I leave him alone, I try not to talk to him.” “You know, he’s changed a lot. For the better.” “I can’t believe that, he’s always been an ass to me.” “Still?” “I got to go, I’ll talk you later Tory.” “All right, later Elliott.” I didn’t really have to go, I was just really upset. There was only one thing to do when I was upset, time to shoot the lacrosse ball as hard as I could. I was really confused with everything. Well, there was one thing to look forward to…first band practice on Friday after school. I blocked the rest of the week out of my memory; it was pretty bad overall. I haven’t talked to Lang since before Christmas break. Lang had changed a lot since he and Tory started going out. He was always an asshole to the people he didn’t like, but he started being an ass to everyone. Friday came around, the only day of that week I remember. It was the first practice with the new band. It was the first time I got to show off my new Jazz bass to people. We were allowed to practice on the auditorium stage, which was real cool. Mike brought his brand new Fender Telecaster, and Louie had his 1960’s Les Paul reissue. Since this was our first practice…let me rephrase that…since this was our first jam we didn’t have much do to. The only song all of us knew how to play was “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. We jammed to that for about 10 minutes, Mike and Louis had a sweet guitar duel that sounded sweet. Mike and I decided to show them the song we wrote a while back. It was a jam kind of song, soft guitar chords with a leading bass riff. We had words, but we never used them. Derek especially liked the song; he had a lot of fun adding drums to it. I could tell this band was going to be a lot of fun; our name was The Filthy Stepfather for Christ’s sake, what can’t be fun about that. Mike was one of the best guitarists in the school; he could play anything he wanted to. Mike was a large kid, standing tall and large over most. He had long wavy hair that covered his eyes. He was a happy kid from what I could tell, never seemed sad or anything, just happy. I wish I could be more like that, I guess. He wore sandals every day, no matter the weather, and in Pittsburgh you can get lots of snow on the ground. His telecaster was a nice red finish, and he wore the guitar real high on his chest, it looked real funny watching him play. Louis was the only kid in the band I didn’t know; I went to elementary and middle school with Mike, and I had biology with Derek last year. Louis was a cool kid and was really into classical rock. He’d only been playing the guitar for a year or two but he was already one of the better guitarists in the school. Louis always wore a hemp necklace and a band shirt. His hair was everywhere, easily past his shoulders. Derek…ah Derek…was an amazing kid. Derek played drums and was the best drummer I’ve ever heard and played with. Derek was a bright kid, but lacked certain common sense. It was hilarious watching him play the drums cause he hunched over and looked like a turtle with his huge Adam’s apple pointing straight ahead. If he took off his glasses he looked like Cameron Fry from Ferris Beuller’s Day Off. The next night, Saturday, KI was holding a battle of the bands type thing. Bands in the school were playing, we weren’t. Louis and Derek were in another band, Obsidian, that was the best in the school, in my opinion, and they were playing. Mike was also playing with the death metal band he was in, Dracula Kombat. It was a pretty big event and a lot of kids were going, so Mark, Evan, and I decided to go. Mark went with his new girlfriend, Jessica. I met Jessica a couple summers ago; she was a chubby redhead that was real controlling and a drama queen. She created problems with her friends just do others would feel bad for her. It was kind of sad on her part, but Mark was real into her at this point. Evan’s mom drove us to the show. Obsidian was playing first so I wanted to get there early. It cost five bucks too get in, but it was worth it. Mr. Soxman was sponsoring the event; he was my 9th grade English teacher. I talked to him for a little bit, and then I heard Obsidian warming up. Obsidian was Louis, Derek, and Mills. Mills was the bassist, one of the better in the district. Obsidian was a talented group that wrote great originals for their age. Evan and I found Mark and his girlfriend Jessica, and we all sat down for a little bit. The next band came onto stage, they weren’t too good. I left the three of them to go talk with Derek and Louis backstage.