High School

I slide into my brother's sorry excuse for a vehicle and put my gloves on. Its colder inside then it is outside. His truck always made me feel clausterphobic. In the frozen winter months it was more recognizable as a popcicle then means for transportation. I like to call it scrapy, becuase thats all it should be; a scrap. Plus it has the word crap in it, and I think its fun to tease my brother with it. I watch as he chizels the inch of ice of his windshield, and giggle when he starts to get angry with the little scraper and throws it into the neighbors yard. He realizes his fault almost at once and humbly jogs to retreive it. When he thinks we're all ready, he starts up the engine. This always makes me a little antsy, but I suffer through it. Its always cooler to get a ride with an upperclass man. Even if that Senior inparticular is my geeky big brother. 1

Despite my wary vibes, the car starts up smooth, and we slowly back out of our driveway. This is the part where I turn on my headphones. Its all downhill from here. Literally. Nothing to worry about. I think. 2

We get to the end of the road and the tiniest slope, not even worthy of the name slope, stops Scrapy. The wheels spin, and he doesn't have any traction. He lets the car roll backwards and turns around. He made it up the driveway, though.3

I run inside, the temperature outside is umbearable for too long, especially for a fragile Oregonian like myself. I prefer the rain. Who shouldn't prefer the rain? Rain doesn't force you to sweat like a pig, it doesn't make you feel like your fingers are going to fall off, and best of all, the rain loves Scrapy. The rain loves Scrapy so much, he seems to attract it. Like the little thunder cloud in cartoons that follows the bad guy wherever he goes. I think Scrapy has one of those. 4

The warm air of my house magically shed off each layer of clothes, until I was in jeans and a t-shirt. My mother was coming to get me for second period so I got to relax at home for another hour and twenty-two minutes. 5

I get to school, and my first stop is the attendance office. I have an excused absence, so they hand me a bright pink hallpass and tell me to go to the end of first period. I hide out in the bathroom for ten minutes, why would I go to class for ten minutes? Thats right, I wouldn't. The Bathroom on the second floor, right beside my second period class, smells like disinfectant. It could have been worse. I pick off the peeling wallpaper and gaze at my reflection in the mirror. 6

Analazying my physique, I think not too bad. Theres worse, theres better. I can handle that. I study my face next, my skin not-so-clear, little blemishes. My nose is kind of big looking, and I need to pluck my eyebrows. I look at my eyes, and see something I thought no one ever saw. Emotion. I saw swirls of chocolate pain, of coffee colored confusion. I got lost in my own eyes, I nearly drowned in my own conflicted emotions. Someone opens the door and startles me. I pretend I am fixing my contacts, even though I don't wear contacts. I pick up my bag as soon as she is in the stall and head for the big wood door. 7

First period is officially over, so I meander over to my second class. I enter and my teacher looks at me. 8

"You got here quick" She noticed9

I had ever intention of lying to her, but when I opened my mouth all I heard was;10

"I skipped first period and was hiding out in the bathroom right next door"11

She looked up from the pile of papers, and smiled. 12

"I did that all the time when I was in school. I'm glad you decided to come to my class though, I think you'll have fun today." She suprised me with this, no reprimand.13