I walked into the school hallway and seen a group of football players tossing a football back and forth. The emo girls were listening to 'The Veronicas' and comparing who had the worst summer.
The geeks were arguing over which Harry Potter movie was better. The nerds argued over who had better grades the last school year.
The "Regulars" talked about their summer. I didn't like labels. Labels in my opinion were weird. I walked in and saw my ex best friend, Essen. Essen was the quiet weird kid nobody liked but everyone felt sorry for her.
Her parents were divorced and she was in and out of mental institutions for trying to commit suicide and self harm. I personally liked her. "Hey, Essen." I said and she turned around and give me an awkward head nod. I sped up my pace to catch up with her. "So, how was your summer?" I asked trying to start a conversation. "It was alright, you?" She said in a low voice.
"Mine was good. You created any drawings lately?" She removed her hair from her face she replied, "drawing isn't really my kind of thing anymore. But I drew one picture. I was meaning to give it to you."
She reached in her backpack and handed me a drawing. I took it from her hands and stared at it. It was a picture of me sitting at a desk, tucking my hair behind my ears. "Wow, Essen, this is so beautiful, thank you." I said. "Can I keep it?" She nodded.
"Sure, Elizabeth." I walked in the opposite direction looking for Q. I saw him with his beanie on, organizing his locker. "Hey." I said and he looked up. "Well look who it is." He jokingly said and I laughed, giving him a hug.
Q was one of those sensitive quiet kids who minded their own business and didn't socialize much. He had a few friends but he loved comic, crime, art, eating, and sleeping. Q and I met when we were just eight years old.
I was sitting alone in the cafeteria in third grade and he saw me. He walked over to me. "Hey, you're Elizabeth right?" He asked and I shyly nodded. I didn't think he knew my name.
"I'm Quentin. Some of my friends call me Q. You can call me that if you'd like. I don't mind." He spoke. I opened my lunchbox and said, "I have multiple nicknames. My mom calls me Betty, Liza, or Beth. I prefer being called Betty all the time." He laughed.
"Okay, Betty." We smiled at each other and he took a bite out of his sandwich. "Aren't you going to eat?" He asked and I replied saying, "I don't usually like eating in front of people. I feel nervous." Q looked at me and said, "I vant to vuck vour vlood." He said in an creepy vampire voice.
I laughed so hard that day, tears formed in my eyes. I broke and piece of my cookie and gave a half to Q. "Cheers, to being new friends." I said and held my half cookie up, he did the same and we ate our lunch.
"What are some of your classes?" I asked Q. He closed his locker and turned me to me and said, "All of mine are honors and AP. If they see I took those classes, colleges would be lining up at my door wanting me." He bragged and I rolled my eyes.
"It's amazing how time fast went. It feels like just yesterday we were taking about new toys that were coming out, what our parents brought us for lunch, and who can recite their numbers quicker." I explained. "Now, we have to worry about graduation, we we have to worry about requirements, and we have to worry about college."
Being a kid felt great. You didn't have to worry about tons of stuff: you were basically carefree and happy. Coming into high school has made most of us more depressed, anxious, and along the way, I've witnessed many high school kids come and go.
In our town, not that many graduated from high school. Shit, not that many even graduated from middle school. Going to school in Dickensdale was something I've always hated. You had Mrs. Callan, the evil bitchy science teacher who hardly showed up.
