same page, different book.

Water ship down was a good story

            It was hard to pay attention. He sat at his desk. It was more of a table. They sat in acsending rows. Or descending, whichever way your perception preferred. Chewey sat at what would best be described as off middle. He had learned that the extremities of front and back were the most conspicuous. English was in his own words "pretentious bullshit." Uncle, the lecturer was always asking frivolous questions the interpretation of things the authors intention of having the protagonist live in a blue house, blue room, with a blue little window. It irritated him. He lived in blue house and it didn't mean shit. There was no hidden meanings in real life. He had been told haulden Caulfield was misunderstood. Chewy felt he understood that holden Caulfield was an over dramatic pansy. That eassy had come back with a red f slashed and Uncles admonishment that he would gain more from his enviorments if he read into things between the lines. That had been earlier in the  year. He only knew a few people this class, most in passing. He had been struggling to sojourn the very verbose, very unengaging narrative of nick carraway and the supposedly great gatsby. Uncle would ask him what gatsby represented. Chewy would wonder how 1 person could represent anything without relinquishing their own individual personhood. Lunch was after this. After all of this. His eyes found a sentence. Relunctly,
         Fudge was prone to silently fart during class while stoically solving for various variables. Fritz who consistently failed math and didn't understand most of what was happening and sat directly behind fudge didn't find this encouraging. He looked at the equation again. His foot shook rapidly. Solve for x. Just solve for x, simple. The statement taunted fritz. He looked over the equation again. Solve for x. So smug. He found math frustrating and incomprehensible. Show your work. Fudges pencil was working at a rapid tempo. Fritz daunted started to multiply. Felt this was a situation that required division instead. Reread the equation. What exactly was it asking? Solve for x. Perplexed, fudge had turned and asked him stop his foot              .
             "C an you believe this fucking shit." It was in reality pretty believable. Chewy and frenchie had found each other on the mass of transient stuxents. "And you can't even opt out of this shit for another year." There was contempt laced within his words. Frenchie took english after lunch and had been assigned the same reading assignments and was already a third of the way onto the great Gatsby. "It gets better after you meet Gatsby." He said. Chewy was visibly disgusted "He's been describing meeting him for 3 pages. 3 PAGES. After describing how he knew him FOR 3 PAGES. The only thing i get is that theres lots of homoerotic undertones." He shot a jocular glance at Frenchie who was uncomfortable.
             After lunch, he had been smoking a cigarette behind the dumpsters. He took another hit appraised the length. Gave Red a decent sized short.  Lunch wouldnt be over for another 15 minutes. There was the sound of approaching footsteps. The cigarette was quickly disposed of. The smell permeated the clean air and accusingly hung on their clothes. Footsteps. Closer. The intrusion was immediate. Infractions for smoking weren't pleasant. Usually you had to attend nicotine cessation classes for 2 weekends. Theorys head came from the side of the dumpster. He now sported thick framed glasses that made you look at his blond buzzcut  He looked from chewy to red. Back to chewy. He had 3 other green house residents of various ages. Chewy was already gone. Red found himself being aggressively advertised to. Prices were reduced, offers offered. When it was over red found himself alone with a wig that had been smuggled from the cosmology room.
             The problem was fritz often didn't wear socks. It was because socks were a part of the tennis shoe lace industrial complex. Red couldnt convice him that this made no sense. Nor that this would expose him to potentially adverse infections. They reached a compromise after red, having enough one night, simply brought the shoes out the room and into the house hall, by the door. They had settled that he wouldn't have to use socks if his shoes remained outside. Eventually everyone stopped asking what the smell was when they came in after class. It was normal for them to meet in red and fritz room after returning to the community house. It was the most convenient being on the second floor.
             Frenchie and fritz sat at the coffee table. "Youeverthinkpeoplecouldhearyouthink?" Fritz had asked suddenly. They had been making flash cards and frenchie was in the middle of writing the definition for troposphere when that happened. After he manually slowed the sentace and replayed it In his mind he didnt say anything for a few seconds. Fritz had started to say things that made frenchie scan the room to see if anyone else noticed how queerly alarming what he said was. It was small first. They had been walking in the commons when fritz said that he thought it was kind of strange that he had never actually seen a chicken farm and they had so many servongs of chicken. That wasn't that bad. He had overheard chewy and fritz argue about the world being flat. That had been concerning. Chewy had laughed and thought it was hilarious to see fritz claim, counterclaim and defend his argument. Frenchie didn't think it was that funny. It wasn't what he was saying that made it disturbing, no, it was the sincerity of what he said that alarmed frenchie. He felt that if you could manage the mental gymnastics to rationalize the things he stated, to be able to accept the clusterfuck idea that the government was being controlled by reptiles ("not reptiles,  reptilian artificial intelligence" he had corrected chewy one night who had been telling him how far fetched it was.) Meant that he wasn't kind of weird but teetering on a fine line between crazy and eccentic Silence. Fritz looked down at the flashcards. The sound of that silence made futher conversation impossible. They made flashcards in silence, and when red came in frenchie left. He had been uncomfortable and wasnt su r e why. He thought it was because fritz generally gave an anxious vibe. But it was one that became slightly endearing because you became used to it. Just now the anxiety he had felt was unpleasant and suffocating. Chewy was picking at leftover lasagna and watching channel 1.
             There was a mandatory assembly that friday afternoon. To get an idea of how many residents Lapis fostered there was a census every 2 years. The campus was a monolithic structure that took up the entirety of the west. 9 story dorms were sprawled acers away from each other with paved walkways that let from house to the pavilion of the commons. The commons was furnished with benches, tables, concession stands and the student convient store.. The faculty boarding was located somewhere unspecified. The library was 2 stories and was directly across the store. Behind the 3 houses on the east side of the compound was a plain feild where the an auditorium had been set up. It was actually closer to being a controlled environment metropolitan
         The only channels you could catch on tv was community sponsored channel 1 a nature channel and lifetime. With the basic cable deal anyway. Channel 1 was really only good for the daily news. And red only watched that to see if any classes had been cancelled for any reason. There was a movie in the rec rooms every other week but they were always either a cowboy movie where outlaws and ranger would meet at high noon somewhere in some place always in texas "what the fuck is a Clint Eastwood why doesn't  he have a face? " an older resident had said to himself one viewing. Or an overdramtic predictabñe romantic comedy that made frenchie feel embrassed before it was over. There was also the off chance of a movie with adam sandler. The idea made chewy physicslly recoil.."
         Bored. "Fritz what have you been thinking about I guess?" This one way to pass time.
           Fritz had responded that the world wasn't allowed to end and it was being kept in 1 time period. He had said it like how you would explain to a child that tomorrow was Wednesday because today was friday. Red had glared at him. Fritz had shrugged. Chewy tried to imagine what series of ideas, and in what specific order, allowed fritz to conclude such an absurd conclusion.
         
         Chewy asked frenchie what he got out of the great gatsby. One afternoon as a dreaded due date drew near. He had put the book down and was staring at the clouds out the window. When frenchie was done he stared back at him expressionless. "Its not supposed to be about a guy who liked this one guy that was totally gay also but didn't admit it."  Frenchie didn't say anything. He squirmed a little. He considered the likelyhood that chewy was joking. This was definitely not his serious analysis. After a second he became aware that yes, chewy had picked up on some very subtle subtext and that was all that the book was about. A rather bold statement. Frenchie suggested he let chewy help with his assignment. Chewy adamantly declined. A week later Uncle would ask if he understood why he was recieving an incomplete for the assignment . he adamantly declined.
         "You realize someone died in that story right?" He tried to get chewy a little interested in the narrative.
         "Yeah, me, in the conservatory, with a knife."
         Frenchie made no attempt to understand. He simply started going over what chewy had already written.
         "From what you have so far, I fell like you skimmed, missed some important parts, Gatsby never owns a quote unquote diamond dozen. What the hell is that anyway?"
         Chewy wasn't actively ignoring him. At least not on purpose. There was a bird that had breifly landed in a nearby tree and he watched it out the window. That ringing in his ears started and that made him realize Frenchie was telling him something.
         "...and that's why symbolism is interpretive on a subjective level."
         He looked at chewy as if he was expecting a response to show he understood. Chewy nodded slowly, leaned back in his chair.
         "You see Frenchie, I'm inclined to disagree, and I'm also inclined. furthermore I will discuss this topic no further.
         "Oh."Frenchie wasn't really sure how this had become a debate. "Chewy, if you don't try to take it seriously you might I don't know, fuck off and fail a semester."
         "Chewy looked up from his copy of mice and men"
       "Chewy that's not the right "
       "I like this rabbit story, I'm just going to not do the Gatsby assignment and work harder on this one.
       Frenchie was sure that this was a bad idea. "Why not put equal effort in both?"
       Chewy paused. Made thinking noises such as hmm. "That would be like trying to write with both hands, one would be just about decent and the other one would be worse."
       "You realize ambidextrous people exist right?"
       Chewy stopped responding and was reading. Frenchie thought about failing to pass. It was pretty paradoxical to him. He returned back to his homework.