summertime

day 1: nobody better ruin my vibe

jasmine parker

summer school, a place i've called home for many years. some voluntarily, others not. i love this place and also hate it. it's kind of crazy, you know, i'm seriously a loser. i enjoy going to fucking summer school.

i wake up with a headache that came straight from hell. my head physically hurts, mainly from my mom braiding my hair for school. they always look good, they just hurt like hell getting them done.

i have a routine that i do for school, i wake up at 6:00am, then i stretch for 5 minutes. i shower for 9 minutes. i eat breakfast, then i brush my teeth. i dress up then i hop in my car.

i'm usually at school at 6:40am, it's a cycle that i can't break in fear of ruining everything i've worked for my whole goddamn life.

"good morning, beautiful, how are you," my ever loving boyfriend, andreas says. i've been dating andreas for the past 7 months. he's the funniest man i've met and he's the coolest person i know.

"good morning, too you to," i say with a smile and a kiss. it's like sitting on a cloud of butterflies. i sit there in the driver seat of my volkswagen. i start the car and i reverse out of my driveway.

the sound of cruel summer by taylor swift blares at full volume from our car. "ooh, ooh woo woah it's a cruel summer with you," we scream the lyrics of the song at the loudest we possibly could.

"still can't believe that we have to go fucking summer school," andreas says with an air of dismay. "well obviously your going to summer school, you literally never go to school," i say in response.

he gives me a nudge, and nudge him back, until the car nearly swerves into a tree. i park my car and we look at each other, making the loudest noise in the whole fucking planet.

i continue driving the car to school, with his playlist at the loudest volume known to man. i reach school, the start of yet another summer school season. i love the smell of dread and self hatred in the morning.

is most of that smell mine, sure, but who gives a fuck. andreas and i hold hands, walking at a leisurely pace. classroom b9, the place where we are going to be cramped in for the summer.

i walk in and immediately get ambushed by hugs from all of my friends. "jazz, i've missed you. how's it been," nia said with the biggest smile on her face.

nia laia stevens, my best friend since i was in the 5th grade. nia was the new girl in town, and due to the fact that i had no friends of my own, we became the best of friends. she's my closest confidant and i would never break out bond. especially before our senior year, i would be mad.

"hi, all of you. i'm your teacher, mr. antonio., but you can call me luis antonio. now, i know you guys are wondering where the hell are your other teachers, they are all currently on vacation so they've given me the task of teaching you all," our teacher spits out very quickly.

i know this going to be the start of another great summer school semester, hopefully.

forrest blue

i sit there in my seat and twirl my pencil, as our teacher, luis, speaks on the importance of heritage. i almost bang my head on the table, just because i'm good at school does not mean i like school. i hate this place, half the teachers refuse to use my pronouns. the food here is basically dog food (the cheap kind) and most of the people here are absolute pieces of shit.

i scroll on phone as mr. antonio makes everyone introduce themselves. it eventually becomes my turn, i stand up and i say," uh, hi, my name is forrest blue and my pronouns are they and them. that's it."

i ready myself for some rude comment, made by some piece of shit who doesn't the concept of being non-binary. surprisingly, no one here says shit about me being non-binary, they might be actually nice people.

"now on from the introductions, i have a group assignment for you, based on writing about a general group intrigue. here are your groups, the number your group has will be the one used in the order of presentation," mr. antonio says.

i don't really pay attention until i here the number 4 and a "forrest blue," shit, now i'm basically the leader of this group. "andreas diaz, leo carlton madden-smith, phoenix miller, ava jane and jasmine parker, you are all in one group," mr. antonio says in his mostly carefree manner.

we all look at each other and then back at our teacher who finishes off by telling us that we can go to our groups and discuss our plan for the presentation.

"also, group 4 and 5, you guys can go outside since the room is pretty packed," mr antonio says to us. we all stand up and walk out the room.

silence, for 5 minutes, we sit in absolute silence. that's until ava finally says something," what do you guys want to do for the presentation."

"i'm thinking we do something related to music, or books," jasmine says. leo says in response," my favorite artist is frank ocean, i don't really read books."

we end up in discussion about music, where i find out andreas listens to madison beer everyday. "she's a pretty, talented singer who makes amazing pop music. everyone is just mad because she's pretty than them and they are trying to make her seem to be a normal person," andreas says with the most passion i have ever heard from mr. "i'm too cool for school".

i think this is the first time i've enjoyed a class, this is way too out of character.

i think this actually a good start to anything involving school. let's hope it doesn't go to shit.