The Epic Things About Being Alive

One - The Mailbox

    Wallace Stokes

You know, summer used to be fun.

Back when we were kids and we didn't realize how boring a place our little town of Eden-dale, Wyoming was.

    We used to go to Eden lake and swim with our friends, or race down the street on our bikes until one of us crashed into a mail box and we'd scream for our parents.

    I used to be one of those kids. Adam and I, we used to pick on Jenny Longhill. We used to ride our bikes past her house and scream, "Jenny Longhill smells like dead fishes!" Looking back, our insults could've been better.

    But now Jenny Longhill is the Queen Bee of Eden-Dale public high school. Turns out people liked dead fish.

   Now, instead of riding bikes in the neighborhood and crashing into mail boxes, teenagers drink booze at the lake and drive to the liquor store in the middle of the night to pay junkies to get booze for a party.

    In Eden-Dale, there isn't much to do but drink and party.

      But I wasn't like them. I wasn't a popular guy. I was the last guy a girl would pick to go to Home-coming with, the last to be picked for dodge ball. All in all, I was sort of a loser.

   Adam and I didn't go to parties and drink booze with Jenny Longhill. We sat in my basement and played Xbox.

    We'd talk about girls. Adam was currently in love with Rebecca Alden.

   "Do you think she'd go on a date with me if I paid her thirty bucks?" Adam was button mashing again, Liu Kang was kicking Scorpion's ass anyway.

    "I don't think so. Remember what happened last time?" I ran a hand through my hair and strummed my bass guitar.

   "But maybe she'll think it's cute and she'll just say "Oh Adam! Of course I'll go on a date with you!"." Adam mimicked Rebecca's voice.

   "Sure, because that plan worked out last time." I rolled my eyes at him.

   "Hey! That's no fair, Susie Henderson was a long time ago, we don't talk about middle school remember?" He threw Scorpion on the ground.

    "FINISH HIM!"

   "Yeah, but maybe you can learn something from last time." I smirked.

    "Look, Rebecca is not like Susie, Rebecca's short, she won't be able to reach my mouth to shove the money in there." He shrugged and popped a Dorito into his mouth.

Classic Adam. He's a serial romantic, and once he likes a girl there's no one better than her— until another girl comes along.

"What about you? I heard Julie Conners was into you." I rolled my eyes.

Julie Conners. She was Jenny Longhill's all time best friend. Sure she was cute, curly brown locks, nice brown eyes, and dimples.

But she was boring. She could literally go on forever about her Goldfish, Mr.Wellington.

Weird name for a fish right?