Of course, in this shit town, you're going through school with basically the same people you went into first grade with. So of course, the same people who hated you through elementary and middle school hate you right on through high school. Because of this, I was being dragged down the hallway the first day of school by my favorite person in the world, getting slammed into the lockers every three feet.
I was playing a fun little game I like to call "Guess the Second." In this game, you guess how many seconds it'll take between slams when you see the bully coming, and then count and see how close you were. This game usually lasts until I hit my head too many times and I have a hard time remembering my last name, let alone how many seconds last time was. However, this time I only got slammed maybe five times. Then I was let go as fast as I was grabbed, and in surprise I promptly sat down, straight on my ass.
My savior, a skinny tall boy with spiky black hair and a permanent mischievous look in his eyes who seemed to be an upperclassman, was hauling said bully down the hallway, banging him into every other locker. He was yelling at him, things like 'how do you like that' and 'you don't own these halls.' I just watched in awe as a teacher ran into the hallway, and then pried the guy off my uh, friend. The teacher, a stressed looking dude with more sweat on his head than hair marched the upperclassman back down the hallway towards me. As they passed, the student winked.
This is how I met Jimmy. He came and found me at lunch, introducing himself by telling me he just earned a week of detention. I stammered out an apology but he just held up his hand, slid into the bench across from Michael and me, and stuck out his hand.
"Jimmy. Nice to meet you." I shook his hand, and had to elbow Michael, who was staring at him in confusion. He snapped out of it, and from then on Jimmy sat with us at lunch. It turned out that he was just a sophomore, but we thought he was practically God, or at least an angel sent down to protect us. I guess it turned out in the end that he could help other people a whole lot better than he could help himself.
