death's seen a double bed » joetrick

[2] You Must be a Weasley

[October 2000]

I remember trying to choose which book I should take with me at school that day. First and third periods would be most likely free, and since I couldn't plan anything for those hours in time, it would've been nice if I read something. Mom would be so proud if I actually read something that's not a graphic novel or Tolkien.

My mom would also be extremely proud if I stopped re-reading the Lord of The Rings, but that's not really negotiable.

There were a few unread books on the shelf, still in their protective plastic sleeve, but I couldn't get my butt to read them. I had all the four Harry Potter books and a few other series that I never bothered to look at the title.

"Joseph!" my mom shouted from downstairs. "Come on, honey, Sam's already in the car!"

"You can go! I'll take my board."

"At least come and eat something!"

Without looking, I quickly grabbed a book and threw it in my backpack. I picked up my cap and the bat hoodie from my chair and slammed the door shut.

"Do we still have that pizza, mom?" I asked her, searching the fridge for something else than apples and Sam's infinite stash of Cheerios.

"It's been two days already, Joe, you can't eat that-"

"Found it!"

I took a bite out of the cold pizza from movie night last Sunday. It was horribly disgusting, but I was sick of extremely sweet cereals every morning.

My mom sighed when she saw me fake a satisfied grin. She came to me and gave me a peck on my cheek, almost kicking me out of the house with the concerned look in her eyes. Mom hated it when we didn't eat properly for breakfast.

A few moments later I found myself in front of the highschool. Looking around the campus, I saw the usual 'gang' that hung day by day at Glenbrook South and asked myself why did I ever think that moving here from New Trier last year would be a good idea. At Glenbrook you could see two groups gathered. The weird guys that thought they were cool and the nerds. Actually three groups, including the normal people, which weren't as many as I wished they would be when I transferred here during sophomore year.

I never had something against nerds, it was just... I don't really know. The group here was really weirding me out. And the weird guys were just the cliche replicas that you could find in every highschool. No exception. I just casually avoided them and got to my class.

As I expected, the teacher we were supposed to have our lesson with didn't want to come yet. I was just waiting for fifteen minutes to pass so I could go in the field and read whatever book I threw in my backpack.

People around me looked as bored as I was. I never took interest in actually seeing who was in this class since school started, and it was already October. God, I needed to turn on my social switch soon or I'll be one of those unimportant faces in the yearbook again.

I turned around and tried to talk to someone.

"Hey, uh, guess what day it is." I said to a girl that sat behind me. She raised her head and looked at me like I was a creep. Probably because I was smiling like one.

"It's octomber third, two-thousand and... zero!"

The girl just rolled her eyes and started talking to another girl next to her. Failed attempt. Next one, then.

There was a new guy. I didn't even notice that he was sitting just next to me. I looked around, making sure no one thought I was checking him out. Half of Glenbrook already knew me as the sad (which I was not, thank you so much), not-sure-if-he-has-a-sidebitch-or-not gay guy.