The End Of 2002 And My High School - 1679 Words

Matthew Hays Professor Belknap English 111, 8:00 08/14/2014 Outsider It s the end of 2002 and my high school is finally out for winter break, but I don t want to go home. My parents divorce has become a long drawn out affair. Mom wants the house, Dad doesn t want to stay on any of the credit cards. They try to play nice in front of us kids but I m 14 years old, I know what s going on. Everyday we watch quietly as our parents slink around the house like strange cats, scowling and grimacing when one thinks the other might be looking. The silence between them muffles everything like a heavy blanket. Even the cars driving by outside seem to pass more quietly, as though afraid to draw attention to themselves. Every minute drags by, it†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"Cheer up!† my father tells me as he bustles around the apartment, â€Å"You re going to love California.† Two weeks later I find myself standing in a strange yard, outside a strange building that my father tells me is home. The sky is an offensive clear blue and it s so humid that I m almost surprised the car isn t rusting in half before my eyes. The next day brings the news that I have hoped for months would never come, I start at my new high school on Tuesday. The very idea of school has become something hateful, something to make my stomach turn when I get careless and let my thoughts wander. Two thousand new faces, no friends for a thousand miles in any direction and everyone else has had a month to get comfortable already? I feel as though my time would be better spent running with scissors or playing in the street. Anything would be better than this feeling of impending doom. My desperate pleas for an alternative have failed, nothing but uncompromising cruelty is good enough for my father. No home school, no online school, no GED and now it s my first day. On the ride to school my stomach seems to have come to the same conclusion my head did a month ago. Every step makes me feel as though my insides are trying to escape my body. I arrive late to my first class having been lost in the maze of buildings that dot the campus. The biology room is foreign to me in every way. The desks are absent and in their place are what look like