IC - Rosemead Iowa

[Emma Tarin]

Forester High School,
Forester High School
Greatest school in all the land
Forester High School,
Loyal now thy people stand
Although strong may be thy rivals
They cannot withstand our might
For we all shall be defenders of thy navy, gold and white
GO SEA LIONS!
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The daily morning announcements cheer, blasted over the speakers throughout the classrooms and halls, as kids went from their friends and lockers, to their first class of the day. It was Monday, the beginning of the second week of school. This coming Friday night, was the first football game of the season, so it was spirit week, at old Forester High, today was an 80's theme. Tomorrow was PJ day, and the homecoming parade, featuring the school's marching band, cheerleaders, and sports teams. Of course the coronation of a Homecoming Queen and King to. Homecoming lasted the whole week, and the whole town got in on it, from spirit week, the parade, pep rallies, The burning of the rival teams school banner, the homecoming dance after the game, prank day, and the football teams crazy ass after party at the lake. Everyone got a bit more nuts then they already were.

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Sylvia took one last drag of her cigarette, then put it out in the dirt under her boot. She was under the bleachers, where Owen and her normally hung-out, but he was not here today, seeing as he always boycotted spirit week. Sylvia had taken up smoking at the beginning of the summer, during the middle of the custody battle that lasted most of the summer. Now she was finally living at her Aunts place for good, with Roger and their cat Boomer. Aunt Aggie's house was on about three acres, its blue peeling paint, and mismatched shutters were so much better then the rusty ass mobile home she had been living in with their mother Ruth. She had been excited to start school this year, first year of high school and all that jazz, but it was showing to be exactly like middle school, just with even more ignorant, immature, people running about. At least school was a place to go, so you didn't have to go home. Not that she had anything to complain about anymore, Aggie was a good person, spent most of her time drinking tea, and watching her soaps, or the cooking channel. Aggie was her mothers Aunt, and only living relative that would have anything to do with Ruth.

She was grateful that Aggie took her out of her mothers house, but it didn't change the fact that Sylvia hated her life, and had no idea how to change it. She never let her past get the best of her, at least she tried to. Sylvia would never play the victim, or the pitiful little girl, she didn't cry about it, or talk about what happened to her, ever. She didn't want revenge, she didn't hate her mother. She just wanted all of that to go away, but for some stupid reason, she couldn't stop the insomnia, the fact she was afraid of the dark, or that romantic movies and people kissing in the hall made her feel sick. She didn't want guys looking at her like they looked at the cheerleaders, so she chopped all of her long hair off in the 5th grade and started wearing long sleeve even during the hot the summers, much to her mothers dismay. She was not afraid of the male species, just the aspect of romance, dating, and sex that came with them.

She could hear the final bell ring signaling the official school day had began ten minutes ago. Might as well skip first period today, US history is not very appealing, I think their just tallying who showed up in 80s duds, and voting for homecoming court. God, how dumb. Sylvia thought to herself as she walked up the steps to the top of the bleachers to lay down. She didn't get much sleep last night, not that that was different then any other night. It was early September, but the weather was still like summer time. She lied there, looking up at the cloudless blue sky. She didn't dress up for the 80s theme day, she was wearing what she normally wore. Her outfits normally consisted of was, a dark pair of pants, one of her many button up collared shirts, with one of her many pullover sweaters, over the top of her shirt, and of course her black leather knock-off Oxfords boots. She didn't wear make-up or do anything with her hair but brush it, unlike most of the girls at the school. Not that all the girls in the school were vain fashionistas, but they cared about their appearance, even the goths kids who claimed the didn't care, put a lot off effort into there image.
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Deena was in her homeroom, dressed in neon pink tights, her brothers leather jacket, and her mothers old prom dress from the early 80s. She had spent an hour on her hair, crimping it, teasing it, and even adding some cheap purple hair extensions. She was going for a Madonna slash Cyndi Lauper look, which she nailed perfectly. Her first hour geometry class was being spent chatting with her friends Ally, Peter, and Madison, about the drama clubs contribution to the parade tomorrow, and who they were voting for for homecoming Queen. It had to be a senior girl, and everyone knew it would end up being Tiffany Ives, or Allison Peterson. Both cheerleaders, both popular, and both pining for the crown since birth. Deena was voting Corrine Lovelace though, Corrine was popular enough in her opinion, and way nicer then the two other girls. Tommy Freeman was the quarterback so of course he was a shoe-in for king. Classes all this week were pretty much pointless, everyone even teachers were just pumping themselves up for Fridays game.

Deena was planing on going dress shopping tonight with her friends, seeing her dress from last year was somehow lost in the move to the new apartment in the middle of town. She missed her old house out near Douglas Farm, but living in town was a lot more convenient for her moms job at the bank. Sadly she had no date for the dance. She didn't really have a crush on anyone at the moment, but she still thought it would have been nice to not go alone, sure all her friends were coming, but they all had there own dates.

[Phoebas]

Marissa shifted nervously in her seat, picking idly at the hem of her pink shirt, knowing that absolutely nothing work related was going to happen any time soon. It was Monday, eighties day at Forrester High School, and she had chosen to dress up like Claire Standish from her favorite movie, the Breakfast Club. She thought she had done a pretty good job, considering she managed to find usable things in her Aunt’s closet. She really did look the part, from the makeup to her buckskin skirt and boots. Well, except for her hair. There was no way in hell Aunt Margo would have let her die her golden curls Molly-Ringwald-red, so she hadn’t bothered asking.

She glanced covertly around at her classmates, peering out at them from behind her massive wall of curly hair. There were tight groups of students, chatting excitedly about each other’s outfits and the rest of spirit week. Part of her wanted to join them, to dip her toes in social waters, but the rest of her recognized this as a bad idea. Instead, Marissa collected her things and moved silently towards the front of the classroom.

“M-m-mr. Johnson?” she stuttered, clutching at the straps of her backpack. Her history teacher glance up fro m his newspaper, giving her a quick once over before returning to perusing the articles.

“Yes, Miss Bailey, what can I do for you?” Marissa stared down at her toes.

“Well, sir, y-you see, we h-have t-t-that paper d-due , and w-w-we ar-aren’t d-d-doing anyth-thing-” Mr. Johnson sighed heavily, taking a post-it note of off his pad and scribbling his signature on it in one smooth motion.

“If you want to go to the library, just say so Miss Bailey.” Marissa's face grew rosy with embarrassment and she nodded quickly, causing her mountain of blonde curls to cascade forward. She took the note with trembling fingers and rushed out of the room, only pausing to make sure the door shut quietly behind her. She didn’t want it to slam, that would draw too much attention to herself.

As she walked down the hallway, Marissa clung to the wall, so close that her arm brushed against the cool metal of the lockers. She passed a few other students, but always kept her head down, hiding behind her hair and avoiding eye contact. It was effective in the extreme, but it did have the nasty side effect of limiting her visibility.

Marissa crashed headfirst into a human wall, her smaller body flying backwards. She landed on the ground hard, her backpack exploding, sending a storm of papers and books flying about the hallway. “Watch it!” snapped a harsh voice, deep, rough, and distinctly male. Marissa swallowed thickly, glancing up at the boy from behind her curly hair. Oh no. Standing in front of her, arms crossed over his muscular chest, was none other than Ezra Everett, the most dangerous guy to walk the halls of Forrester.

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Ezra had been having a shitty day. As soon as he woke up his father, suffering from what was no doubt a vicious hangover, started screaming at him, about god knows what. Ezra pretty much tuned the bastard out, that was until he made Johnny cry, then he nearly broke his fist on the man’s face. The ass-hole was out like a light and Ezra dumped him on the couch. The prick would be fine, it was hard to kill a weed.

After that he made breakfast for Johnny and himself, eggs and spam. It wasn’t great but Ezra was a shitty cook by his own admission, it was the best he could do. Johnny was real excited for spirit week, babbling on about it as they ate their eggs, and after they finished Ezra helped him dress to the nines in their pop’s old eighties duds. Ezra himself thought the whole tradition was dumb as fuck, but when Johnny asked him to dress up as well, he could hardly say no. Johnny had been so excited he had given Ezra a huge hug. It was the only good thing that had happened all day.

At school Ezra dropped his brother off in the special education classroom, greeting the specialist Ms. Kerry with a polite nod. She was a sweet woman, plump, mid-forties, and she really took care of Johnny. She was one of the few people in this school who had Ezra’s utmost respect. After saying good bye to Johnny, Ezra headed out to the bleachers. No point in going to first period, it wasn’t like they would be doing anything anyway. He would have cut second as well, but he wanted to graduate and Ezra was running out of unexcused absences.

On his way back towards the school he passed by some girl, Sylvia Teal he realized belatedly. The girl stared at him, un-intimidated, and Ezra smirked. Brat. “The fuck you looking at?” he growled, not so much as a hint of amusement in his tone. His gaze fell to her tiny hand, which clutched a lit cigarette, and his mood soured further. “Hasn’t anyone any one ever told you that smoking kills, little girl?” He smiled menacingly, showing his teeth.

He knew he was being a dick, but Ezra didn’t like cigarettes, or alcohol, or any substances for that matter. They reminded him of his father. And he fucking hated his old man. Brushing past her, Ezra let his long legs carry him up towards the school, kicking open the doors and striding into the hallway. What few students were milling about between classes scattered like rodents, fleeing to the nearest bathroom or hidey-hole. Ezra scowled, marching down the hallway towards his calculus class, his step vengeful and aggressive.

As he turned the corner he noticed a girl with a mass of golden curls walking straight towards him. What was her name? Mary? Something like that. She was halfway down the hall, and Ezra expected her to run crying like the rest of them, but she maintained course. Girl has balls, Ezra thought appreciatively. Of course he realized moments later when she plowed into him that she simply hadn’t seen him at all.

“Watch it!” he snapped irritably, regretting his tone a bit when her things scattered about the hallway floor. The little mouse was practically shaking as she cowered behind her hair, allowing him only the occasional flash of a smoky gray gaze filled with terror. Ah, damn. He’d done it again.

“S-s-s-s-s,” she stuttered, struggling to speak, “S-s-so-s-ss-so-”

“Spit it out god damnit!” he snapped. Really this girl was too fucking pitiful, she needed to grow a backbone.

“Sorry!” she shrieked, speaking really loudly out of surprise. Her abrupt movement threw the hair out of her face and for a moment Ezra was taken aback. She was really quite pretty behind all of that hair. Ezra bit back his amusement, keeping his expression dangerous and cold.

“No need to fucking shout,” he growled, “I have ears, woman.” He expected her to cower again, but instead she sank back, a perplexed look on her face.

“J-j-john-n B-b-b-bend-d-d-der?” she stuttered, a bit of what looked like joy shining in her dreamy gray eyes. Ezra scowled.

“The fuck are you talking about?” he snapped, wondering if the girl was some sort of idiot. The girl flinched, but held her ground. Ezra was impressed.

“Y-you’re d-d-d-dres-ssed l-l-like a c-c-charact-t-ter. F-from t-t-the B-b-b-breakfast C-c-club.” Ezra’s eyes narrowed.

“The fuck is that?” he snapped, realizing that this was more of a conversation than he’d had with anyone who wasn’t Johnny in, well, a long time. The girl’s mouth formed a little “o” of surprise.

“A m-movie!” she piped up, indignation sparking in her gaze, “A g-g-great one!” Ezra sneered.

“Well would you look at little-miss expert over here. Excuse me for not knowing about some dumbass eighties chick-flick.” He was surprised to see anger flash across her face, he had expected her to cry. The girl started to collect her papers and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “jerk”. “Pardon?” he snarled, “You mind repeating that, princess?” The girl blushed crimson, the color quickly paling to white from fear. Ezra watched her struggle for a moment more in silence before rolling his eyes. “Jesus Christ? Why the hell are you so fucking slow?”

He stooped down and quickly helped her collect her things. He had been meaning to do so from the beginning, he wasn’t sure why he always had to be such a dick about everything. He was working on that. His strong arms and agile fingers stuffed the things into a neat stack and shoved it roughly into the girls trembling arms. “Watch where you’re fucking walking next time, princess,” he growled over his shoulder as he strode away, leaving her sitting in the middle of the hallway floor, her expression like that of a startled doe. Weird kid, Ezra thought to himself, before throwing open the door to Mr. Bridge’s calculus classroom and plopping himself down unceremoniously at a desk.

[Bladewind]

Another day. I don't remember one moment I tried to forget. Another day without Erica at his side. I lost myself, is it better not said. Looking up at the cloudless sky, Allen had to shield his eyes from the sun. Now I'm closer to the edge. He knew that it was a perfect day, yet it seemed to him as if a cold wind was blowing, taking the warmth of summer with it. It was a thousand to one and a million to two. In the distance he could hear laughter and yelling, the sounds of happiness, sounds of a world he no longer recognized. Time to go down in flames and I'm taking you. How could he? Closer to the edge. Why would he want to? No, I'm not saying I'm sorry. It just continued as if nothing had happened at all. One day maybe we'll meet again. All those people that Erica had befriended, all those people that had looked up at her with adoring eyes. No, I'm not saying I'm sorry. They had all decided to forget, how could he forgive them that? One day maybe we'll meet again Just how was it possible for them to simply forget Erica? NO! NO! NO! NO! How could they push all those memories they had shared with her? NO! NO! NO! NO! Erica never would have done that! I will never forget Neither would he, he refused to simply forget his beloved sister. NO! NO! Shaking his head, Allen brought his gaze back down from the sky to take in the sight of the never changing Forester High School of the never changing Rosemead, Iowa. Massaging the last echoes of his sister's favourite song out of his head, he realized that all that laughing and yelling had stopped as well. He stood alone at the entrance of the school. The bell confirmed his rising suspicion that he had been standing here for half an hour. Great, ten minutes too late. Well, not that it mattered. Teachers had always gone easy on him. Twenty minutes would be peanuts. This in mind, he walked into the building at a slow, relaxed pace, breathing in the familiar air. For a moment his eyes tricked him, and he felt as though he could see his sister waving for him to hurry up from the corner of his vision. He found himself smiling, warmly at that. Erica had always been the more dutiful about school. He could remember her scolding the entire class, including the teacher, exactly one year ago. No use in wasting class time with just getting pumped up for the game she had said. Of course it had been far more complex and stretched. Half an hour of chastising. Everyone had looked ashamed. But Erica was far too goodnatured to force them to learn so she had settled for learning with him in the library while the class continued their mischief.

Finding himself at his locker, Allen ran his hand down the metal door before opening it. On the inside it was plastered with pictures of the Farris siblings. Not anyone other than him, they had instantly agreed that their shared locker was for them and them alone, others had no place in it. Not even Regina. Luckily she had never brought it up. He was pretty sure that that might have been a relationship breaker. Not that their relationship was much of one anymore now anyway. He felt a slight sadness at that as he looked at the pictures. She had gotten along well with Erica from the beginning. Matter of fact, she was the only one who seemed to acknowledge that his sister had ever existed. During the holidays they had visited the grave twice, though he had gone alone a lot more often, he appreciated it more than she knew. He sighed thoughtfully. For two years she had attempted to nurse him back to health. Perhaps it was time he repayed her boundless kindness. On a whim, he scribbled down a little note to himself. Buy roses for the dance. With a small chuckle he added to it after a few seconds of thinking. Come up with something less cliche if you can, idiot. Placing it in his wallet, he took his books out of the locker. Suddenly he noticed a photograph Erica must have hidden away on her half under the little fake part of the wall. It had slipped out partially. Allen had always known about his sister adding the compartment where she kept things valuable to herself. He had never touched it though. Slowly his fingers undid the paper his sister had carefully coloured to match the cold metal it was meant to simulate. As it came away, the only thing that fell out was the picture and another one. An eyebrow was raised. His sister had treasured just two things within that place? Suddenly he felt unsure of what he was doing. Perhaps he was not meant to see? But he had already taken the first step, he had to go on and see where this little path led him. The first one quickly disappeared into the depths of his wallet as he fought to stop the blood from rushing to his face. But the second was fondly taped to the door of the locker, the outside for everyone to see. He closed the door, smiling to himself as he looked at the three figures laughing at him from the picture. During the summer before his freshman year, he had gone to the beach with Erica and Regina. They had had a wonderful time."Allen! You are a guy! Who is more attractive? Me or your girlfriend?" "What? How do you come up with these questions? They are ridiculous! Regina, help me out here!" "Why should I? Just say a name!" "Aaaah! You are both impossible!" The memory was sweet and fresh upon his mind. The picture had been taken a few seconds later by Miss Whittmore. If Allen recalled correctly, she had not helped him out with those two jokingly competitive girls either. Wonderful times they had been indeed. Chuckling, he made his way to class.

By the time Ezra entered class in his usual manner, Allen's mood had deterioated to the usual level once more. Mr Bridge quietly closed the door and returned to reading his book. He was used to Ezra's behaviour and it was homecoming week after all. He tended to speak little, a man completely dedicated to his subject. As such, he had little use for the grandeur of this week. The Farris siblings had gotten along with him well. Allen had once seen him at Erica's grave. A kind elderly man. But that was not the only reason why Allen glared at Ezra from behind the strands of hair that carelessly hung into his face. "Everett." His voice was a low growl, keeping his head resting on his crossed arms. He had been dozing while the class chattered along, but the loud bang of the door hitting the wall with the violence of it's opening had woken him up. "Could you perhaps, just maybe, act like you cared about school?" Of course, he was not much better, he was not wearing a costume either and was clearly more busy relaxing than doing anything. But it annoyed him that Ezra got away with so much. "It really does not take much effort. You could even be able to make some friends with a slight improvement to your attitude." Sighing slightly at him, he added: "Assuming that you have not scared everyone to death already." Looking at his classmate lazily, he made a shrugging motion and closed his eyes. "Not that you would care about what I have to say." I don't remember one moment I tried to forget.

[Phoebas]

"Everett."

Ezra blinked, taking a moment to realize that it was in fact he who was being addressed. People didn't speak to him, ever, out of fear or disgust. Unless...

"Could you perhaps, just maybe, act like you cared about school? It really does not take much effort. You could even be able to make some friends with a slight improvement to your attitude. Assuming that you have not scared everyone to death already. Not that you would care about what I have to say."

... unless they were picking a fight, and it wasn't hard to see that Allen Farris had a stick up his ass and was itching to rumble. A nerve ticked in Ezra's jaw and he could feel his pulse slowly accelerating in the expectation of violence. But he caught it and took a breath, relaxing easily into his seat. Calm down, he ordered himself, No way in hell are you going to give that punk the satisfaction of baiting you. The asshole lost his sister for christ's sake, he's probably fucking miserable. Nothing better to do than poke danger with a stick. Ezra popped his shoulders and turned around, offering his classmate a disturbingly genuine smile.

"You're right, Farris," he said, his voice totally civil and conciliatory. You could hear a pin drop in the room, the students on edge from his friendly, calm behavior. Ezra Everett admitting to his own shitty personality? Unheard of.

The silence lasted a moment longer before Ezra's smile turned predatory and all of the warmth and repentance drained from his eyes. His fixed his gaze squarely with Allen's and cocked an aggressive brow, a snarl curling his lip. "I really don't give a flying fuck about the shit that comes out of your mother-fucking mouth." His tone was like ice and he held Allen's gaze for just a moment longer before turning back around and slumping in his desk. Jesus fucking christ, if things continued along their current trajectory this was going to be one long-ass fucking day. Ezra grumbled and closed his eyes, no point in staying awake, no one ever taught anything on spirit week. He might as well nap until lunch.

[Emma Tarin]

Time skip to 3:35 pm Schools Ending.

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The end of the day announcements Chimmed in:
"Good afternoon students, this is vise principal Roswell speaking. We have tallied the votes for homecoming court. Are homecoming Queen is Tiffany Ives, and are King is Thomas Freeman. The princes and princesses of the junior class is Micheal Devin and Kayla Moore, for sophomores we have Simon Drummond and Lena Lincoln, and lastly for are freshmen we have Jackson Knox and Adelaide Cooper. Congratulation everyone! Next week on Thursday and Friday there will be tryouts held in the Gym, for the upcoming school musical "The Sound of Music". For more information on that contact Mr. Evans in room 104. Cheer Squad is holding a bake sale tomorrow during Lunch to help raise money for their new uniforms, so if you what some yummy treats and would like to help out your schools cheer team, then don't forget your money. Also don't forget tomorrows spirit theme is Pajamas, and the parade is after school at 4:30 pm! That's all, and have a great rest of the day! GO SEAL LIONS!"

The end of the day bell rings.

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Sylvia unlocked her locker, and slowly put her books into her old dark red backpack. She had math and english homework, but it was all due Friday so she was not really planing on doing it until the morning of as she always did, her grades always ended up as Cs and Bs, and as long as she passed she didn't really care. She shoved her over due library books into her backpack as she passively listened to the announcements, and was not the least bit surprised by who won for King and Queen. She thought back on her only slight socialization of the day, during the morning with Ezra Everett. He had pretty much ended up cursing her out for smoking, and walked off.

If it had been two weeks ago she would have been scared of him just from the rumors she had heard from Roger about him. Supposedly he killed someone and just got out of jail or something, but Sylvia normally didn't believe or listen, to the rumors or gossip, and she also had her own conclusion about Ezra. She had gotten lost on the first day of school and ended up in the special ed department, where she witnessed Ezra Everett the supposed 'evil angry killer juvie guy' giving a hug goodbye to his brother and smiling at him with the kindest eyes. So Sylvia's opinion of Ezra, even thought she had never talked to him before, was that he was 'secretly good'. Other then that brief encounter with him, Sylvia had spent half the day asleep hidden between the bleachers, and the rest of the day sitting in the back of her classes listening to her IPod, and ignoring the rest of the world.

Sylvia headed out the doors of the school, squeezing her way through the mass of students, to get over to the bike rack. After finally getting out the the crowd, she unlocked her rusty bike and yanked it out of the pile. Her bike was rusted but still worked great, it was a hand-me-down from her brother a few years ago, so the bike was a dark green, but it worked all the same. Getting on it she road quickly down the sidewalk pass the carpool lane, some skateboarders, and turned towards main street. She was meeting Owen at 'Van's' the Arcade/Pizzeria/bowling alley/ place, that lots of student frequented, the library was across the street, so she was going to drop off her over due books first. Gripping her brakes she stopped in front of the library and locked her bike to a pole. She waved at Billy Oswald the Mailman, and walked into the library, handing her books to Sandy the really old, super deaf librarian.

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Deena stayed behind after the bell rang so she could ask Mr. Evans about the musical tryouts. He explained to her that the lead would go to a senior unless someone really amazed him. Deena could sing and she love theater, pretending to be someone she was not, being a whole new person. She really wanted the lead female role, to be 'Maria', but she would settle for anything really not that she was not going to try to Blow Mr. Evans away during the tryouts. She went to her locker and took out her laptop bag, putting in it her notebook and Algebra book. Deena headed to the drama club meeting in the cafe.

Most of the meeting was just about raising funds for the Musical, since it was the drama clubs responsibility to make the costumes, the set, sell the tickets, and do the lighting for all school productions. She sat and listened, suggested a carwash, which was denied and then the meeting slowly drew to an end. She raced over to her mothers car sitting in the carpool lane, one of the last ones there. She hated making her mother wait. "Sorry, the meeting ran later then I thought." Deena said to her mother as she shut the door, and they drove off. 'Its fine sweetie, I caught up on my reading out here anyway.' Her mother said calmly.

Her mother dropped Deena off at Northbend Coffee, which was located at the end of Main Street and Oak Avenue. Northbend was where Deena did her homework practically everyday as she waited for her older sister Gretchen's shift to end, so they could head home. Deena sat down at her usual table in the front corner next to the window. She cracked open her Algebra book, and got to it. Gretchen placed a blueberry crumble muffin and vanilla frappuccino next to Deena. "Your 80s outfits over the top Dee." Gretchen said and then went back to standing behind the counter.

[SilentKatana]

"OWEN!"

Owen groaned aloud as he heard the screeching that he knew to be his mom. Groggy from being woken up, he looked up, only to see the angry purple face of his mom glaring down at him... though whether her face was purple from drinkinor just being plain angry, he had no idea. " Will you get your lazy ass outta bed this instant!" Needless to say, this charming confrontation ended up becoming yet another fruitless argument with his mom, she just couldn't get his refusal to go to school, simple as it was. There was no way in hell he was going to go and play along with the stupid tradition of going to school for the sole purpose of getting "hyped" for a football game.. After all, he'd had some pretty bad run-ins with the kind of people who played the game, knuckleheads and bullies, every last one. Eventually, after a fair bit of shouting, expressing quite profoundly how he hated school, the town, and also her, he got dressed into some jeans, a striped t-shirt, and a hoodie and stormed out.

It was fair to say that he was now in a pretty sullen mood, which was pretty much the usual after an encounter with anyone that wasn't Sylvia, and even then he beat himself up about the idiocy of having a feelings for her afterwards. Frustrated, he kicked at a nearby dustbin, knocking it over, it's contents spilling over the neat lawn next to it. That brought a half smile to his face for a while. Though the kick hurt his foot somewhat, the small pain helped to clear his head somewhat.

The rest of the day, he spent wandering round the edge of town, it was his favourite place to be... You could look into the horizon, and there would be no Rosemead, no lookalike houses with their heartbreaking stories, no leftover people.. Just silence, and the urge to leave... A few years ago, he might have acted on that urge, however, now he had a reason to stay. Sylvia Teal, his first and truest friend, and in his eyes, the most beautiful person there could be. But he couldn't think tht way about her... He knew her feelings about love, better than anyone else, and to think that way could make him lose her, his one and only friend, and he wouldn't endanger that for something that could never be... He sighed, it was yet another thing screwed up by this hateful town....

Eventually, he started to make his way to Vans, making sure to avoid the areas he knew his probation officer liked to frequent, otherwise he'd be in for a rough time... Finally, he arrived there, sat himself down on a nearby bench, and leaned back, waiting for Sylvia