Same, but different: Chapter 1

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The first day of school. Great. Something I’m so happy about. The worst part is it’s my first day of high school.

I’m Chase Parker and I live in Smiths Cliff, Alabama. A small town close to the mountains. It’s only about an hour away from Birmingham. God, I hate this place. I wish I could leave.

I walk onto the bus and take my seat in the way back. It’s where the high schoolers sit and I will be sitting here until my brother can get a parking space for us. I can’t wait to stop using the bus. Too many loud annoying kids, screaming at the top of their lungs. Not like that bothers me I mostly ignore the blended sound of kids screaming. I’ve used the bus since I started kindergarten. Lucky me that Alabama is a beautiful state in terms of scenery. Mornings are the best even though I’m groggy and wish I could sleep more. Waking up at five in the morning helps with that grogginess.

When I get to the high school, I walk to the front entrance where there are memos of what homeroom teacher you will have. I search on the memo for my name. It seems as a career tech student that I do not get a homeroom teacher. Not like that bothers me. I walk into the front halls with butterflies in my tummy. I’m nervous but excited for the school year. I go into the lunchroom and take a seat by my friend, Steve Queen. He has a cool name, right? He’s way taller than me as he always picks on me for being short. He’s a very stocky six feet with curly hair and glasses. He’s pretty attractive in the face, his body is a bit disproportional. Steve and I have been friends since a year ago when we learned that we have a common interest, Dragon Ball Z Abridged. I can’t tell you how many times we would recite the lines to it. He also sat beside me in math and was in all my classes, so we became really good friends even though he playfully abuses me. Well, that sounds like I’m his wife and he’s my abusive husband. No, if you’re asking. I’m not into him. He already has a girlfriend who he’s been with for two years now.

“Hey Steve, how was your summer?” I ask.

“Ok, I worked on my trucks, watched anime, and played video games.”

“Well, I went to Europe this summer.” Yes, I went to Europe. Britain, France, and Italy. Venice is amazingly beautiful. If you ever get married, Venice is the perfect place for a honeymoon. I just wish some circumstances on how we got the money changed. My mother was murdered in February by a maniac. Her life insurance policy was fantastic, and she even left me with a college fund. I just wish she was still here.

“That’s great, how was it?”

“It was awesome.” I proceeded to tell Steve all the cool parts of the trip. How I got a pedicure from flesh-eating fish, how cool it was being on the Eiffel tower, and that other amazing things.

When we were interrupted by the Principal, Mr. Jefferson. “Students, I want this year to be a great year for everyone. So please join a club or sports team.” Like hell, “It’ll make your school life so much more interesting and great. Morning career tech, go ahead and load the bus when the bell rings.” Well, that was a boring speech. After that, I and Steve continued to talk about different things. Apparently, he’s been getting into a game called Yu-gi-oh. I’ve heard of it before. It’s some type of card game. He shows me his cards. The art on the cards are truly amazing, and the effects on them are a bit complex. A guy in front of us joins in on our conversation. His name is Jason Stallman. He has somewhat longish dirty blonde hair and a few inches taller than me with grey eyes. Next to him is Joseph King. He’s a big mixed black-white guy that I stabbed in the ear in seventh-grade. The reason why I stabbed him in the ear is that he cornered me in a seat and started hitting me, so naturally being the petite guy that I am. I stabbed him in the ear with a pencil. We became friends after that weirdly enough. The bell rings and we head to the bus

I didn’t realize how far away career tech was. From what I can tell it’s about thirty minutes to get there and come back. That’s a long time to be doing nothing. When we get off the bus, I head to our math class that is my first period. The teacher seems very nice. He’s a balding man who shaved his head with glasses. He has that ‘I’m smart and fashionable’ look going off for him, and he is a good speaker.

The bell rings and forty-five minutes. I head to my career tech class. I’m doing electronics. I take a seat on the back-left computers by two other kids. A scrawny redheaded guy and a fluffy brunette guy. We did say anything to each other as the instructor, McVie, talks and introduces the classes. He seems to be very strict. Something I dislike in a teacher. I don’t mind safe, but strict isn’t how you teach, but then again what do I know about teaching. I’m just the student.

The guy finally stops talking and I look through the computer I’m using. There’s Minecraft on the one I’m sitting using. Weird. I guess some guy decided it would be fun last year to install Minecraft.

I turn to the redheaded kid and say, “Hi”

He answers with “Hello” back. When he speaks, he has an impediment. Not like that bothers me.

“What’s your name?”

“James.”

“I’m Chase. Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too.” It goes silent for a few seconds. Both of us seem to be socially inept.

“Do you like My Little Pony.” Yes, I’m into My Little Pony. A boy shouldn’t like that stuff, but after mom was murdered. I couldn’t help, but watch something so full of happiness. It kept me from going into a full-on depression.

“You’re a brony?”

“Yeah, I’ve been one ever since May,” I answer proudly making James chuckle a little bit.

“No, I’m not into MLP, but I am into anime.”

My eyes light up, “Ever seen Dragonball Z abridged?”

“Hell yes, that show is awesome.” James and I continue our conversation for an hour, then the bell rings. I’m apparently in this class for two hours instead of one. That’s interesting.

Between the change, this emo-looking boy a few inches taller walks to me and asks, “You said you like My Little Pony, right?”

“Yeah, is that a problem?”

“No, because I like it too.” He beams at me as if I’m the first person in real life with the interest.

“Really? That’s so cool!” I thought for sure I would be the only Brony where I live.

“Come here. I gotta show you something.” He gestures. I follow him to a computer not too far away from mine. He had a search for MLP porn on it. Along with looking through imagines. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a teenager with hormones, so it’s natural that I would look this stuff up on my private time.

“Why do you have that pulled up?”

“I didn’t pull it up. I found it like this.”

“You should close it quick before the instructor finds it.” I go back to my seat.

Thirty minutes later I hear stomping come towards my side. I turn around and I find a very angry McVie going through the computer that had pony porn searched up on it. “Who looked up pony porn on this computer?!” He bellowed. He was not very big or imitating guy. He has had a very rough look to him with his long messy ‘hippie’ hair. He was about a couple inches taller than me. “It has to be someone on in this corner. Now fess up, so we can get this over with.” Oh, shit that means me. Fantastic. I’m not normally the kid to do bad things, and I tend to cry when I’m accused of those things.

“That guy,” I point to the emo boy from earlier. “He told me to come with him so I can see what’s on the computer. He also told me that he didn’t search for it, but someone else did.” Honesty is the best policy.

“Bull, I had Hunter last year. He never did that.” Now I know his name. He looks me straight in the eyes and says, “Maybe it’s you.”

I start shaking with adrenaline, “It’s not me, I promise. Hunter just showed me it.”

“If it’s not you, then who is it?”

“Maybe that guy,” I point to the fluffy guy sitting beside James.

The investigation lasted for the rest of the class period. No one confessed. Great, that’s a good kick off to the first day of school. The rest of day was boring.

~o~O~o~

Hey guys, this is a pretty boring chapter. I need to start here before I can move to the more interesting stuff.

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Comments

Secure computers

Jamie Lee's picture

Didn't someone think it a good idea to secure those computers so unwanted sites couldn't be accesses? Or monitoring programs on each computer so online access by the st identify could be monitored?

Getting a teacher angry the first day of school is getting off on the wrong foot. Hopefully the next step will be the right one.

Others have feelings too.