7th grade...

Most of my friends were from school, you know, kids you see one or two years and then they disappear to another school, maybe move to another town (Like Eric with River Raid, can you tell I'm still bitter about this?). There were two friends that I had known since birth, Barry and Lezlie, our parents went to church together which meant we went to church together. We were like the three musketeers. Looking back I was probably closer to Lezlie than Barry, we went to the same school for first grade, she lived two streets over from me so we could play together a lot. Barry lived on the west side of town which, where we grew up, was the "nicer" part. His Dad was a dentist and he lived in a really cool two story house and had 4 older brothers and sisters and by older, I mean the next one to him was probably 10 years older. Anyway, I was slated to go to Cathedral and the Pines for the rest of my student career, that quickly changed one day at the Y when Barry and I were swimming. He convinced me that Christian Schools of Beaumont was where I needed to be. The kids were nice and they played a game called Dungeons and Dragons. Through warting my parents and the fact that the school was gaining public accreditation that year, I was allowed to attend Christian Schools of Beaumont. It was quite a shock to the system, I suddenly was surrounded by 45 kids who were all my age and grade, quite a difference from the 5 the year before. Barry and I had no classes together, he was in 7A and I was in 7B which I later found out was a way to divide the smarter kids from the not so smarter kids. I was told by Barry a few days before that the game took place at lunch, if we didn't have classes together it was OK, just show up at lunch and be ready to play. As the bell sounded I made my way to lunch, books in hand, ready to take a stab at playing D&D. I walked to the table and said hi to Barry, he said hi back and told all of his friends who I was and that I would like to sit in with them. A kid with glasses named Walt who apparently led this crew didn't seem to think this was such a good idea, there was no room and I would probably just slow the game down. Barry turned and looked at me and shrugged and went back to his game, and just like that I was out. There was no getting to know you, no friendly kids that said hi. I slinked off to the end of another table and ate by myself, I couldn't wait for the day to be over. I hated Walt for being Walt, I hated Barry for not standing up to him. Barry and I didn't talk much that year or the rest of our lives, I secretly hated him all through school, I loved it when he got hurt at recess, I made it my mission to, if possible be the one that hurt him. He didn't make the cut for the basketball team and I loved it even though I didn't make it either. Something changed that year, suddenly it was important to have the right clothes and shoes and friends, none of which I had nor could my parents afford.The kids at this school (all schools) placed a lot of emphasis on looking just right. I had never had to deal with that before and it kinda blew my mind that people could be that vain. I tried for a while to desperately fit in only to end up being the butt of a joke ( maybe they could sense the desperation) or made in one way or aonother to feel inferior. I made a decision that I really didn't care what people thought about me I was going to be me. I payed for it all through school but to this day it doesn't really matter to me what people think about me or how I conduct my life, my mom has said on several occasions that I didn't have enough peer pressure. I ended up making friends with a guy named Chip, he was also on the outside looking in (you know what they say, birds of a feather...) Kristi who also attended school with me broke up with me to go with Chip. I found it kind of funny that they never hooked up, she wanted to but he wouldn't, I don't know if it was out of loyalty to a friend or if he just didn't like her that much. Looking back, we kind of became a Beavis and Butthead type partnership but I don't ever remember feeling bad about that, I also don't ever remember us ditching each other because someone else didn't approve of one of us, if you got one, you got both of us, a true friend. More tomorrow!