Defying Gravity

We were about five minutes from school when we heard a car coming down the street behind us. It had its music on full blast, penetrating the otherwise quiet street. It could be no other than the annoying, bigheaded Paul Parker.

It was easy to see that he had been dragged into Sam’s so called ‘gang’, I like to call them hall monitors on steroids. It was no surprise that Paul was next to join the gang. He had changed dramatically over the summer holidays. He had bulked out, cut his long silky hair and gone from being a happy go lucky type of guy to arrogant and extremely self assured.

“Look what the cat dragged in.” I mumbled to Jared knowing that he hated Paul as much I did.

It is not like Paul and I had a history, we didn’t used to be friends and then fought and fell out, we just never liked each other.

Jared gave a snort and headed away from Paul. Paul didn’t even give us a glance not that we really cared, but considering that we have know each other all these years a bit of acknowledgment would have been nice.

“What is his problem, why did he decide to be part of the ‘it gang’” Jared said trailing the last two words.

“Yeah, I agree” I continued “Come on if we don’t hurry up we’re going to be late for school.”

I started to pull him along behind me, until he finally caught up.

As soon as we got to school Jared and I started discussing my father’s birthday. It was going to be held on the beach. All of the elders would be there but it was generally an open invite.

“So, you’re defiantly coming this weekend, right?” I asked.

“Yes, I am defiantly coming so stop worrying”

I gave a small laugh and then all of a sudden felt like I hit a wall. Had fallen on the floor or walked into something? When I shook my head and focused my eyes I realised it wasn’t a wall I had bumped into but a person, and that person was Paul Parker. The last person I wanted to see.

“Hey man, watch where your going next time” Jared said and he made a sound in the back of his throat that sounded a bit like a growl. Now that was weird, and for some reason I would have been able to understand if Paul had done it since Paul was that type of guy, but never Jared. Jared was nice and calm. But he had done it anyway. I choose to ignore what had just happened.

“Yeah Paul, you should be more careful, don’t make it a habit” I said while brushing off my jeans.

“Yeah whatever…” he trailed off.

He just stood there staring at me, like he was a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. He was totally freaking me out at this point. At first it looked like he was going to shoot back with one of he comments but he just stood there staring at me.

I heaved a heavy sigh and thought about waving my hand in front of his face. Then he started to blink and looked from Jared to me. I could see that he was shaking slightly and I wondered if he was ok, then all of a sudden he ran off into the wood.

Jared and I looked at each other and just shrugged and walk into school. He must have been having one of his strange moments. Weird guy.

But boy was I wrong.