Blue Sky and Other Things That Are Good For You

You know that girl with the bangs that cover her eyes and the oversized hoodie that shows practically no part of her body whatsoever? She sits in the back corner of every class, doodling in her notebook and listening to her music at a volume that lets her neighbors listen too. Most kids would expect her to have dropped out by now, since she doesn’t seem to do anything in class anyways. But she hasn’t. The teacher never calls on her and if by chance a substitute does, because they want to “include everybody in the discussion,” the girl in the corner will give some bullshit answer that makes the teacher think for so long that no other student has to go.

Well, that’s me, Blue Sky Reynolds. And I don’t doodle in my notebook, I write. I’m that kid that isn’t supposed to succeed in life. I go against all odds of going to college, getting a well-paid job, or even having a family. Actually, according to statistics, I should have started my family about a month ago. I’m also supposed to be an alcoholic and a drug addict. But lucky for me, I’m that less than 1% of kids in my situation.

What is my situation? It’s not exactly a situation to me, it’s a life. But the guidance counselor insists on calling it a ‘temporary situation’. I didn’t know temporary lasted 18 years. Anyways, fifteen years ago, my mom had me at the hospital just down the street. She was fifteen at the time. My dad was fourteen. They went to the school I’m at, Ridgeline High, and were what most people would call the ‘It’ couple. Surprisingly, they decided to keep me, my name on the other hand is another question. Supposedly my dad was holding a soda can and it was a ‘Blue Sky’ soda, they thought it would be a cool name. Another shocker is that they’ve stayed together. What’s not surprising is the way they act now. Both in their early thirties and they still haven’t gotten over the parties on Friday nights and hangovers on Saturday mornings.

They spent the rest of their teen years being responsible parents, and until I turned ten they were great. I have memories of these two people who were always there for me, who cared for me. Maybe that’s why I’m beating the odds at this point. But, almost to the minute that I turned ten, that perfect family went out the window. Both of them cut down to part time jobs, and not only do they both drink heavily, but also smoke some illegal substances. I was left to fend for myself, and fending is exactly what I did. When I turned eleven I started babysitting in my neighborhood, and still do after school now. It has paid for a lot of the bills and each week twenty dollars has gone into my college fund. The instant I turned fifteen I got a job at the local frozen yogurt shop. Not the best job ever, but it pays for electricity and phone bills pretty easily. On top of basically working full time, I’m also a straight A student. I have to get into college somehow, and working isn’t going to cut it for me.

My parents don’t even notice that I do all of this. They wouldn’t notice if I was sniffing crack. For all they know I don’t really exist anymore. School is the same way. No one really cares what I’m doing. I’ve never missed a day and I never really speak to people. I learned quickly that to survive it’s best to be kept to yourself. The person who does actually show that she cares is Principal Shaw. She went to school with my parents and after they crashed down as the ‘It’ couple, she became friends with them. Cathy Shaw is the one person that keeps trying to save me, but at the same time understands why I don’t need saving. Sounds contradicting, and it is, but it has worked over the years.

The loud speaker came on and the class went silent, my music seeming louder than ever before. I didn’t pay attention; most of the time is was some druggie that they were calling, so it didn’t affect me at all.

There was a tap on my left shoulder. I look over to see Ryan Richards smirking at me. Ryan was that popular senior football player that was cute, funny, rich, athletic, had that ‘perfect’ cheerleader girlfriend and got straight A’s. Everybody either wanted to be him or to be with him. We met when I was six and sitting all alone at lunch. He came up and sat next to me and gave me his soda. It was none other than a Blue Sky and that’s when we became semi-friends. He sat in the back next to me because, as he told me, he hates having the feeling that everybody is staring at you. Why the hell does he play football then?

I take out an earpiece, “what?” I ask.

“You were just called to the Principals office.” He says nicely. That’s the other thing about Ryan, he’s the one kid that doesn’t bug me in this school. Sure, moments like this he would talk to me, but he doesn’t think it’s weird that I don’t talk. And he never asks what I’m writing about or how I’m doing or any other pointless questions. He just sits in the back, quiet like me.

“Oh, thanks.” I give a small smile and pack up my bag, leaving the classroom. There were the usual, “oohh”s that comes with being summoned to the principals’ office, but I just ignored them, I knew I hadn’t done anything so that wasn’t anything to be worried about.

I knock lightly on her door, “come in Sky.” She says. I open and then close the door and take a seat across from her. “How are classes going?” Cathy asks.

I shrug, “you know.” I say.

“Yes. I do. That’s actually why you’re in here.” I give her a weird look; my grades hadn’t been going down, not even close. “With no absences and almost a 4.0, the school and district has decided to give you the opportunity to skip up to junior year.”

My jaw drops. Skip a grade? “Um, skip a grade, as in get out of here a year early?” damn that sounded tempting.

Cathy laughs, “Yes, that’s another way to look at it. It would look amazing on your transcript too.”

The more I thought about it the more I realized that I needed to do this. It was the one thing that would be for me and for me only. “Would the classes be a lot harder?” I ask, worried slightly.

This made Cathy laugh even more, “honey, the only class you’re taking that isn’t at least a junior year class is PE.”

I smile, “right.”

“So?”

“So I’ll do it.”

She claps her hands together, “great!” then a couple papers are pulled out from the draw and she hands them to me. “You and your parents will need to sign these.”

I quickly add my signature to the necessary places and then pull out the stamps with my parents signatures on the other side. Cathy shakes her head as I press the stamps into the ink pad and then neatly press them onto the sheets of paper. I hand the paper back to her and put the stamps away.

“One of these days you’re going to be caught.” She says, taking the papers and stacking them neatly.

When I turned twelve, my parents gave me money to get a birthday present. I bought two stamps, each with one of their signatures. It’s much easier than actually catching them at a time they could sign it. “It’s not like you were stopping me. You know my parents; they aren’t home sober enough to sign a piece of paper.”

“But a stamp? At least tell them that you got moved up Sky.”

“I will. The day I graduate they’ll know something is up.”

“Sky…”

“Don’t worry about it. This is my life Cathy, I got it under control.”

She nods but I know she doesn’t believe me, “you can go back to class now.” I nod.

“Thank you, really. For everything. This is really great.”

“Your welcome dear.” With that I left and headed back to the world religions class that I was in before. I take my seat in the back of the room and pull out my notebook like nothing happened. After class I slipped out my schedule to see if there were any changes. The door at the end of the hall that led outside opened and a gust of wind blew in, it was hard enough to catch me off guard and knock my schedule off my notebook. Ryan came up from behind me and picked the paper up for me. Like the good kid he was he didn’t even read over it, just handed it to me.

“Thank you.” I say, and start to my next class.

“Wait, Sky!” he calls after and I turn back around.

“Yes?” he walks up so that he’s right in front of me.

“Um, I know I usually don’t ask and you really like that…but you seem more distant than before. Is everything okay?” So you know how I said he never asked about how I was doing? That was a slight lie. Maybe five times a year he would ask. It was usually the five worst days that I have that he asks, which means he can really tell when things change for me.

“Don’t worry Ryan, I’m great. Actually I just got bumped up to being a Junior.” I comment. Might as well have someone know what happened. He may not be an actually full-out friend, but he was the closest that I had to one.

“Really?!” I nod, “that’s awesome! I wish that had happened to me.”

I smile, “yeah, well that D- you got on your math test freshman year made a big dent in the scoring.” He always got A’s, like me. So getting a D- on a math test wasn’t exactly what he wanted to be reminded of. He knows I’m only joking though.

“The teacher was out to get me.” He defends.

“I’m sure that was it.” I say, “Look, I gotta go or I’ll be late for art.”

“Right. Later Sky.”

I turn and start once again on my walk to art class, this time with no interruptions.