High School Kinda Sucks

“Ok I’m here…what is it called?” Emma asked. She held the phone to her face. “Ok I got it…I’ll call back” she hung up on Mike. She clicked play on the video Mike had uploaded. It was for his research class. They had to do a big project on whatever they wanted and Mike decided he would do it on teenagers. Emma watched the video, it was a video of the party he first had. He recorded it with the intention of just making fun of people but after all that’s happened he’s decided to use it for his project.

“This is amazing” she said. She called him back after the video ended. She clicked out of the video and left the computer that was in her living room. She headed back upstairs to her room. “yeah it’s great” she said. “I think you deserve an A plus”

Her mom came into the living room to use the computer. She opened youtube with the intent of rewatching an old cooking video she saw.

She went into the history and saw another video called ‘Project Y’. she wondered what it was about. She had watched the movie Project X with Emma a while back and thought it was just ridiculous. Sheopened the video, the song ‘I’m on the pursuit of Happiness’ by Kid Cudi started playing and she saw some familiar faces. Matt, Kyle, Mike, Lauren, all of them Emma’s good friends. Alcohol wasn’t the focal point of the video but you could see a few times a glass bottle on the table.

Who were these people? Emma’s mother asked. She thought she knew all of Emma’s friends, these didn’t act who they were around her. Mike was so sweet and a bit reserved but iin this video Mike is a wild hooligan.

And then she saw Emma. Emma wasn’t dressed how she usually does, she was all over Mike. She didn’t know they had any romantic link. Emma simply said Mike was a good friend.

Now Emma was kissing Mike and they were getting pretty frisky. And what surprises her the most was that the quiet little girl she raised so conservatively, was this dominating, controlling stranger. The video pans off so she can’t see Emma and Mike anymore, but a few minutes later it turns to Mike smirking at the camera saying. “Don’t come upstairs” and then running off with Emma while all the boys cheer.

…

Matt and Mike walked down the hall together before class started. “Yeah, I showed Emma and she loves it”

“I think it’s great…when is it due?”

“May 20, so I have time. I need someone to blur out the alcohol before I can present it” he said.

“Get Josh to do it, he’s great with editing”

“Ok. Besides that I need to do the written work and figure out what I’m going to say”

“I think it’s great, what you’re doing. Besides the glimpses of alcohol it really shows how teens just need to let loose once in a while. High school is too stressful. “

“Yup, that’s the point. I need to record some clips of us being idiots though…what can we do?”

“Well I know Randy has some videos of him doing donuts in the snow this winter” Matt said. “Oh and I have a video of when I lit Logan’s farts on fire”

“Oh yeah, cool. Looks like I’m all set then. Although I need some clips of a serious class room environment and some interviews from the snooty people we don’t associate with”

“I can start booking appointments, when are you free?”

“6th”

“I’ll send them your way”

“Thanks for the help”

…

“The gang is on an indefinite hiatus” Bryan told Leena. He happened to run into her while she was at her locker.

“What? I told you to make things better!”

“And I am, I think it’s best if we separate” Leena looked like her whole world was falling apart. “So at lunch you and Sean can take the table and I’ll go with Ross and Joe into the other caf?”

“no” Leena said.

“Lee” Bryan said sympathetically. “I think this is best”

“For how long?”

“A week” Leena groaned. “And then after we’ll see if we can hash it out” she nodded. “Sorry bro”

“I don’t want to sit with Sean, though” she said. “Just have Ross sit with him” Bryan chuckled.

“I’ll get back to you”

“What’s going on for study?” she asked.

“Well Sean has gym with me and Ross” Bryan said. “So today we’re good…I don’t know how Sean will feel about leaving you alone with Joe, though”

“I’ll get over that…what about tomorrow when w e’re all together?”

“If we can’t sit together, we’re always getting yelled out for being loud anyways so it won’t be too awkward”

“How bad was lunch without me?” she asked.

“Sean won’t talk to Joe, or we won’t let him because we know he’ll accuse him of something” Bryan said. “So basically it’s really awkward”

“Ok”

…

Joe was called down to the office shortly before the end of the day. He was nervous because five minutes earlier, Leena was called down and before her Sean, Ross and Bryan. This was clearly about the accident.

When he got to the office they were all there still. “Jeez” he muttered. Ross and Bryan let out a sympathetic look as he took a seat. Leena took his hand and squeezed it. Sean looked down at the ground and didn’t turn his attention to Joe.

“You know why you’re here” the principal said. An officer came into the room.

…

Leena limped over to Joe’s locker at the end of the day. “Look at me, I’m walking all on my own!” she exclaimed. “No wheelchair or anything”

“That’s great” Joe said sadly.

“What happened after we left”

“Well I had to talk to Sean” Joe said.

“I tried telling her that wouldn’t go well”

“He punched me in the balls” Joe said. “And I deserve it” Leena shook her head. “I do, Lee, I almost killed the both of us”

“But we’re here” she said. “and I’m fine, and you’re—“

“I got kicked off the baseball team" he said. she sighed. "It's over"