2 years later…

"There ain’t no reason things are this way.

Its how they always been and they intend to stay.

I can’t explain why we live this way, we do it everyday."

I maneuvered through the crowds of teenagers. I could only catch parts of what they were saying through my right ear as the bud of the head phone dangled by my waist. Comments of the new year, of sports and new kids invaded my thoughts and I put the other head phone in. 

I made it to my locker in a less crowed part of King High’s hallways. A few freshmen walked by and quitted in false deference. 

"Preachers on the podium speakin’ of saints in seance,

Prophets on the sidewalk beggin’ for change,

Old ladies laughing from the fire escape, cursing my name.

I got a basket full of lemons and they all taste the same,"

I was graduating this year, but the feelings of empathy and regard given forth had already worn off. I wasn’t very ebullient. Maybe I should have stopped for some coffee at starbucks after all… maybe I could get a underclassmen to do it for me. I rolled my eyes at the thought. They’d probably spit in it.

I picked up the the electric blue nano ipod and headed for AP French. My thumb absently rubbed over the somewhat desiccated label on the back. I could almost feel the engraving through the slowly yellowing paper. Shaking my head to clear my mind, I began to hum along. 

"A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,

You can spend your whole life workin’ for something

Just to have it taken away."

"Bonjour classe. Je m’appelle Mm. Lapes." She continued on asking everyone else to say their names.

"Et toi?"

"Je m’appelle Spencer Carlin." She gave me a sympathetic look before continuing. 

"Tres bien classe. Passons a quelque chose de nouveau." When the bell rang almost forty minutes later I was one of the first students out the door.

After French I had physics, government, studio art and finally lunch. The callow freshmen hurried off anxiously to their fourth period as I tried to get back to my locker to dispose of my incredibly intriguing Introduction to Government book. I’m pretty excited. I think I might need to lose it accidentally.