Dennis, Part 3

Continuing where I had left off ...

 It was the first day of high school for me, one week late.
(There was a death in the family and I had skipped the first week of classes to attend the burial festivities in Chicago.)

I had arrived at my local bus stop to find nobody I was particularly interested in chatting with. I didn't much appreciate the local kids, nor they me. All my buds were living in other sections of town, or attending a different school.

A little apprehensive... I came from an 8th grade class of less than sixty kids, and was about to enter another world where I knew few (out of the potentially hundreds) by comparison.
That, and everybody else had a one week head-start.
Naturally, I hid all of this behind a posture of faux confidence.
You know: look cool, act cool.
And most of all, Show No Fear.
My stomach was a knot of nerves...

Approaching the stop, I noticed another kid.
Slight of frame, with bent posture.
He seemed overly friendly, exchanging a word or two with everybody, despite whatever indifference they showed him.
He was sporting this huge grin. A baboon came to mind.
He was grinning like a baboon.
A retarded baboon.
I was thinking maybe he missed the short bus, or fell out of it.
Definately.
He fell out of the short bus...
and hit the pavement hard...
head first...
and rolled for 53 yards...
before a truck rolled him...
It was a big truck.

Short Bus looked as out of place as I was feeling at the moment.
I noticed... he was still (briefly) chatting people up while they still appeared indifferent to him.
Who was he?
Is he one of 'ours'?
Can't be.

The bus arrived within two to three minutes  and we all filed on, Short Bus included.
Okay... I guess he is one of ours.
Never seen him before.

I grabbed an empty seat and prepared to stake my claim to the whole bench (it was a body language thing: spread your legs out, recline a bit, take up space, set your backpack next to you... you get the idea)...

Short Bus was a bit slow boarding, and finding no empty  benches was looking at the space beside me...
I slide my stuff closer, and without acknowledgement let the dude take a seat.
We still had several stops ahead of us and I certainly didn't expect to keep that space all to myself, anyway. My attempt to do so was just posturing on my part.
(Remember: no friends among the locals. Me vs The World. I had a statement to make, however briefly.)

Within seconds of the bus proceeding along it's way I get conversationally engaged by Short Bus. I kept it terse. And he kept it up... talking shit about the admin (at the school), talking shit about about the government, cracking stupid (I mean really stupid) jokes about Jimmy Carter (the president at the time, who was failing by the minute). Talking about cars and radios and rock bands. Talking about everything... and everything he spoke about he was an authority on it...
Once again: I kept it terse.
This guy wasn't annoying me as much as he was interrupting my vibe.
The Vibe I was trying to exude.

I tried to be polite without being overtly unfriendly. It wasn't working.
Some people feed off of niceness.
This one seemed to be feeding off of my lack of blatant not-niceness.
Like a wad of gum under my shoe... annoying and pervasive.

Whew!...
We arrive at school, I cooly disembark, attitude in place...where it should be.
I had just spent 45 (purposefully terse) minutes with what had to be the most annoying human being I had met all week... All month.
Hell, probably the last decade...
and that's a lot for a 14 year old.
I was happy to finally be at school where I could get about my business free of his presence.

Pack slung over my shoulder, I made my way through campus and headed to my locker... gazing upon passing faces, hoping to find a friendly...
And finding Not Many Friendlies...
More like No Friendlies Whatsoever...

Damn!... seems I've burnt a bridge too far...

Fuck 'em!
All of 'em!
Fifty-seven  former classmates...
Who all suck.
It's not my fault if they all suck, is it?
(My  best friend... maybe, my only real friend... was attending a different private school, thanks to his misguided parents... who I loved, btw. And still do revere... All these years later.)

Well, they didn't all suck... just the ones who  who were attending my school. I was hip with a few... but they were sent to other schools...
Later, I wondered if skin-color had to do with that...
that 'other schools' thing... wanting to be where kids were a tad more diverse or something...
I'll never know, and it wasn't relevant to where I was at the moment...
I was alone here.

Inside, the first day of  high school was a lonely place to be.
Outside, I would not show it.
On the up, I was now among hundreds of new people... people with whom I was a blank slate.
Taking solace in these thoughts, there remained a 'clomp','clomp', 'clomp'...
just behind me, I was beginning to notice... that steady cadence...
'Clomp', 'clomp', 'clomp'...
That flat-footed, heavy stomp of a one who didn't walk as readily as the rest of us...

'Clomp, 'clomp', 'clomp'...
I remember that sound like it was yesterday.

I navigated through the halls, yet, still...
with every deviation...
'Clomp', 'clomp', 'clomp'...
I turned to look, my fears realized:

Short Bus was following me.