Today, I decided to watch the seniors of 2012 in my old school, which I attended from pre-school through freshman year, and got ran out of. I really really wanted to see my stoner-pal Robert graduate.
What I got was a lot more than I’d hoped for.
I travelled from my new housing, 35.2 miles to the shit-hole town of Tekoa, WA with my life-long friend Michael(Judo) and his girlfriend Chandra. I grew up in Tekoa and although I had an immense soft-spot for my humble upbringing, I despised the people there and the thought of its being with my every sense and nerve.
We arrived too early, and decided to visit Judo’s parents’ house. I love that house, the inside was so perfectly, sweetly, decorated- it made your heart melt and their 2 small-dogs, Spike and Precious, greet you entirely by jumping and licking and barking, panting and piddling from Precious if you were exciting enough. Michael’s mom was never happy about that. In the beginning of your knowing Judo’s mom, you’d notice she’s judgmentally quiet: enough to kill anyone’s nerves, but you ask her a few questions or talk about dogs and she lights up and is an immediate friend. I loved her company.
After leaving Michael’s house, we went to Jessie’s house; a fun, bubbly, outrageous, curly-haired, blonde. She was FULL of life, and you could tell the minute she started talking: she was loved by all. Michael and I caught up with her, while she did her make-up, and Chandra stood awkwardly in the background.
After that, we headed up to the High School for graduation. The first people I saw was Brennen and Marcus, 2 boys in the class I was in. I yelled for Brennen, and he immediately came my direction for a big hug. I said my hello’s, and noticed Marcus was still walking, I yelled: “nice to see you too, Marcus!” his reply was “well, you yelled for Brennen.” he stopped walking; he had always been nervous around me and this elevated since I was now blonde, tan, and more mature-looking. I yelled to him “I saw him first!” he was hard to miss. 270 lbs, rockin adidas, bball shorts and some kind of Philadephia eagles snap-back(which I gave him a load of shit for). Finally Marcus replied: “Hi Mandy.” It was weird, his accent, of which I’m not sure, always made my name sound foreign coming out of his mouth. He’s part Native-American : mostly Canadian. Odd mix. His nervousness peaked as our conversation ended and he proceeded to walk away. Brennen followed; I smiled and waved. I walked back to Judo and Chandra.
Walking in to the school, I figured this day would turn into hell.. Standing inside the door was; Kamryn, Kim, Melissa, Becky, Nicole, and (last, and also certainly most least) Darby. Every single one of them stopped their conversation, and looked at me, after a small, “inconspicuous” point from Becky. But, I wouldn’t let them ruin my day. I followed Michael, as he showed Chandra the town’s pool, which sat behind the High School. From inside I heard my name being screamed, and I turned around to see Deeanna, my closest friend from Tekoa. I was so excited to see her. I ran up and gave her a hug, and Brennen was shortly behind me. Marcus and Brennen separated (I wonder why). Deeanna, Brennen, and I shared stories for a good- ten minutes before we decided to venture back inside. Deeanna trailed off, so I followed Brennen down to the gymnasium where the ceremony would be held. At the door, Max stood. 6’6” of giant cock-sucking douchebag. Every ounce of my 105 lb body hated him from head-to-toe. I blew past him. Walking in to the bleachers, I couldn’t help but notice 4 or 5 unfamiliar guys undressing me with their eyes. I ignored the pettiness. they called Brennen over, hmmmmm I wonder why. Fortunately, none of them bothered me. While Brennen was off I decided to talk to Kamryn, Morgan, and Cassy. Morgan and I were fairly close, but I still resented her fake act. Cassy was cool, fortunately, and I loved Kamryn to pieces before she turned. Now, I felt uneasy about her. I caught up wit them, and Brennen still was chatting, so I went back into the multi-purpose room of the small school.
The first person I ran in to was my former Math Teacher, he greeted me with a giant hug. It made me feel very special. Mr. Mattson and I were always close with our mutual obsession with giving our hearts to God. I admired him, as well as he admired me. He told me he missed my face in his class, and asked about my church-going. I lied to him. He expected so much out of me, but I gave up on God long ago. I complained to him about missing his unique teachings as he stood awkwardly close. I imagine it only seemed awkward because he was 6’5, more than a whole foot taller than me and I had to crane my neck to look him in the eye. Not shortly after our conversation ended, my former P.E/History teacher, Mr. Tampien, walked up to me. Another hug. Mr. Tampien and I were close on a different sense. He always told everyone I was knowledgeable and a great conversationalist. I helped him design most of his house. Which is probably the only reason I passed his class. I never did the homework. I explained my current classes,and his eyebrows raised as they always did when he was intrigued, or surprised. He was mono-toned with an equally-boring personality. It was easy to pick him apart. Then, Mr. Stinson, my former science teacher, walked up. This time I was the one who asserted the hug. I knew he wouldn’t. But, in my expression, he followed and returned my hug. I was grateful. Mr. Stinson was a man of lesser emotion, besides humor, happiness, and seriousness. That’s it. We had a strong relationship because I was the girl who came in early, pushed his comfort boundaries, and asked him extremely CRAZY questions which pondered my mind. He was always intrigued by my advanced intellect and interesting philosophies and questions. We discussed his brother, a history teacher at my new school- University High School, and my current science teacher, Mr. Phillips. After wandering, I ran into my absolute favorite teacher, Mr. Marsh, he was in a hurry and didn’t notice me when I said hello. I was hurt and decided to head back to the gym.
I found Brennen and sat next to him, then an unfamiliar face sat next to him. I later found out his name was Blaise, commonly called Blaze. I could tell he liked me, so I fucked with him. Being freshly-dumped, I decided I’m allowed to have fun. I toyed with his head the entire hour that graduation seemed to drag on for.
After graduation ceremony was over, the seniors lined up for everyone to shake their hands and congratulate them. I shook hands with each person down the line, until I reached Robert. I attacked Robert with a giant hug and told him to text me. I miss talking to him! After him was Sully, I went to take his hand and got a full-on hug. I never considered us friends, but our mutual friends and multiple-times we hung out made me okay with it. He was always super nice to me anyway. The rest of the line, was more hand shaking until I reached the other Mandy, and Wendy. they were both so excited to see me, I was surprised, but flattered. Next, Brennen, Blaise, Deeanna, and I stood and discussed. When Cassy and Marcus walked up and started talking, and Max followed. Max ignored me and left without a word. As if I minded. In a snap- Cassy realized I was there, and whispered in Marcus’ ear, I noticed. he immediately looked at me, smiled, and Cassy giggled. She relentlessly tried to set him and I up.They walked off, and I felt slightly more at-ease. Marcus turned and smiled at me when walking away, I preteded not to notice at first then I turned and flashed a small grin for reassurement that I wasn’t being a complete cold-shouldered bitch.
For the rest of the day, I took a gas-run to Plummer with Blaise and Brennen, which was a fun, silly, adventure of its own.. then walked around town party-hopping until I eventually got fed-up with being bored and headed back to Spokane.
It was nice to know everyone missed me.
denverfan141191 