Junior High

For some reason, the people from the elementary school were fed into two separate junior high schools.

My best friend Robert went to the other school. I was still a bit of an odd-duck, but at least I had learned to shower regularly and while I was still a bit heavy, I was getting taller and becoming more athletically inclined.

I made a new best friend by the name of Jason. He had a commodore 64 computer and was into role-playing games. Both of these things seemed very cool to me at the time. (I am quite a nerd.)

I made a new enemy very early. This school was for 7th-9th graders. As a lowly 7th-grader, I mocked a 9th-grader for something I no longer recall.

Unfortunately, she was well-schooled in the arts of deception early, as most women are. She informed her more-popular (and super-hot) 9th-grade friend "Sally" that I had said something nasty about her. This was patently untrue, as I didn't know "Sally" whatsoever.

But I came to know Sally somewhat over the following months.

Every day at lunchtime she would come to find me with her band of supporters and make fun of me and mock me and threaten to have her older boyfriends beat me up. I was entirely confused by this, since I knew nothing of Sally and had no idea why she felt the need to put me down.

It made my days a bit hellish. I was never actually attacked physically, but it sucked to spend every lunch being put down by a hot girl for no reason I was aware of.

After a full year of this, Sally's friend must have come clean. Sally came to me at lunchtime and apologized. Expecting more mocking to follow, I didn't know what to make of it. But it was the last time Sally talked to me.

I went to church-camp for the last time that summer. For some reason, my mom had to drop me off at her church-friend's house for the weekend before camp. As I was getting out of the car, mom was crying and telling me that she and my father would likely be divorced by the time I got back from camp a week later.

She was somewhat hysterical and crying. I came back with the "Everything's going to be all right, Mom."

She said "It's not all right! Nothing will every be all right again!"

And then she drove off.

I was a bit depressed during church-camp.



When I got back a week later, my parents were still together. What this meant was that Mom slept in the big bed in the master bedroom while Dad slept on blankets on the floor in his in-home office.

Dad would leave for work around 6 in the morning and come home around 10:30 at night.

He appeared to be mostly avoiding mom. If he spent additional time at home, it was likely she would corner him and start crying on him.

At the time, I blamed her for driving him out of the house so much. After all, who wants to be around someone that's just going to cry all the time?



Eighth grade was a bit of a transition for me. I had escaped the prior stigma of being overweight and under-washed. But I was far from a popular kid. I mostly kept to myself. I never bothered anyone, and I was getting large enough that few chose to bother me.



Ninth grade, I was getting a bit full-of-myself. I had new clothes for the first time (that I can recall) in my life. I was on the football team, and I was in-shape. Some girls (never the ones I wanted) had crushes on me.

There was a final dance at the end of the ninth-grade year. I had had a crush on Sarah for the past 3 years. She was a very cute and intelligent girl, but the time had never seemed right to let her know that. Unfortunately, my sense of timing has never been very good.

I got up the nerve to ask her to dance. She said she would dance with me on one condition. I had to dance with her friend Buffy first.

I was aware that Buffy liked me. But I was not attracted to Buffy whatsoever.

Well, I had to bite the bullet, I guess. I asked Buffy to dance with me. I figured I would get it out of the way so that I could have my dance with Sarah.

Unfortunately, Buffy wanted time to think over what she was going to say to me. So, she refused to dance with me until the time was 'right'.

And Sarah wouldn't dance with me until Buffy had danced with me. Damn.

So I danced with random girls and had a little fun, but mostly it just sucked not dancing with Sarah.

Buffy is finally ready to dance at the last dance of the night. I'm supremely irritated at not having my dance with Sarah. Predictably, Buffy professes her admiration for me. I try to be not-too-crushing with my rejection, but honestly, I was pretty absorbed in my own situation at the time.