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    Chapter 2
    Summer Never Comes
    “Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.”
    Russel Baker

    High School sucks.
    Haley and I---no, let’s not begin grouping us together. Haley didn’t attempt to speak to me again during class. Mr. Harper’s speech ran all class period long, and frankly, I didn’t hear a word of it.
    I wasn’t the only one in class who realized that this ‘Haley’ was a different brand of female. Even the jocks from the football team stared at her, or maybe just her a**. They liked her because her dress was short and low cut, and her legs were long. Her face was the least of their concern.
    After the bell announced the end of class, and Mr. Harper’s soliloquy, Haley slipped inconspicuously from her desk to the teacher. Probably asking for a change of partners, I thought bitterly. I saw that Mr. Harper thought so, too, but was surprised when she was only asking a question about the assignment. As I sauntered out of the class, Gary, a short Chihuahua like boy, called out to me.
    “Justin! Justin!” he grabbed onto my arm, and I shook him off. He didn’t understand that that meant I did not want to talk-especially to him. He was in some military program, where you twirl rifles and carry American flags. Everyone in that program stayed in a sort of group, no matter where they went. If there were only two JROTC kids in a room full of people, they’d find each other. So it was surprising that he approached me alone.
    “Hey, you’re in a group with that new girl, right?” his voice was nasally, and every ‘r’ sounded like a ‘w’. He sounded like a big four-year old.
    “What about it?” I shrugged away from him. He followed right on my heels, and nearly stepped on my feet.
    “Well, did you talk to her? What’s she like?”
    I shrugged again without an answer. Even with just a few words, this boy could annoy the hell out of you. I just wanted him to shut up and go away.
    “Do you think she likes me? I think I saw her looking at me.”
    I turned on him. Our difference in height caused me to tower over him. His eyes were wide and eager with hope. I wanted to break that hope.
    “No, I don’t think so. But ask her yourself if you doubt my opinion.”
    He frowned, and turned away, with the information he had wanted to know hanging over his head as a black cloud.
    I didn’t watch for over a second, and then walked towards my fifth period class. After fifth period would come lunch, when Seth and I would skip and drive to McDonalds five minutes away. Nothing tasted better to me than a McDouble and a cigarette. I guess the grease counteracts with the chemicals, or something. There was just something about it.
    When I got to fifth period late, Mrs. Kingston didn’t care. She just changed the roll to indicate that I was, indeed, present.
    Who did I see when I walked into class? Haley, of course. And where was the only empty desk? Next to me, because all my friends skipped class. I could say I didn’t mind sitting next to her, but that would be a very big white lie. With her next to me, people noticed I existed. With that attention I was afraid to feel the pity they once showed me.
    Gary was in this class, too, so I did what I had to.
    “Trade seats with me.”
    His eyes lit up, and he bolted from his chair to my usual one. His short hair nearly stood up on happy end. His chance to exist to that new, exotic creature. Beautiful as she was, she wasn’t irresistible. At least not to me. Then again, no one was.
    She watched as I plopped down at the computer farthest away from her. Was it a look of hurt I saw in those eyes? What a contrast from that pity I had once seen in everyone’s eyes-eyes that I avoided. It would’ve been wise to keep avoiding them forever. Then I wouldn’t even feel slightly bad for hurting her feelings.
    At lunch, after trying to defrag Gary’s computer in computer lab, I met up with Seth in the parking lot.
    “Hey there, teacher’s pet,” he mocked as he slid into the driver’s seat. “Anything eventful happen today?”
    “Mr. Hell-hole Harper partnered me with a new chick.”
    I climbed into the passenger seat, throwing some socks and a stack of magazines into the back seat.
    “God, Seth, clean out your car once in a while. No wonder you can never get a girl in here, there isn’t any room.”
    He threw a CD case at me head.
    “Put in a CD and shut up.”
    I did as he said, but laughed a little to myself.
    Seth had no problem attracting girls. He was the kind of sullen boy that you’d call darkly handsome. One of his girlfriends told me that, but she also said that I was the same way, so I claim that she was insane. Seth had trouble ‘getting the boys up’ when it came to his conquests. This mostly happened in his car that was cram-packed with trash, clothes, and random things that shouldn’t be in there. One week it smelt so bad, and he was forced to clean it by his current girlfriend that he swore he loved. We found a dead turtle hidden under his seat. She dumped him then and there.
    I stuck in mixed CD, and Avenged Sevenfold burst from the speakers. After the second song finished, we were in the McDonalds parking lot, and he turned the car off.
    “You ready?” he whispered in a low voice.
    “Not quite,” I responded, with a slight British accent. I leaned over to pocket my wallet.
    “Well, when you’re quite ready, shall we?” he imitated the accent.
    “We shall.” I grinned.
    We ducked in the car, and kicked our doors open. We peeked out of the doors, and turned to one another with a nod. We rolled out of the car into the gravel, like we did every time there was room in the parking lot. With a second kick, the doors slammed simultaneously.
    We crawled on our elbows to the bumper of the car, and turned to one another with another nod. With a quick movement, we were on our feet, racing to the golden arches.
    I reached the door first, and smashed into it with my back. My fingers in the shape of a gun, I took one last look at Seth.
    “Cookoo-cookoo,” and we burst through the doors, faking a full sweep of the room with our “hand guns”. Seth plopped half his body weight onto the counter, as Shaquie (Shack-wee) finished with her customer. She went to school with us, and just barely found our skit amusing, but still, she did. Her lip curled up to one side.
    “Quick,” he imitated John Wayne now. “The Injuns are after us. Throw me four of them there McDouble burgers into a saddlebag so that we can be on our lifelong way.”
    “Would you like to try our new McCafé Iced Mocha?” she stuck to her job script.
    “No woman!” Seth exclaimed. “Can’t a man just have his beef and escape from the Injuns without any questions?”
    “Well, that comes to a total of four dollars and twenty-four cents.”
    Seth jabbed me in the ribs. I coughed, and pulled a five out. She handed me my change. I dropped it in the little box for some children’s home, not for any reason, just because I hated having change.
    “For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.” My Arnold Schwarzenegger voice hadn’t been polished up well, so you couldn’t tell it was him.
    “Who’s that supposed to be?” she raised an eyebrow, and she waved us aside for her next customer.
    Neither of us answered, but Seth kept his western swagger, so I kept a robotic stance.
    “I have an order for four McDoubles.”
    Seth took the bag, and the old woman’s hand.
    “Well, thank you there, miss. You saved me and my partner here from an Injun attack. How can I repay you?”
    His John Wayne voice was perfect. Flawless. The woman ripped her wrinkled hand from his, and stormed away into the deep depths of the clamorous kitchen.
    He turned to Shaquie and tipped his imaginary cowboy hat.
    “You have a nice day there, miss. My partner and I are in your debt.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    Seth walked towards the door, and I robotically followed. Then I turned slowly.
    “I’ll be back,” and it was perfect. The perfect imitation. Ever. Seth smiled, and high fived me.
    “Dude,” he said back in the car “, that was amazing. Do you know what you sounded like? Like, perfect, man. You got old Arny nailed.”
    “Your John Wayne was better.” I shook my head.
    We lit up cigarettes, and headed home. The dreaded place.