Disclaimer: I don't own Holes, sadly. > ; I'm just a sad, pathetic girl who wishes she were as great an author as Louis Sachar.
I am AJ. My birth certificate says my name is Alan James Morgan and some of my friends from back in Camp Green Lake call me Squid, but to myself, I am AJ. I live in Ohio. I moved away from Texas to Missouri, but my uncle, whom I live with, got transferred to Ohio. I miss my friends back in Texas, but I made some good ones up here, not the best, but good enough.
It's a Monday, which always sucks. Whoever made Mondays deserves to burn, but then again if you think about it, no matter what the day is called, it'd still suck 'cause it means a new school week. Oh well.
When I woke up this dull, gray, and rainy Monday, I took a shower, then threw on some dark blue jeans and a black tshirt. Running a hand through my light brown hair messily, I headed down to the kitchen, where Uncle Seth sat reading the newspaper and drinking his coffee. So old fashioned!
I grabbed out some Trix! and milk, making my very, very appetizing breakfast. As I ate, Seth gave me a small lecture about behaving well and junk at school today. He gives me this lecture everyday, like I haven't memorized it yet.
Once he was finished, I grabbed my school stuff, after tying my shoes again, they always get undone, and walked the four blocks to Juviet's School of Academics and Arts, which is, well, my school. Since I was in Camp Green Lake for two years, I missed two years of school, and am very behind. I'm 16 and in the 9th grade. I'm basically only a year behind, but that's only 'cause I was enrolled at school early. I'm supposed to be a junior instead of a freshman.
Seth doesn't trust me enough yet to let me get my license, he's afraid I'll start breaking into houses again. I won't, but he says he's giving me so many restrictions because he doesn't want me going back to that God-awful place. And to think I was the one who slept, ate, and breathed there. He doesn't know a thing about how Camp Green Lake actually was like.
See, I've evolved. I'm a better person, but it wasn't the "character building" bullshit that Pendanski fed us. It was the friendships I made and kept there. I guess there is one good reason for juvenile correctional facilities. It's that you make life-long friends there because they will always watch your back. You don't get friends like that outside of 'em unless you grew up together or something.
Well anyways I got to my school. I headed to my locker to put in the combination that is supposed to unlock the damned locker, but it only works half the time. Crappy schools! Well as soon as I entered the last number and pulled, the locker came open. It must be my lucky day! Joy, oh joy!
A girl who was just under a head taller than I was came up to me. "Heya! You've got some Trix in your hair." Count on Mariah to point out anything wrong. I mumbled a thanks and pulled it out, tossing it to the floor.
"You're cheerful." There I go! I swear that girl starts to rub off on you after two hours of knowing her. I've known her for a couple of monthes now and now I'm starting to point out the obvious.
"And you're cynical." She stuck her tongue out at me which I grabbed, making her let out an "ah!"
"Don't stick that out at me again. I'd like to keep my innocence." I'm such a liar! I lost my innocence at the age of 3, after my bio-dad James left. Yeah, I got named after the loser. I let go of Mariah's tongue.
"Hah! If you're innocent, then I'm a lesbian!"
"So you finally came out of the closet?" I couldn't hold back a laugh.
Mariah turned red and started mumbling about how she wasn't a lesbian. I thought it was funny, so I kept laughing. Hey! Maybe shes is a lesbian! Why else would she turn red?
I got out what I needed and put in what I didn't before slamming the locker door shut. I keep my locker neat and clean. I know it doesn't seem like Alan, the theif, or Squid, the tough guy, would be a neat freak, but the new me, AJ, is one. I like to be organized. I'm serious about trying to be a marine biologist, and for that I need good grades, and for that I need to be organized, well at least with my school work.
Since Mariah and I both have the same homeroom we walked together. Generally I loop an arm around her petite shoulders, and I did so today. Mariah says it makes the other kids think we're going together, but we aren't. She also says that I scare away all the guys away from her. Maybe I do, but not on purpose, she's just my best friend up here, and I will defend and protect her at anytime.
I guess Squid is still in me, but so is Alan. Alan was me before I had friends, when my mother beat me and drank too much, and when I was always scared that I wouldn't make it to see another day. That was after Bio-dad James left. Squid was me at Camp Green Lake, when I had to get up at four in the morning to dig everyday and when I had nightmares in the middle of the night of my mom's drunken rages that left me bleeding for hours and bruised for weeks. Sometimes I'd cry, but only a few times was I ever caught, mostly by Caveman who was a light sleeper. AJ, who I am now, is the me who is the result of my previous years. It' s the result of everything I've seen and done. The one with friends and knowledge of real life. The one who knows when to be scared, when to stick up for myself, and when to let things slide, though I still lose my temper (As you can tell Squid shows more than Alan does).
We sat in homeroom for about fifteen minutes. Homeroom is boring. All it's good for is to do the homework you didn't do the previous night.
Well after homeroom, we split up to go to our seperate classes, me to Algebra I and her to World History. She went down Hall-B and I crossed the main hall before going down Hall-A.
I particulary dislike anything associated with math, but I'm pretty good at it. I'm not sure how I ended up being good in math, I don't use it anymore than necessary.
When I got to Mr. Nate's classroom, I sat at my desk that's situated in the middle of the room, after putting down my books and things. I sat to wait for the screech that was the bell that also indicated that Nate was soon to come.
Mr. Nate was young, about twenty-five, but his leather-like face was creased, like he'd seen more in his twenty-five years of life than most see in their entire lives. I don't know all too much about the Algebra teacher. His face is tanned and lined and his gray eyes always had a weariness in them that was permanent, not even his laughter took away the tired look. He was a strict teacher, but the class was alright, if you were into math. I almost fall asleep about three out of the five school days listening to his gravely voice lecture us.
The only reason why I don't fall asleep is because of my friend, Mike, who sits beside me. Everytime I'd start to doze off, he'd poke me with his pen right below my ribs. The kid pokes hard, so I jerk awake quickly, earning a disapproving glare from Mr. Nate.
Mike came into the classroom right before the bell rang, his breathing slightly heavy and his face had a light tinge of red so I suspected that he'd ran to room 105 from room 111 where his girlfriend, Isabel, was during first period. After he sat down, he leaned into the aisle to say, "hey Man, how's it goin'?"
I looked up at him tiredly. "Alright. Looks like you've had some fun this morning." I rested my head on the palm of my hand, propping my elbow up on the desk.
"Yeah, yeah. Ran from Isabel to here." He ran his hand over his face wearily.
"You're whipped, Man." I laughed at the expression on his face.
"I am NOT whipped, AJ," Mike told me hotly.
"Whatever, Dude."
The screech sounded and the tired Mr. Nate came into the room. On my first day here, the bell almost caused me to go deaf. I swear, my ears were ringing for a week!
We started on today's lesson, which was some quadratic-thing or something like that. It was dull. Who'd use that for everyday life? I know I'd need some math, but not this junk. I mean, who uses the A-squared plus A plus X stuff? Other than a mathematician that is.
Well, pretty much the entire class was relieved when the screech sounded again about forty-some minutes later, signalling the end of that class.
Mike and I walked down Hall-A to class 109, meeting Isabel at the door. I don't really like Isabel. She's snippety and has to have everything her way. I don't see why Mike is with the blonde, I mean he could do way better. She's beautiful and all with the clearest green eyes I've ever seen. Her full, pink lips could form one of the cutest pouts that helps her always get her way. Though she is the image of innocence, she is cruel at heart, but Mike doesn't see the cruel side of his sweet and innocent girlfriend like Mariah and I do.
We met up with Mariah in the classroom, the petite girl was already in her desk. I sit on her right and Mike sits on her left. Isabel sits on the other side of me sadly. I wish I could switch seats with Mike, so we all could be happy, but they were assigned seats.
Isabel has this ability to make anyone, besides Mariah (I don't know how she can keep so relaxed), nervous and uncomfortable, especially when her boyfriend, the unsuspecting Mike, was near. He'd believe her before anyone, even though she's cheated on him lots of times. Everyone knows about it and tells him, trying to warn him before he gets his heart broke, but he won't believe it until he sees it, and she's too crafty to be caught by him. Now do you see why I dislike her so much?
Well anyways she tends to lean over me to pass something to Mariah to give to Mike. I hate this. She could pass it to me, then have me pass it to Mariah and so forth, but no, she has to make things difficult and uncomfortable for all those around her.
I was relieved at the end of the day when the final bell rang. I closed my eyes and silently thanked whatever higher power there was out there for making the day go by so fast. I walked briskly to my locker, having to keep trying the lock about five times to get it to open up. I put in my stuff that I didn't need for my homework and got out what I did need. I grabbed out my tan baseball hat, putting it on before shutting the door gently. I'm gonna try to be nicer to this locker door. Maybe the reason why it doesn't work is because I slam it all the time. Hey wierder things have happened!
I walked home, making a beat out loud and making up lyrics in my head to go along with the beat. Some people that I pass look at me funny, like I'm doing something that's, like, wrong or something. I just walk on by. If it would've been about 5 monthes or so ago, I would've picked a fight, but see how much more laid-back I am?
When I get home, I notice that there is something different about the rich, brick house. Right next to the brand new car that Seth just bought was an old clunker. A car that I haven't seen for about three years now. My jaw dropped and I considered just not going home this night, but instead I slowly made my way up to the door to go into the house...
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