Chapter 2 – "Hey you go to Jacob right?"
The next day we are sitting in room 232 listening to announcements coming from the PA at the front of the room. The problem with making friends in high school is that everyone comes from a normal school of more than only 250 so life-long friendships have already been established. Strangely however Deanna and her friend Sarah start talking to me.
"Hey how's it going?"
"Oh… uhm… alright…you?"
"I'm Deanna and this is Sarah."
"I'm Tyler."
And other awkward first meeting vernacular like that. After announcements we were handed sheets asking us our desired instrument to learn this semester. I quickly looked around the room and scanned my brain for all the instruments I knew. "Clarinet?" I thought. "No. Flute? Naw. Hmmm." I then saw a picture of a saxophone. "Saxophones are pretty popular." So saxophone it was. Then it asked for a reason. I began swearing profusely in my head, which for me was uncommon because swearing was incredibly taboo at my old school. I thought I'd flex my new freedoms at a normal school. I scribbled down that "I like the sound". Deanna and Sarah both chose the clarinet because they had taken it in elementary school. My brain exploded. You could learn instruments in elementary school?!
The next day we came in for class and the teacher told us what instrument we would be playing. I got the sax. The problem with a class of rowdy grade nines and a teacher who was apparently new that year is that…well the statement answered itself. Some of the kids were off the wall. Not to mention I was one of only about three who knew how to read music. Needless to say, not much playing was done. We spent the next few classes learning how to put our instruments together by ourselves, how to clean the mouth pieces (you had to share with whoever else in another class also got your instrument number), how to sign them out for home practice, and most of all how to read music. I quickly became bored out of my mind with the constant onslaught of never ending music theory sheets. "Name the flats of the bass clef" they would say. "Grizzly Bears Deserve Fish Always" I would recite in my head. I would then write down G, B, D, F, and A and move on to another equally dull question.
That night was my first hip hop class. I'd decided since I suck at all other sports I would try dance since I'd kind of wanted to for a while now. It's like God decided to make this the most awkward week ever. I get to class late because my mom got home late so I had to walk in alone while the class was already in session. The head of the dance company was talking to my mom when she suddenly turns to me and says "you aren't shy are you?" I push out my chest a bit and reply, "no, not really."
"You can just walk in then if you'd like."
Oh crap. I walk to the door and gingerly turn the knob. I open the door and of course they're all facing the choreographer who happened to be right behind the door. All eyes glance towards me. "Uhm hi…"
"Are you Tyler Andrews?" he asked.
I said yes and went to sit in the circle on the floor. I noticed a girl with blonde hair who was laughing with about 3 other girls around her. She turned to me and said, "Hey you go to Jacob right?"
"Yeah" I replied.
"I've seen you in the halls before. I'm Beth."
"Jason." I smiled. That was the beginning of my first best friendship.
