Sticks and Stones
Tuesday
Josh Nichols really didn't want to go to school today. Heck any more future 'Golden
Dork Awards' were already ruined thanks to Drake's suggestion that they skip school
when they thought Walter was having an affair a few months ago. How could he face his
classmates at his new school? Even those seniors that didn't attend the Campland
event were all going to know about it. They were in the internet age. He could be talked
about in the members only Yahoogroup for the Garfield High Class of 2006. He sat in
his car, but was powerless to start it. It reminded him of those splashy tabloids that
detail the latest celebrity scandal in Hollywood. Everything was this BIG talk-around-the-
water-cooler faux news to keep your mind off the wars going on until the next bit of
titillating gossip from Tinsel town came pouring out of the press drain. That was the only
shot Josh Nichols had. Unfortunately, they just came off a holiday weekend. He doubted
anything had happened of scandal inducing proportions off-campus that would humiliate
someone else and his little indiscretion of trying to bed Mindy would be forgotten.
Oh to be Drake!
That boy had no problems.
He didn't tell his Mom Josie (or Audrey for that matter) what he almost did. Josh was
certain that neither Drake nor Megan said anything because he didn't get any parental
verbal lashing.
Didn't everyone realize how terrible he felt? Couldn't Drake have come to him on his
own? Did he really need to be prompted to by Torey to do so? However his brother
could beat the Hell out of him on his own. It's not that Josh didn't feel he didn't deserve
it. He felt that he did. That's why he didn't fight back and he only came into Drake's
room in the first place because he wanted his help.
Drake wasn't at home this morning and his Fiero wasn't in the driveway or the garage.
How was he allowed to get away with staying out all night? Mom Audrey wasn't in the
proper frame of mind, but it always bothered Josh that Drake got away with everything.
There was no place to go but forward. It took every ounce of courage he had to start the
car and leave for school today. He wanted to go back to Belleview. It was all a blur as to
what happened. It all seemed to have started during the anniversary of Peter Parker's
death and up until now when he tried to have his way with Mindy Crenshaw at
Campland.
Yet the battlefield was littered with what he hoped were not casualties but just temporary
injuries. Between him and Drake not speaking and quite possibly this time for good and
His Mom and Dad separated. It was a complete mess.
Why couldn't he have two mothers?
All Josh Nichols wanted was to be happy. Which might have been understating the
obvious, but it was true.
Josh parked the car and knew he couldn't stay inside for long. Anything that brought
attention to him was only going to make matters worse.
School cliques can make or break you. He wanted to be on the football team and have
a pretty girlfriend cheerleader. Wasn't that the All-American teenage dream?
Garfield High was supposed to be about the reinvention of Josh Nichols from Belleview
High geek to Buff Popular Football Player Stud.
He did what he always did when he started school here and that was to hang by the side
doors on the side of the building and talk to new and exciting people.
Wanting so desperately to be in a clique. Not that he would undermine any other
unpopular chess club, sweater vest wearing, big magnet makers, and Latin club
protégés. He just wanted to be in the "In Crowd" just once. Especially during his senior
year when it was the most important one in high school because the next stop was
college and then the rest of your life until the grave.
High school can make or break you.
Whether it is the fast paced internet age or putting a string through soup cans to play
'telephone' the word on the street was getting out.
No one was talking to him. Did one central popular school 'god' control everyone? Were
people really that easily led? And these were tough jocks, some of which smoked pot
and drank at the keg parties that he would have joined in because what-do-you-know?
Josh could have easily been led himself. But that was different. That was to be IN. No
shoulder taps and no quick knuckle touches were to be found.
Okay, this made sense. Those cheerleaders were probably liberal with their cats.
Except Mindy. She was still a virgin. But her friends went out with these guys so that
would explain why they couldn't talk to him. But it was the clique he wanted to be a part
of. If you pissed one cheerleader or football player off you might as well switch schools.
Drake was never ostracized. Yeah a few little tarts didn't like him because he was
dating Torey. Big deal. They really weren't connected to the major school cliques. Just
once Josh wished that Drake could be unpopular so he would know what this day-to-
day-when-will-it-ever-stop? pain felt like.
"You're a creep, Nichols!"
"Go back to Belleview! We don't want you in our school!"
Shouted two unfamiliar voices in the crowd. But he couldn't see who it was. Josh did
however see the points, the snickers, the whispers, and the oh-you-don't-say people.
"You are a CREEPY dogface!" said a little sophomore girl to his face as she ran off in
the opposite direction.
It was either turn around and walk away or to keep moving forward.
Josh opted to keep moving on. To get inside the school he had to go up a small set of
stairs that led to the big gray doors. He had to pass the senior porch as it was called.
He could see Mindy looking nice and pulled together like she always did in her modern
preppy classic clothes. Her light blue sweater set with matching white skirt matched his
black polo shirt and khakis. They would have looked so great together.
Someone threw something at him. It was an empty box of Booboo Bees. Which was
one of Drake's favorite movie candies.
When it was all said and done, it was a fact that Josh really missed his brother. Another
person in the crowd threw a gumdrop at him that got lodged in the back of his hair. He
felt it. It might as well have been a cannonball for that's what the weight of it felt like.
"Mindy, I'm sorry." He whispered when he finally got to the top of the senior porch.
"Did anyone hear anything? I know I sure didn't."
"You're a LOSER and a CREEP, Nichols!" Someone called out from the back, but he
didn't turn around to see who it was. At this point he couldn't even tell if they were male
or female.
He just had to keep walking. Once he got inside the building he pulled the green
gumdrop out of his hair and threw it in the big trashcan by the stairwell. At least for now
the cat calls and object throwing had stopped. Josh found himself in the first floor boy's
lavatory that was thankfully empty. He went inside one of the stalls and noticed that
some jerkwad came in here earlier and wrote in dark streaky black marker
Stay Away From Josh Nichols! He is a Creep!on the light canary yellow tiled walls.
Josh thought while Drake might have known his share of suffering over the loss of his
biological father, he still felt his brother had no idea on what real day-to-day suffering
meant.
Drake had no idea what real pain was.
His brother was a lucky young man after all and it is the lucky sorts of the world who do
not have to suffer in their daily lives. Everything came easy for them and even though he
missed him and wanted him in his life again, Josh couldn't help but hate Drake for his
easy life.
He sat on the toilet, put his hands over his face, and cried until the morning bell.
Sticks and Stones
May Break My Bones
But Names Will Never Hurt Me.
Whoever came up with that saying had to be popular because it was a bunch of shit.
The names did hurt. Everything hurt like Hell. Josh Nichols was beginning to wonder if
he'd ever see real happiness in his life?
The morning bell rang and even though no one was in the bathroom he still sat there and
continued to cry wishing that his day-to-day pain would go away.
Drake would never understand because he had no idea on what real pain was.