10/8/20XX Thursday

Dad forced me back to school today. I'm not sure why he thinks I'll suck it up, when he's the one who got us stuck with dealing in the first place. In a way, it's his fault that I killed Mr. Brinesworth. First off, he gave me the hammer from his toolbox. Secondly, I wouldn't have looked like a wimp if Dad hadn't brought us into his problem.

Don't get me wrong - I miss Mom. Ever since she left, me, Dad, and Rodrick were left with the chores she used to do. I'm sick of picking up Rodrick's crusty socks. I'm sick of separating the darks and the lights. I'm sick of having to make sure Manny doesn't get flattened by some idiot guzzling Bud Light in a school zone.

I can't believe Dad thinks I'll get over this so quickly. I killed someone. It wasn't even for a legit reason, like when Ruby got shanked after biting the wrong person.. I need at least a month of Overwatch grinding, 6 crates of soda, and some darn good therapy before I'll consider stepping foot in Crossland High again.

But then Dad reminded me that skipping school was gonna sic the cops on us. Between showering with a bunch of guys years older than me and a somewhat normal school life, I'd picked the latter.

Bryce Anderson's goons were waiting for me at my locker. They called me a pussy and asked me if I wanted to be called girl pronouns. I don't even know how they thought I was trans after the Fluffy incident. I told them that they must've been gay for me if they missed me that much, because it's obvious they've been waiting for me for the past two days. Then they called me the f-word, which goes to show much they're hiding in the closet.

Mom would've washed all our mouths if she heard us, which I think isn't fair. I'm 14 and the internet exists. It's not cool to be a sheltered kid like Maddox Selsam who I bet thinks doing lines is the same thing as linear algebra. I guess I wouldn't be a good influence on Manny if I started swearing every other sentence, but I'm pretty sure he's already addicted to the benzos in his hot chocolate. He's been begging for it everytime Dad's home, saying it makes him feel euphoric. My language choices aren't gonna fix that.

Before I ended up eating my teeth, Bryce's gang shoved me out of the way when the class bell rang. Not only was I late, but I also ended up with a bruise on my forehead after I crashed into the wall. It looks like I have a plum on my head.

When I walked into Mr. Ottoman's Humanities class, everyone started giggling. Mr. Ottoman kinda giggled too. Since he had Rodrick three years ago, I bet he thinks I'm a bad kid just like my brother. Lately, I've been determined to prove him wrong, so Humanities is the only class that I have a solid B in. I guess it's not enough for him, since he's always making fun of me.

Today, Mr. Ottoman assigned us a two week long project about the drug trade in different time periods. We got to choose our own partners, which would've been AWESOME if I had a friend in this class. No one wanted to be partners with me, especially after what happened in Biology. The worst part? There's an odd number of kids in my class, so I had to work alone when everyone else got to do half the stuff. I told Mr. Ottoman that that was pretty unfair, but he told me that I would've bought a project either way. That made me really mad, since I'm not like Rodrick, so I replied that at least I wouldn't get guillotined like the leaders of the Ottoman Empire, unlike him. Take that, I bet he was surprised that I studied pre-WWI history like everyone else.

I have a theory that teachers aren't actually humans. They don't what us kids' lives are like and can't take a joke. I read online that some of our presidential candidates are actually lizard people wearing high-tech human suits. I mean, if that's true - it sure explains why Mr. Ottoman's such a humorless, judging prick. It's not fair that I get punished for something Rodrick did a few years ago, and it's also dumb that I got sent to detention after I told him that I hoped his bald head got lopped off. He's gonna regret it when I expose his zipper to the world.

Principal Anderson looked like he sucked up a lemon the moment I walked into his office. He's Bryce Anderson's dad, so I bet he has it out for me too. He yelled at me for making an "implied death threat" towards Mr. Ottoman, but didn't listen to my side of the story. Apparently, that was illegal, so I started sweating a little because that meant he was gonna call the police. I didn't even do anything wrong today, but I knew the police had these polygraphs that would tell if you did anything illegal in your life. They'd make me pay back all my library fines from elementary school and arrest me for murder.

Luckily, Principal Anderson didn't sic the cops on me, but he did send me to ISS for Friday.

See, this is a part of why school sucks. Learning things I'd never use in my life is one thing, but punishing the wrong kids is another. A month ago, Ruby Bird went on some biting spree after frothing in the mouth. There was this HUGE rabies scare, with a lot of us getting checked out by the vet, but the school didn't do a thing. The teachers were throwing out excuses like "Disability accommodations" and "Litigation risk" to defend Ruby, but a lot of the grade didn't believe it. If Ruby Bird, who I'm pretty sure sent hemophiliac to the hospital, got a slap on the wrist, how come I had to sit alone with Principal Anderson for a day?

He's gonna watch me like a hawk, since I'm related to Rodrick and not one of his son's goons. AND he's gonna tell my Dad. Dad's gonna kill me.

And he did. Dad picked me up and glared at me like I was one of the people who took Mom. I tried to explain my side, but he wouldn't have it. He just grounded me from video games for a week, and didn't allow me to visit Rowley.

That sucked. Video games are what I live on, if you couldn't tell. Dad didn't care that I was well on my path to become a pro gamer, and certainly didn't care about screwing my training schedule. (I'm a Silver rated Genji main. My mechanics are gonna drop after this is over.)

So that left me with my Humanities project. Mr. Ottoman gave me the "present day" time period for the drug trade. Easy enough, I guess, since we're kinda stuck in a drug dealing ring right now.

To be clear, me and Rodrick aren't the ones dealing - Dad is. He's the local shipment manager for a big medicine company, responsible for sending crates of prescription medicine to licensed stores. He got promoted two months ago, and the event made local news. I guess that's how the cartel tracked us down and forced him to send pills to them on the side. It's kinda genius, if you ask me. Dad's got the power and the trust to steal a little extra without drawing suspicion, but not high enough on the ladder to have security protect us.

I worked all afternoon to make a basic slideshow that showed the cartel, their methods, and the stuff they dealt in 14 point font. Problem was, my sources were pretty illegal. Teachers don't actually check our sources cited, do they?