I never anticipated death smelling like fast-food.
But, then, I never anticipate a lot of things.
Like, you know, dying.
The person assaulting me has horrible breath. That doesn't surprise me, lunch-period just ended a few minutes ago, and now here I am, crushed up against my own locker, my backpack slipping off of my shoulders and landing on the floor with a thunk. I'm dismayed to hear that thunk. My school-laptop is in that bag, and if it's damaged, guess who has to pay for it? Oh, not me. My aunt, and my uncle are the ones who'll have to cover the costs.
"Puny Parker! You're pathetic! Who the hell are you, calling me Eugene? Like you know me, or somethin'?"
I do know you, Flash, I've known you since preschool.
"What was that?!"
Sometimes I don't notice that I mumble under my breath.
The guy angry with me is Flash Thompson. His real name is Eugene, but don't point that out to him, unless you want to end up like me right now. Hello, I'm Peter Benjamin Parker, a sophomore who still feels like a freshman, and might as well still be one, with how much of a repeat of last year this is for me. The biggest difference between this year and the last is the fact that I have a laptop. I live with my aunt and uncle, and they certainly can't afford something like that. At least, they'd have to get one second-hand, and those are buggy. Usually it's juniors, and juniors only, who are allowed school-provided laptops. I am a special case. With my spotless record and good grades, and sufficient friendships with enough teachers, I can get a lot of cool things nobody else can.
Well, mostly spotless.
I mean.
Shut up.
It's not like I mean to get into altercations like this.
"You'd better stay away from me, Parker!" One more slam, a fist right next to my head, and then Flash is gone. Stomping away, thinking he's hot—
I wish I could curse.
Whenever I try, I get this mental image in my head of my aunt, May, lecturing me about having horrible manners. That she raised me better than this, my mother would expect better of me, blah-blah-blah. Too bad. I've got some creative ones up my sleeve...which, will never be uttered. In case you haven't realized, I am a nerd. A geek. The lowest on the school food-chain. You'd think such a classically cartoonish social hierarchy such as this would've been phased out already by, I dunno, the beginning of the twenty-first century, but, nope. It's still here, very much alive and very much messing with my life. The alpha jocks dump all over the beta dorks. Yep. Gonna slap that on the title of my autobiography someday.
Maybe I was over-dramatic. I didn't die, today. Just got a face full of bad-breath. I know Flash, okay? He gets McDonald's every-day for lunch. I still remember the days he came to school every morning with a Happy Meal in his hand. Ah, the old days, when children were much more vicious when it came to bullying. I'm almost thankful that we're teenagers now and a little wiser. Even if it doesn't seem like it other times.