Only of You

Chapter Thirteen

After I came home with my signed passport application, Hayley decided to inform me that I needed a damn birth certificate to get approved. At first I told her I didn't have one, which she thought was real funny, because apparently everyone had one. That was news to me because I'd never seen my birth certificate in my life. Hayley said the school would have it though, so I didn't have to go back to my mom again.

I didn't really think they'd have it, because it would be just my luck that I'd be the only asshole in the world without a birth certificate. It wouldn't have surprised me and all, since my mom probably didn't care enough to take me to the hospital or anything when I was born.

So on Monday morning I decided to go to school early to try and get it from one of the ladies in the office. When Jesse dropped me off in the parking lot I barely said goodbye to him, because my mind was kind of all over the place. It wasn't even so much the birth certificate that was bothering me, since it didn't matter if I got the passport or not anyway. I was more worried about seeing Billie Joe. When he gave me a ride back to Jesse's house on his bike we didn't really talk much, and he wouldn't even walk me to the door. I guess because he didn't want to see Jesse and all, but I couldn't help worrying if he didn't want to be my friend anymore. The whole thing was dramatic as hell, and I didn't know what was worse; my mom being crazy, or me thinking I was dying on the lawn like that.

There was barely anyone at school when I got there, since I was early and all. The hallways seemed real quiet, and it made me feel even worse, because I was all alone with the thoughts in my brain. My brain was always real good at giving me a hard time.

The lady sitting behind the counter in the administration office looked like she had woken up on the wrong side of the bed. Her face looked like she was mad as hell, and she kept tutting and sighing real loud when she was writing something down at her desk. She had this crazy perm too that frizzed out all of the place like she'd just stuck her finger in a damn electrical socket.

I didn't say anything since she looked so mad, I was just standing in front of her desk waiting for her to finish whatever she was writing. I guess that made her even more mad because she threw her pen down and sighed.

"Yes, yes, what do you want?"

"Sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if you have a copy of my birth certificate here?" My voice came out in a higher pitch than usual, because I was trying to sound nice. I didn't want to give her any reason not to help me.

"Are you a student here?"

I wanted to tell her no, just for the hell of it because it was a dumb question and her tone was rude as hell, but I just smiled in this phony kind of way and nodded.

"Then yes, we have every student's birth certificate in their file."

She didn't say anything after that and I kind of stood there staring at her, waiting for her to say something else. But she didn't. She was a real pain in the ass.

"Well can I have it?" My voice wasn't so nice now, but I was containing my anger as best as I could.

"I'll have to call your parents and speak to them. What's your name?" She looked away from me to start rummaging through some pages on her desk, and I felt this rush of anger. I didn't know why adults were always such assholes, but I was getting fed up of being looked down on.

"It's my damn birth certificate, why can't I just have it?"

I guess my voice was getting louder, because the lady looked at me real quick and scoffed.

"Excuse me? Don't take that tone with me. Tell me your name now, I'll definitely be calling your mother."

I usually wouldn't have bothered trying to be nice to her in the first place, since she was angry as hell from the beginning, but because I wanted her to give me the birth certificate I tried. I truly tried. I wasn't the type of person with a lot of patience or anything, so I couldn't really blame myself when I stopped being able to control my brain to mouth filter.