As Far Away as Yesterday | ✔

♢this is where i set my scene♢

Joey Paxton

"So, why'd you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Quit wrestling."

"Because I just felt like it. And you know that was Dad's dream."

My brother Aaron shook his head, and closed the text book he'd been reading out of.

"But you were great at wrestling. Just 'cause dad forced it at first, never meant you didn't enjoy it, nor did it ever mean you weren't a good wrestler."

I shrugged and put on an annoyed face expression. I didn't know if it had to do with the fact that Aaron was in his junior year of college, and the fact that he always had the smarts, but why did he always have to be right? Or say something wise without trying.

"Wrestling makes me think of the bastard, and I want to find something else to do." I crammed a spoonful of cereal into my mouth.

Aaron simply took an orange from the bowl of fruit sitting in the center of the table. He sighed, and murmured something I couldn't comprehend.

A wave of anger suddenly came over me. "Besides. I'm sure Mom already told you about the bouts with ana I had."

"She didn't," Aaron said quietly. "And I'm pretty sure that was a tough thing to go through."

I got up from the table with my bowl in hand and put it in the sink. "I just want to do things differently this year Aaron. I was this angry guy for two years of my high school career so far." I looked at my brother who gave me a look of contempt. "Please just trust me on this."

♢

When I walked into school, everything happened as expected. I got looks as I walked to my locker.

I heard people whispering, and my face got warm just hearing them.

I wasn't quite sure if they heard about my dad going to jail, and about me quitting wrestling. Regardless, I was getting looks and I was going to have to get used to it. Damn.

My first class was English.

As I looked at my schedule I frowned at all the classes I had each hour. I was going to have to take Algebra II again.

But on the bright side, at least wrestling wasn't such a distraction.

When I walked over to the water fountain to get a drink of water, this one guy I used to be friends with shoved me as I passed him and his group of cronies, who used to be my group of cronies; they used to follow me too.

I didn't say anything, but I did frown at Mike.

I understood that maybe leaving the wrestling team abruptly wasn't a winning move, but that didn't give him the write to keep on calling me names or shoving me every time I passed him and his dumb friends.

"Ass," he remarked as he continued walking, as the guys laughed following behind him.

♢

"So, Mr Paxton what's the answer to number twenty on the board?" Mr Finley asked me.

I looked at the work on my notebook miserably. Algebra II was already kicking me in the ass and I was sure I was going to be having a D in Algebra soon too.

Albeit, I was trying to change my attitude about school and life period, I hadn't tried to change my attitude about doing homework and paying attention in class whatsoever.

"I don't know," I answered with a certainty that Mr Finley wasn't impressed with. "I really don't know."

I heard some people laugh, and others whisper insults my way. I adjusted the collar of my shirt nervously and looked down at my desk.

"That's not acceptable Mr Paxton," Mr Finley said with dissapointment. "Stay after class. Me and you have somethings to discuss."

Everybody said "ooh" all at once, like I was in bigger trouble than I was. I felt my face heat up.

"Nicole, come to the board and do problem twenty on the board," Mr Finley then stated, silencing the classroom.

♢

"You really want me to fail you?"

"No, not really."

"Then why do you continue to not pay attention in class?"

"I don't know...I space out I guess."

"Well, if you continue to 'space' out in class, as you prefer to call it. I'll have to fail you."

At lunch I picked at the tater tot casserole on my lunch tray with my fork. If I had prepared myself a bit better before this school year started, I'm some-what positive I would have a better attitude.

I wouldn't even be able to chill once I got home, which was always around 4:00 by walking, because Mom, Aaron, and I would be going to see our family therapist Ms. Lisa.

Mom was wasting her time though, 'cause therapy wasn't getting me to open up, and I wasn't planning to anytime soon.

Having to recall Dad wailing on me wasn't easy. Mom and Aaron didn't understand that. They always asked me, "Joe, why can't you try talking to Lisa? She's really nice. She's there to help you."

No one was there to help me when Dad would be in one of his moods. Lisa sure as hell hadn't been there. So what did my mom and brother know? Nothing. Nothing at all.

My stomach was still empty when I threw away the tater tot casserole and the carton of chocolate milk. While I was in the process of throwing away my nasty lunch I didn't see Mike and his minions come up to me.

"Hey, Paxton," he said in an irritating way. "You didn't eat anything?"

I held my empty tray to side, and looked at my ex-friend/teammate blankly. "No, I didn't eat anything. The lunch is for shit. You know that."

He nodded.

Then, before I knew. He brought his hand up and crammed some of the tater tot casserole in my face. "Now you have," he quipped.

One of his followers had held me by the arms when Mike did that. I hadn't moved fast enough.

He started to laugh when he looked at my face. I didn't even bother wiping the crap off. "Are you going to cry, like a baby?"

My face felt hot, and I did tear up due to Mike shoving me in the face hard with the tater tot casserole.

Everybody in the lunch room was looking, and no one, not even the school staff, did anything about the whole situation.

That was what sucked the most. But like my old man always said, "No one likes sissys son. Never show anybody your tears."

I ran out the lunch room.