Clipped

Points to Ponder

Teddy sat on the cold gray steps outside the entrance school building, pondering why high school was the way it was. He thought to himself, “I wish I was one of them. The popular kids.” You know the ones. Always hanging out together, talking about some party or snickering at some inside joke you wouldn’t get if you knew.

It’s not like he didn’t try. He thought did everything right. He joined the football team. Except that doesn’t help when you come late because you were still at camp and they’ve already made friends. He didn’t kiss ass, didn’t brag about the 90 he could get without studying. He tried out for baseball. Getting cut didn’t help. He went out with the star girls soccer player. They made fun of him because, they said, “His girl was a man.”

His problem was he was too nice. He didn’t like the fact that they made fun of each other all the time. Sure, they were kidding, but it was messed up that they couldn’t find anything else to do. It was like everyone got their turn. You’d feel like crap and then take it out on someone else and laugh until you got slammed again.

He could hang out with them in school, when there were only like two or three around. But any more than that, he would feel intimidated, and hide in the soothing flow of their conversation. He would laugh when necessary, but mostly disappear and observe, a silent witness to crimes against humanity.

He also stayed away from drugs and alcohol. He just never felt the urge. This pretty much kept him off the party scene.

His train of thought was interrupted by Joe and Josh, two of them.

“Hey Ted. What’s up?”

“Nothing much.”

"You see that dork lose his lunch in the cafeteria today?” That dork was Teddy’s best friend, Greg.

“Yeah, that was pretty funny.”