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On the day of my friend Dylan’s party, I was sort of in a panic since I had not bought a present for him yet. If you have met me before, you’ll know I have OCD and get really stressed if I’m not prepared for something. Dad had said he was going to buy a gift in the morning, but he made us go running first. I despise running. I ended up buying a gift card, because I’m a cheapskate (just like someone else I know). I was feeling like a pretty lame best friend for getting someone a gift card for their birthday. At the scheduled time, I arrived at Dylan’s house. I rung the doorbell.

Silence.

I wait a few moments, and ring it again.

Silence.

At this point, I’m starting to feel like an idiot. I walk around the back to see if anyone is there. I don’t see anyone. I check if I’m on time on the right day. I am. I try the doorbell one last time.

Nothing.

Then it occurred to my narrow-minded brain hat the doorbell did not work. I knock the door three times with my fist. Finally, Dylan opens the door and says, “Oh, it’s you.”

I haven’t seen him in nearly a year, and this is what he says.

I had come early, so only Dylan’s relatives were here. In retrospect, I should’ve arrived late so I could make a cooler entrance than I did, but it was too late to think about that. If I had to describe Dylan’s relatives, I would say they look like some extras from High School Musical.

After a bit of awkward conversation between the relatives and me, some classmates showed up. They were surprised to see me, which was understandable, considering I had been missing for a year. Here’s the list of some of the people that showed up.

Andrew- He’s the kind of guy who would dare you to lick you deodorant.

Ian- He would be the type of person to actually do it.

Mario- He’d be the guy that would stand there saying how stupid Ian is for licking his deodorant.

There’s more, but I’m too lazy to list them. After we went swimming for a bit, everyone went to the front. Dylan’s road is a busy place with lots of cars. So Brady, a friend of mine from the ski club, decided to ride his bike across the road. They’re my friends, but even I’ll admit they’re a little stupid. Eventually, everyone started messing around. The only sane ones were me, Mario, and can you believe it, Ian. Then some guy in a white car pulled over started yelling at us. He even took a video. Well, sucks to be you guys, because I had already sprinted off into the backyard. After an hour or so, I started to wonder where everyone was. That’s when a whole group of them came running back, screaming something about the police. Apparently, the guys started messing around at Lily’s house. Lily was a classmate who lived down the road of Dylan’s, and from what I heard, her parents were not very kind. They threatened to call the cops on everyone. So then they all went scampering through people’s backyards and through the woods until they made it back here. When Dylan told me about this, I said, “Ha ha, what a funny story.” What I was actually thinking was, “Ha ha, you guys are idiots.”

 

I thought that was the end of it, but nope. After hearing the story, ALL the boys wanted to come and throw rocks at Lily’s house. Once again, there only ones who stayed behind were Mario, Ian, and me. We talked about what fools they were as we watched them bike up to Lily’s house. After a bit, they walked back with their heads down. Whatever happened over there, I’ll never know, because they wouldn’t talk to me about it. I thought we would just hang out in the pool, but I was wrong again. Now, they all wanted to visit John Glenn. John Glenn is kind of infamous at my school. John Glenn was a school that got knocked down to build a bunch of rich people houses. All the kids that went there had to be sent to Hillside Middle School, my school. The only thing remaining of the school is the playground, which is what the guys wanted to visit. There were only so many bikes and scooters, so the people who had to walk were one again, Mario, Ian, and me.

We tried to keep up with the people on the vehicles, but it was impossible. Eventually, it was just us three, and John Glenn was a mile from Dylan’s house. I will mention something about Ian. He was still in his swimwear, which meant we wasn’t wearing a shirt. So it was kind of awkward waking around a rich neighborhood with him. Actually, embarrassing is the word I’m searching for. I have social anxiety, and I hide it pretty well. If I’m with people I know, I’m fine. But it’s hard to act normal when you’re walking next to a shirtless guy.

When we finally caught up to everyone else, they already wanted to leave. Nice. As we made our way back, Ian noticed something. All the kids had taken a wrong turn, and were about to end up where they started. I thought that was pretty funny, considering they know the layout of the neighborhood better than I do. We ended up making it back before they did.

 

The party was pretty uneventful for a while, but then an ambulance went by. Brady, being the idiot he was, thought that the ambulance was heading to Lily’s house. Of course, everyone wanted to go check it out. You might be thinking that I would stay behind again and talk about how stupid everyone was, but that’s not what happened. I admit, even I was a bit curious about the ambulance. Everyone hopped onto their bikes except Ian, Mario, and me. I’m actually a pretty fast runner, so I was able to keep in front of everyone was. As it turned out, the ambulance was NOT going to Lily’s house. Slightly dissapointed, I started to head back, but to my surprise, no one else did. They all wanted to follow the ambulance into the next neighborhood. Hesitantly, I followed. After all, I had come this far.

 

We ended up finding nothing.

 

It was about eight in the evening. I suddenly remembered the lame gift card. I went to get it, and that’s when I realized I was the only person who got Dylan a gift. I guess everyone thought we were too old for that now. So not only did I get Dylan a lame gift, it would be the only gift, making things extra awkward. As I stated before, I’m not good with social things like parties. So even if Dylan was a close friend, finding the right time to give a present  turns into a bunch of strategic timing. What time should I give him the card? Answer: When very few people around. How would I give to him? Answer: In a nonchalant, almost careless manner. Sometimes I wonder if I over think things.

 

I actually cringed when I handed him the card.

”Oh, I think I forgot to give you this. Happy birthday.”

”…Thanks.”

I wish I could change how corny my words sounded.

 

After that ordeal, I went home. That’s pretty much an anti-climatic ending.

Planter’s Peanuts: Dry roasted peanuts are a delight to eat, although a bit on the grainy side. A wonderful snack to eat on a rainy day. I would give it a ten out of ten, but it has a stupid name, so I’ll lower the score. Final rating: 5/10

 

Southern Grove Peanuts: I haven’t actually eaten them, but they look bad. Final Rating: 3/10

 

 

Fisher Salted Nuts: I haven’t eaten these either, bit Wikipedia says they’re good. Final Rating: 7/10

 

 

Packing Peanuts: A little chewy. Final Rating: 9/10

 

 

Wonderful Pistachios: They are not “Wonderful”. Final Rating: 0/10

 

 

Imperial Nuts: Yes, this is actually the name, search it up. Sounds like a communist nut. Final Rating: 2/10

 

 

Trader Joe’s Nuts: I do not like Trader Joe’s Nuts. Final Rating: 1/10

 

 

Good Sense Nuts: You do not have good sense if you like these. Final Rating: -1/10

 

 

M&Ms: They are not peanuts, but I like them. Final Rating: 7/10

 

 

Reese’s Puffs Cereal: They lied to me. They didn’t put real peanuts in the cereal. Final Rating: -3/10

 

 

Great Value Nuts: Terrible value. Final Rating: 1/10

 

 

Frito-Lay Nuts: They should just stick to making chips. Final Rating: broken toilet/10

 

 

Bear Naked Nuts: Whoever named this should be fired. Final Rating: -9999/10

 

UberNuts: Was expecting an Uber made out of peanuts, very disappointed. Final Rating: -4/10

 

 

Nuts For Snack: Bad, I wanted nuts for lunch. Final Rating: Bear Naked Nuts/10

 

 

Dee’s Nuts: I am not even joking. This is actually the name. Their slogan is, “Everyone loves Dee’s Nuts.” Fire whoever named this. Final Rating: Deez nuts/10

 

 

Dee’s Nuts Pickle Flavored: Why would you make this? Final Rating: -99999999999/10

 

 

Sahale Nuts: Sahale Nuts? More like… Sa-Stale Nuts! Ba dum tsh. Final Rating: 0/10

 

 

R-YA NUTS: Somebody sat down, wrote “R-YA NUTS” on a piece of paper, and said to themselves, “Yeah, that’s a good name.” Final Rating: Bear Naked Nuts/10

 

 

Second Nature: My first nature is to stay away from these. Final Rating: 3/10

 

 

Beer Nuts: Alcohol for kids. Final Rating: -5/10

 

 

Eden Selected Nuts: Eden has bad taste. Final Rating: Bear Naked Nuts/10

 

 

Blue Diamond Nuts: Like Planters, but worse. Final Rating: 1/10

 

 

So now, the moment of truth. I will now reveal the best peanut. As you can see, the peanut with the absolute highest score is… the packing peanut. The packing peanut started when Liz Bee Ann, a hard working woman in the seventies started her own peanut company. After she was arrested because her peanuts were poisonous, she continued on her perfect peanut formula in jail.

 

And now for the worst peanut. Bear Naked Nuts were developed when Smokey the Bear got fired. In his protest, he developed the atrocity that is known as Bear Naked Nuts. I have not eaten Bear Naked Nuts, but they are probably bad.

I didn’t want to get out of bed. I did anyway. It was loud, so I couldn’t go back to sleep. Everyone was up and about, doing who knows what. I walked downstairs, and of course I was told to go brush my teeth. You can never do anything without someone telling you to stop what you’re doing. After I brushed my teeth, TD’s father came rolling in with the RV. I didn’t see how everyone would fit into the vehicle, but it ended up being quite sizable. There was a bed over the driver’s seat, and two couches behind  the wheel. We crammed all our belongings into the RV, which limited our space. The road was bumpy, and everything was uncomfortable. The ride was rather dull, for there was nothing to do. I don’t like to stay still. Perhaps it’s ADHD or something, I just can’t. The adults did not want us to sit on the bed while driving; they feared we may fall off. I went up there anyway.I made a bunker of pillows so I wouldn’t be sent flying. I was about to fall asleep when we took a stop at Burger King. It must’ve looked odd for a large group of Asians to walk into a fast food place, but nearly everyone there looked Korean. After lunch, father showed up. We left, and I was prepared for another uneventful ride. I headed to the back of the RV where there was another bed, and took one of TQ’s graphic novels to read. It was about some girl and her pet unicorn. Pretty cliché, but entertaining nonetheless. After reading the book, I promptly fell asleep. I’ll just end this here since I’m too lazy and tired to do anything else.

There’s nothing as eerie as eating in a dark room, typing down your blog. Especially when the room isn’t yours. My vacation to Arizona hasn’t unfolded yet. Unlike my previous blogs, I’m writing during the trip. A day has passed already. Mother had taken Khang and me to the airport only several hours ago. The ride was tedious and long, so I’ll spare you the details. We had to pick up a relative. I suppose I cannot really call them that, since I’ve never seen them in my life. I tried my best to stay awake, but I ended up falling asleep. At least, I think I did. Everything is a blur. When we arrived at the house, it was dark and quiet. Then, it’s occupants woke up and came to greet us. I don’t care for family greetings. That’s like saying hello over the phone. As usual, I had the most uncomfortable sleeping space. My best guess would be the room belonged to ThucQuyen and ThucLam. There was a K-Pop poster on the wall, and a sign that read, “No Boys Allowed.” Well, that sign is useless if you put it inside your room. I flipped the sign around, but Khang flipped it back, saying we shan’t disturb their room. Since when did he get so noble and courteous? It is rather interesting to see someone’s life without meeting them. Photos lined the wall, and you could only imagine what was really happening in them. Of course, Khang got the bottom bunk, which was clearly the better of the two. I wouldn’t know why anyone would bother getting a bunk bed; it would be rather hard to move. On the top of the bunk, there lie a stuffed unicorn. ThucQuyen has a peculiar obsession with the mythical creatures. Had it been any other day, I’d have thrown it off the bed. However, I was tired, and kept it on there. So now I ended writing a blog, while the unicorn stare at me. It’ll probably watch me when I fall asleep, too. Brilliant.

I haven’t been looking forward to writing this beacause it’s a complete waste of my time. But lets get straight to the point. The airport is a familiar sight. As usual, we walked through the security. I doubt they’ve stopped any real terriosts. As usual, I got kicked out to sit with the strangers on the plane.It’s not that I’m a shy person, it’s just that I feel uncomfortable about what I’m doing. And I hate it when they try to talk to you. They could be the most interesting person in the world, and I wouldn’t care. Khang was going to be the one sitting on with the other people, but of course he chickened out. He acts like he simply hates strangers, but it’s pretty obvious his thoughts are the same as mine. At least I’m not such a baby about it. When we got to Ohio, I was already in a bad mood. I hadn’t gotten very many presents for Christmas. Ok, I know I sound like a brat, but I expected at least two. I got one. Just one from the entire side of mom’s family. Of course there were other presents, but they were labeled, To Khang, Nam, Bien. And it was pretty obvious they present weren’t aimed at me. I mean, a bunch of cologne? It’s pretty obvious who it was for, even with that KNB label. So after getting nothing, I began to think of why I only got a gift card for Christmas. And I’ve chalked it up to this: mom’s side of the family hates me. Of course they won’t just come out and say it, but I can tell. I know mom is just jumpin out of her chair, trying to deny my claim, but it’s too late. I mean, one of them even threatened to throw my phone out into the lake. Of course, mom hates me the most, (shut it mom, there aren’t any excuses). If I say this to her face, she’ll just slap me, but if it’s announced in public, she’ll play the victim card. I take this as proof she only cares about her public opinion. But enough of that, I need to move on. When we arrived at outlet house in Ohio, we opened some presents, which contained a drone, toys, clothes, and a music-playing hat. Two days later mom left. I think she went to Las Vegas, though she’ll deny it if you ask her about it. Fast forward to the day we went snowboarding. A few of friends were there, though I didn’t see them most of the time. Snowboarding is a lot harder than skiing. Not like I’ve been skiing, but I’ve seen some five-year olds do it, while the child snowboarders are falling on their butts all day. I won’t note every single detail because that would take forever. On the final day in Ohio, nothing happened. I guess there wasn’t any time to do anything worthy of being written down. I thought we would be flying alone to Florida, but I was dead wrong. Dad came along, and so did mom. Apparently, we were landing in Orlando instead of Tampa, and we were staying at a hotel. A thing I noticed was that mom claimed she had no money. Nice try, but you don’t go on a vacation with no money on you. This supports my “Mom Went to Las Vegas” theory. We stayed in a normal room, nothing out of the ordinary. The next morning,  we moved to another hotel, which was a waste of money, considering the house in Florida was twenty minutes away. We were forced out of the hotel room to go to the beach, which was also a dumb move, because the most we could do was sit around in the sand, since we didn’t have any swimsuits. So the rest of the day, we sat in our room on our phones. Mom the Genius went out driving without her license. Smart move, mom. But oh, Mom the Genius works her magic again, and tells us she has forgotten out toothbrushes at the other hotel. So we must buy some toothbrushes from the hotel. For dinner, we went to some steak house. Everything about it was boring and stereotypical, from the hot flames on the logo to the “We’re cool guys that eat steak!” motto. The food was okay I guess. The only thing that caught my attention were the napkins. Yes, the napkins were the only interesting thing there. And it wasn’t for a good reason. The napkin reads, “Owned by a loco fisherman”, but they misspelled “local”. I don’t take Spanish classes or anything, but I know loco mean crazy. So I was really confused. I suppose someone just screwed up. But other than the napkins, nothing kept me from staring at my phone. When dad left, we finally went to the house. Of course, Bien’s little buddies were there, and they were way too loud. I was trying to watch TV on my phone, and all they could do was scream and shriek every five seconds. I actually had to turn on captions in order to understand everything in the show. I must have told Bien to shut up at least five times, and he ignored me every time. It’s the little things like this that always put me in a bad mood. As the little things continue, the grow into a frustrating problem. And Bien was the problem. Something as simple as being unable to watch TV triggers me very deeply. Sometimes I wonder if there’s something wrong with me. To the casual observer, it would appear that I only despise Khang, and we have some sort of sibling rivalry. But that’s wrong. I hate Bien as well. Maybe not as much as Khang. Maybe not as much as I hate myself sometimes. I’m not in a good mood. I just want to end this damn blog already. I doubt more than one person reads it anyway.

if i write down the name, the person im writing about will be really offended. So I’ll refer to the person as Oof. Oof is a dunce. Oof waters artificial plants. Oof pushes on pull doors. Oof asks for extra bread on their burger. My point is, Oof is not very smart. as someone I once knew said, “it’s hard to argue with a genius, but it is impossible to argue with an idiot.” Oof is one of those idiots. if you make a valid point while talking to Oof, Oof will simply say, “Shut up.” Then Oof wonders why I don’t talk to Oof. Do not expect Oof to help you in any way. If Oof is reading this, Oof has probably figured out that they are Oof, and are very angry because they are Oof. And Oof has not figured it out, then Oof is obviously not very smart. Oof is very easily annoyed. Yes, I am also easily annoyed, but Oof takes it to another level. One second you are sitting in bed, and the next Oof is saying things I will not write, since this is a kid-friendly blog. If you simply look at Oof, Oof is saying stuff like [curse] and [curse]. Oof is not smart nor nice. But is Oof at least social smart? Of course Oof is. I’d write why Oof is so socially active, but that would give too many clues of who oof is. The rest of this blog is dedicated to making this 300 words.

Cat on mat eating bat so it’s fat but rat eat cat.

Oof is unable to speak proper english. I think ive made it too obvious who Oof is, but it doesn’t really matter anymore. This blog is now three hundred words long. Good night everyone.

Been sick several times and caught a disease. All in a month.

You’d think the air was contaminated here.

 

biens been doing fine. He’ll sit on his bum all day doing nothing. I’ve been doing the same. My bed is in the living room, if you could call it that.

 

Mom says this is good for me. I don’t leave the house until I go to school. I go to bed at 9 PM. I sleep at 2 in the morning. there was a sign in Ohio that says a person should get eight hours of sleep each day. I get six.

 

School is fine. Not much to say. It’s all pointless anyway. Half my classes teach what I learned in fifth grade.

 

my head and stomach hurts. Doesn’t matter.

 

As usual, mom lets me sleep through my alarm. then acts like it’s my fault she didn’t wake me up when my alarm sounded. she should get lost.

 

when we moved, I wondered what our house would look like. mom would never say anything about the new house. well, that’s because we have to live in grnadpa’s house. She say she’s gonna kick me out when I’m eighteen, but I’m not the one living with my mom in my forties.

theres nothing to do here. read books? I read the good ones already. Play games? even my greatest hobby is getting a bit stale. play sports? Too hot. Go swimming? waste of time, and I’ve been in my dark bedroom so long the sun hurts my eyes. same thing everyday. wake up, go to school, head home, wait five hours and go to sleep. nothing new. nothing fun. nothing happy.

 

biens cousins come over on the weekends. no, they’re not my cousins, they’re biens. They are annoying. I hate them even more than I despise Khoi. hating Khoi is an old phase now, though. he’s the least of my problems.

 

nothing from my my past matters anymore. it’s like reading a book with the first eleven chapters torn out.

 

my moms a jerk. in fact, after she reads this, she’ll go crazy again. she hated my last post because of the comment about her being drunk. even when she is sober, she’s drunk. she’ll hate this post too.

 

mom says I’m doing mood swings. she says she gives me everything I ask for but I’m still unhappy. so I ask her if I can go home. she scoffs, and leaves. this has happened four times.

 

i cried the first few nights. I don’t anymore. mom wouldn’t care if I started cutting slits in my wrists. she wouldn’t let me go home. crying seems pointless.

 

when I’m having one of my “fits”, mom will leave my there, lying on the cold hard floor. when this happens, I think about everything  that’s happened. there is a special occasion when mom isn’t some idiot barking orders at me. it’s when her sisters are over. then she’ll tape a fake smile on her face while I sit alone in a dark corner. she’ll tell her sisters I’m some good for nothing brat that appreciates nothing, and that I’m going through some mood swings. then she wonders why I hate her.

 

my aunt bought me a computer. As if that will make up for anything. mom acts like she’s the one who bought it for me, and that I should be grateful towards her. I’m not.

 

mom says living in her moms house is a temporary thing, that she’ll get a job soon. she’s lying, like when she lied about the house, job, going home, and going to a good school. one time I tell her she’s a liar. she gets mad and leaves me on the floor again.

 

My my aunt also bought a dog. look, she could buy me a limo made of gold right now and I wouldn’t be happy. the dog is cute, but it’s not like you can play with a dog. i could throw a stick for it to fetch, but I don’t see how that’s “playing”.

 

i tried to run away once. Mom chased me, but she gave up after two steps. she probably thought I was better off gone. grandpa and grandma found me, and took me to my aunts.

mom constantly wants to know where my wallet is. it’s a bit suspicious. it’s possible that she’s sunk so low that she steals money from children. last laughs on her. I pickpocket some of her money. when she asked me to give it back, I kept a five dollar bill. ha ha. it was funny to me when I took it. it doesn’t seem funny now. Nothing ever does.

I can see the adults now. “Nam, it’s not so bad. Your cousins have moved multiple times and they’re fine.” well, shove those words right back to your throat. That like saying, “Oh your friend died? Don’t be such an idiot and stop crying. All MY friends died. Suck it up, baby.”

i laugh at school. when I get back home, everything feels sad. now that I think about it, my laughs have all been faked in the past few weeks. I haven’t laughed in months.

the only thing I do no is watch tv. video games have gotten almost, boring. I never imagined I’d say that. maybe that was moms plan, getting me to stop playing games by sending me to Florida. It’s a silly thought. mom doesn’t consider what’s best for me.

you might wonder why there’s no title to this post. it simply doesn’t need one. what would be the title anyway? no one really cares.

”let’s go swimming!”, mom says. sad for you, you can’t swim. “let’s go to a festival!”, says mom. cheap shot, trying to get me to leave the house.

if I don’t die of lack of vitamin d because I don’t go outside, I’ll die from boredom. I used to be really afraid of death. Now? not so much. I’m still scared, but I’ll accept that if I have to. one must learn that death is inevitable. People say death is but the next great adventure. I say it’s getting a nice nap after a terrible and horrible day.

As usual, mom is out. just so I don’t make her mad, I’m going to say that she’s NOT drinking right now.

i started a journal. it’s my sixth one. I’ll probably get rid of it soon, just like the others.

I remember my first ever comic. I was proud of it. I stapled the pages together and showed it to Khang. then mom threw it away. being the stupid little boy I was, I didn’t notice and just made more comics. soon, those went missing too. I’m telling you this story because I have something to tell you: never follow your dreams.. I wanted to be a comic book author, and I failed miserably. if you try to follow your dreams, you’ll just end in crying and despair. never hope either. it will just hurt more if you do. Khôi want to be a pilot, bien wants to be an artist, all the other kids have some sort of dream job. dreams don’t come true. that’s why they’re dreams. let the almighty and wise adults answer the question: how many of your dreams have come true? one, maybe two. now, how many of your BIGGEST and WILDEST dreams of come true? none. it’s better to give up now. Learn this early, or you’ll just waste your life away.

“nam,” you might think. “what about those famous people who accomplished things people thought they couldn’t?” My argument is, well that’s why they’re famous, dimwit! if dreams came true all the time, and amazing things were always happening, there would be no famous people. if you make everyone special, no one will be. Dreams can come true. But that’s unlikely. nothing’s impossible, your dreams are improbable.

give up while you can

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did not go to Florida to go to some fifth-rate school. I did not come to Florida for my house to explode. I did not come to Florida to find bugs bigger than my hand. But all those things happened. (Kind of.) I came to Florida a month ago. My school is rated 3 out of 10 in ratings. Test scores are below average, and the website I read it off of says it is “concerning”. I heard a teacher got arrested there for beating a child. Our house nearly exploded when water got into the electricity. Sparks flew out and smoke streamed out like a cup of water spilling on the floor. We left outside for a while and came back in. Then the adults did nothing about it. People say I worry to much, but some people worry to little. Your house might explode, but all you care about is gossiping. And my mom calls me stupid. The next day, my cousin found a grasshopper and put it in a jar. I swear, it’s like all the bugs survived a nuclear explosion, because the grasshoppers in Ohio were green and were as small as the tip of your finger, maybe less. But the grasshoppers were so huge and brown, I actually thought he caught one of those giant cockroaches. Well, the day after that, some IDIOT placed the jar on MY BED. THEN SOMEONE (probably the same moron) KNOCKS IT OVER! EVEN IM NOT THAT THICK IN THE SKULL. I SWEAR, MY MOM AND MY AUNTS PROBABLY GO OUT DRINKING EVERY NIGHT AND THEN ARE DRUNK IN THE MORNING! I’m triggered because the mutant grasshopper crawled all over my bed. I tried to make Bien catch it, but you can’t force a baby to do the job. One day I’ll learn who knocked the jar over. Then when they go to sleep, they’ll find a nice big cockroach on their pillow.

My school is actually a prison. The school was unable to raise enough money to support the giant place, so half the school is dedicated to inmates from all around Florida. There’s a iron gate separating students and inmates, but there have been a few break-in’s.

 

Just kidding, the school doesn’t house inmates, but there wouldn’t be much of a difference even if it were true. There are iron gates surrounding the school. It was pretty clear that most of the students were no stranger to trouble. We arrived at the front office, where a bunch of late kids were signing in. A lady led Mom and me to the 6th Grade office. There we met the counselor. There was a school picture with a bunch of scribbles on it. I asked her about it, and she was like, “These kids vandalized my picture… No big deal!”

I was starting to wonder about the kids at this school. Than some tall 8th Grader lead me around. It was very brief tour. He just walked through the hallways and said, “This is the library. This is the gym. This is the cafeteria.”

The strange thing about the school is that in the middle was an outdoor courtyard with a statue in the middle. The hallways went around the giant courtyard. But the things is, there are no walls or doors separating the inside from the courtyard, so the hallways are always hot. I went to band class. That’s how my ears withered and died. It’s been a month since school started, and they still sounded like a whole forest of dying animals. Next was lunch. Back in elementary school, the cafeteria was always noisy. But the 6th Grade is giant. You could probably fit a football field in the cafeteria. The lunches were free since the school was sponsored by some organization I don’t know about. The first thing I noticed were the kids around me. They all swore constantly, like they were in some rap battle. I guess being in a rap battle also makes your grammar suffer, so everyone was talking in incomplete sentences. After lunch was “gym”. I put quotation marks around “gym” because it was not gym. The substitute didn’t know what she was doing, so she sent us outside to ponder our life decisions. I sat down and noticed something in the grass. I picked it up and found a cigarette. Nice to know. These kids smoke. Then these kids had a fight and the other one started crying. Cool school. After lunch was history. I was pretty late to history. I walked around the hallways for a while after the tardy bell rang. Maybe I would’ve known my way around if the guy had actually given me a real tour. I ended up in the office and asking them where to go. When I entered class, the guy was all sarcastic about everything, but not in the funny way teachers usually are. Apparently everyone was taking a test, so I sat down and he handed me a sheet.

 

Question 1: What was the “fight” over Florida?

Question 2: What did conquistadors do to Native Americans while in Florida?

Well how was I supposed to know this? In Ohio, the curriculum in Ohio was based on history in Ohio. So I know about Ohio history! Why do they expect me to know all about Florida? I sat there for half an hour until the teacher said, “Read the book, stupid!”

That’s not what he really said but that’s what it sounded like. There was practically no information in the book, so I’m pretty sure I failed. Math was next. It was pretty confusing since they were in the middle of studying ratios, which I haven’t learned about yet. Then we had to pick groups and do some work. I knew this was going to be a bad time since I hadn’t really met anyone yet. Then these two girls asked me to their table. I said yes, and the whole time they snuck each other these smug smiles. For some reason, it made me want to fight them. Science was nothing but confusion, and ELA was the worst. The teacher there looked and acted like she was a college dropout. She said things like “Yeet!” and “Shut up idiots!” I wonder how she ever got a job here.

 

Today on Monday, I walked into class. I was a little worried since I had taken a test on cells and on ratios, which I hadn’t studied on or learned about. My group in reading class was a bit strange. Let me break it down.

There’s a boy with glasses who is a pretty good artist. There’s a girl who is too cheerful. Lastly,  there’s a kid who I’m still trying to figure out if they’re a boy or girl. I haven’t had the courage to ask yet. The kid with glasses drew a picture of me. When I looked at it, the picture gave me this blank expression, like I had just murdered someone. I guess that IS how I look. At the end of class, the cheerful girl said I have a weird voice. I wondered what she was talking about, since I thought my voice sounded fine. I suppose I was voice cracking lately, but that’s just puberty. Then she said my voice was cute, like I was some barking dog. After I left class, I began wondering. What does my voice sound like? I mean, I think it sounds a bit deep, but on recordings it sounds high. I wondered what other people heard: a deep voice or a high voice. Someone tell me please!

 

I was playing video games one day, minding my own business. Then Khoi joined. At first he said stuff like, “Nam, stop writing stuff about me.” I guess he didn’t like my previous post, which was about the vacation. And then Khoi starts threatening me.

“Nam, you know I can control your blog, right?” He says this several times so I get the point. I wonder how this kid can control a blog if he can’t even control his temper.

After he left, I checked this site, to see what Khoi was saying. These are his exact words: “Nam, Thats not nice to write a blog about me, Plus, some sentences about me like: khoi rounded his boat around peoople and khoi made a stupid boat is actually false so some of it is not true about me.”

Honestly, if he didn’t like what he read, he should’ve just stopped reading. After Khoi reads this post, he’s probably going to do something obnoxious on my blog, like calling me a “stud”.  So if you read somewhere that Nam eats children, you can owe it all to Khoi.