• I remember that kid...the new kid. How could I possibly have forgotten him?

    He came in, freckles abound, short, big glasses, and, without even thinking, you could just label him as a nerd. Because that's what he was. A spereotypical nerd.

    He stood up there in front of the class, talking in a high pitch, teacher's pet voice,

    "I'm Jerry. I just moved in here from Detroit. That's in Michigan. Michigan is in the northern area of America. It's cold there, and Ford lived there, and President Ford also lived there and I lived there too. You should visit it sometime. There's lots of snow...because it's cold. I went to a private school before, but it cost too much, so we had to move here in Alabama to transfer jobs to get more money, because of the private school. Yeah, my private school cost too much. So we had to move here, because my father was transfering jobs..."

    I rolled my eyes. This was going to be quite a year.

    He sat down right next to me, after his 10 minute speech, and he sure made sure we all knew that he lived in Michigan. Ugh. What made things worse was when he looked at me and asked in the same tone,

    "Hey, guy. You. Want to be friends?" I looked at him, gave him a smug smile, and retorted,

    "Keep dreaming, man. I'm sure it will help your self esteem." He smiled back at me, pushed up his glasses, and replied,

    "Yeah, thanks. I like dreaming. Do you?" I wasn't sure what to say to this remark. Nerds were supposed to be smart, right? Maybe this kid wasn't much of a nerd. Maybe he was more of a dork.

    Or maybe this kid was just trying to be funny. Was that how nerds were? Get literal on everything, and then laugh at it?

    "Hey, have you guys learned about the Nile River Dam yet?" he continued, still pretending as though I was interested. "It's really interesting, you know, how they use the gravitational force on flowing water, then through kenetic energy they make it hydroelectricity for electrical power. We were getting into the part in which they were making green cars from it, but not literally green cars if you now what I mean. But, anyway, we were talking about that, but then I had to move from my private school in Detroit, which is in Michigan, to here. Because my dad..." I didn't hear anything else, because at that moment I was silently praying to God for a rescue jet. I was going to need it, sometime or another.

    "What have I done to deserve this..." I muttered. And that was that. That was how it all started.