10th Grade

by Joe Weisberg

  “Hey” I said.

  “What’s up Man?”

  “I got gym” I said.

  “You oughta be playing baseball we just got outa bio.”

  “Yeah” I said.

  “Seriously man you oughta play baseball” Randy said.

  “I guess” I said.

  I sucked at baseball.

  I had to go back to gym but then John said “you’re in Spanish with Renee right?”

  “Yeah” I said.

  “That’s cool” John said.

  “She’s fucking smart” Randy said.

  “Yeah” I said. “I mean she didn’t speak any Spanish at the beginning of the year and now she’s like fluent.”

  “She speaks Japanese too” Randy said.

  “Yeah” I said.

  “Well think about baseball man” John said.

  “OK” I said.

  They left.

  “Catch you later” John said.

  “OK” I said.

  Now you may ask why is that in the chain of events. Well I’m not sure but I think Renee said something to them about me after we talked after school that day like “that Jeremy guy who was on the soccer team with you guys is in my Spanish class” or maybe because I didn’t tell anyone about the David guy she said “he’s cool.” But I don’t really know.

  Anyway the next day Renee goes by me in the hall and she stops but she really stops this time totally and stands next to me like she’s not going anywhere and says in English “Hi Jeremy.”

  “Hey Renee” I say.

  And she just talked for like 2 minutes about crap like Mr. Shipp who got sort of skimmed by a bus but was OK and other stuff and then we had to go to class and we go. But it’s like suddenly I’m talking to everybody.

  Then that same day at lunch I went out to the balcony and Caroline wasn’t even there and Kath of course was sick and it was just me and Douglas and Gillian and everyone was just munching away on their sandwiches and no one was saying much but I swear Douglas was munching a little more happily than he used to since his night with Caroline and even though nothing’s really happened with it as far as I know no one’s said anything to me about it except Kath who a few days before when we went to throw our garbage away said “So what do you think?” in this really “Weeellll” way and I just said “What are you talking about?” even though I knew what she was talking about was Caroline and Douglas. So we’re sitting there without much talking and I wondered about what would happen if Mr. Hallen the Principal came out when we were all there and Caroline and Gillian were smoking away and he said “This is very serious” and I went up to him and said “Mr. Hallen a word with you” and we went over against the railing where nobody could hear us and I’d say “Listen we’re just hanging out out here we’re not killing anybody or anything why don’t you just go back inside and forget about it” and I would give him this look like “You want to do what I say” and he’d say “OK Jeremy” and I’d just sit back down with them and be like “don’t worry about it”. I also thought about us at a movie in the parking lot sitting on the brick wall and it got really windy and everybody was being swept away and up into the trees and getting hurt and everything and leafs were everywhere and it got very cold then this huge beam came down and started pulling Gillian and Douglas and Caroline and Kath upwards and it didn’t get me but when I saw what was happening I ran and jumped and grabbed Douglas and I got his leg and I had him but the force was too strong and it tore him away and all of them were going up unable to fight the power of the beam and with the looks on their faces of fear and also yellow because of the beam and then I dove into the beam myself so I went up behind them. We get up into the ship and because I came later and they weren’t expecting me nobody knows I’m there so I hide behind this rafter and watch these brown aliens talking to each other like “Aaza wzaa” and then they take everybody away somewhere and I can’t follow without being detected so I explore the ship for a while which has a lot of levels and is very cool. It’s dark on the ship and also you can hear the thump of footsteps far and close on the steel floors and hear water dripping. There is a good alien named Pizar who I meet when he whispers “Hissss” at me as I’m going by in the hall and I slip into the storeroom with him here you can really hear the water dripping Pizar explains that his people are going through a bad period of history doing evil things and not respecting humanity but there are good ones fighting to restore things. Later I crawl through a chute and I find the room where they’ve got everybody but I can’t get in there’s this very thick glass door so I look through and there’s everybody sitting around on the floor looking sad and freaked out and Caroline who’s smoking a cigarette. I bang on the door as hard as I can but they can’t hear me and nobody sees me then I hear a guard coming so I go away quietly. Much later but not as much later as you might think we land everyone leaves the ship and my friends are led off. I wait until it’s dark then I sneak off I find a place to hide and I sleep until I wake up. When I get up I see the planet for the 1st time it’s like Earth except it’s hotter and has a red sun. I go into the town and some aliens see me and don’t do anything so I stop hiding as much the aliens don’t all look like the ones on the ship they are every shape and size so I’m not as easy to notice. I remember Pizar telling me his people can change into any shape they want which is why they all look different and I realize they probably just think I changed into this shape. That night I go to the town square and Gillian and Caroline and Douglas and Kath are there on exhibit basically dead in these beds covered with glass tops and I see them all lying there looking very white and dead. I’m depressed and I find a bar and have this green drink that’s gross but strong and feels good I start talking to these 2 alien women who are hideous and ugly but seem impressed by the shape I thought of and turn themselves into beautiful women who look a little like Raquel Welch and Bo Derek but not too much to be realistic. We go for a walk in the dark down at this red river where nobody else is around and soon 1 thing leads to another I’m a little grossed out by what they were a second ago but there’s no trace of it or anything and finally I forget who they really are and just enjoy that they’re women now. When they go home I go to the castle in the middle of town where the rulers live it’s heavily guarded but I climb this wall in back and get in a window. I run into a few guards and get in a fight with them and it turns out even though they are fast and tough and strong and can hit you hard and beat the crap out of you and send you flying across the room you can if you do it right I learn from trial and error rip their arms off by twisting them hard and blood goes blasting out of their shoulders and arms and I use some of their own arms to hit them with in the fight. Anyway I find their supreme leader in this big room and he’s like “Who art thou?” and I say Jeremiah Reskin from Earth and he says “We did not take you” and I ignore him and I just say “those are my friends out there”. He says “Your human loyalty is pitiful and impressive”. I say “We’re different from you but that doesn’t mean you have the right to beam us up and kill us without warning and take us to your alien zoo or whatever it is” we argue for a while then he says “Jeremiah Reskin I have decided to honor your request to spare your friends lifes and return all of you to your planet. Also I honor you and if you would like to come back and visit our planet and its whole solar system we will bring you back and you may live among us as 1 of us for as long as you like. It will be interesting.” He also mentioned they can change shape and looks and everything and turn into beautiful human women and I was like I know. Then I said “by the way do you think you could program Caroline to stop smoking” and he was like no we’re not allowed to meddle in the affairs of other races. I was like sucking us up from our planet and killing us isn’t meddling? but I didn’t say anything.

  Anyway the sacred process for bringing them back to life involves me we go out to the town square where they all are laid out in a circle and I have to put my hand on the glass tops while the aliens use their powers to funnel some o
f my human life force back into them. Their eye lids flutter. They’re still basically asleep on the trip home but when we get there we beam back down and Gillian and Caroline and Douglas and Kath wake up and they’re like “Wo what happened”. And I’m like “Nothing everybody’s OK”. The storm and blowing wind from the ship was over and we walked away.

  When I was thinking about this I ate my sandwich and nobody was talking. I guess I think about some weird shit sometimes. But so what? Everybody does. Probably. I think everybody has an imagination and uses it to think about things. I might think about space for example because I just like space and it’s the last frontier. Nothing’s known and everything’s possible. Gillian I’m sure thinks about the perfect guy for her and ultimate love and finding happiness. Kath probably thinks about being thin. Caroline thinks about being with Pink Floyd somewhere. Douglas thinks about ruling the world his way and making everything make sense. John McKnight probably thinks about being John McKnight.

  CHAPTER 18

  THE FAN GETS HIT BY SHIT

  Here’s how I personally would describe things since “the night” with Gillian - screwed-up. Everyone obviously found out about it because 1 of the Laws of Physics is how secret something is corresponds inversely to how fast everyone finds out about it and I could tell everyone just knew and was freaked out. Especially with Gillian it’s like she’s different and I think everyone else too is even though I don’t know why Caroline or Kath are different because of what happened with me and Gillian unless they’re different because of solidarity with her or Caroline’s different because of what happened with her and Douglas. But Douglas is the same as always I guess I can count on Douglas for that - for always being the same no matter what. I talked to him about all of it when we went to my house 1 day after school to hang out.

  “I can’t figure her out” he said.

  “Caroline?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh” I said.

  “I don’t know what she wants 1 night she’s all over me and the next night she’s frigid as hell.”

  “Well did you guys you know.”

  “Sort of.”

  “Yeah?”

  “But not exactly.”

  “Other stuff though.”

  “Lots of other stuff.”

  “A lot of times or what?”

  “Not really that’s what I’m saying.”

  “Oh.”

  “There was that 1 night and then she’s just frigid a lot.”

  “She’s not back with Richie is she?”

  “Her Mom won’t let her her Mom wants her to be with me.”

  “That’s bad.”

  “I know.”

  “It’s optimal if the parents hate you.”

  “VTS I should burn her house down or something.”

  I said “I think it’s a Law Of Physics the more the parents like you the less the girl likes you.”

  “Agree” said Douglas.

  “What’s up with you and Gillian?” he said.

  “Nothing” I said. “Seems like something.”

  “It may seem like something but things aren’t always what they seem.”

  “Do you want something to be up?”

  “No not really.”

  “I thought you did.”

  “I never said I was into Gillian.”

  “True but you never said you weren’t.”

  “I have to say I’m not into someone or I’m into them? Do you think I’m into every girl in the world?”

  “Just about” said Douglas.

  “Very funny.”

  I thought about telling him about Renee but I felt too stupid because he’d be like “Yeah right”. Douglas insists that everything in the world be a fact and obvious plus he looks down on people like Renee because he can’t see past the fact that they’re popular and probably think they’re cool even though as we’ve seen Renee doesn’t think that she’s more just normal and worried about herself.

  I said “I’m not into Gillian other than you she’s like my best friend.”

  “You don’t want to screw that up.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Unless she had bigger Tits then you would.”

  “Fuck you” I said.

  “Remember when we were all just friends?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I miss the simpler times like 6th grade? That was a simple time.”

  “VTS” I said.

  I wasn’t mad at Douglas anymore about Caroline I felt sorry for him. I could tell he was badly hurt even though he would never admit it. And that maybe he was in love with her after all.

  So things are normal and not normal normal because we’re hanging out just like before but not normal because it’s all weird. I mean on Friday or Saturday night we still go to Gillian or Carolines or a movie or to the Food Court but it’s just weird.

  Anyway 1 night we’re at Gillians which is obviously where it all happened in the 1st place. We’re all there Caroline I think is stoned and she’s the only 1 and she didn’t say anything to anyone about doing it so she must have just got stoned alone which is bad news of the know when your friends are screwed up by the school psychologist kind and she’s off in her own little world and I’m next to Gillian on the brown couch because I’m trying to do what I would be doing even if everything was normal versus acting weird and making everything weirder by not talking to her or something like that and Douglas and Kath are talking on the other couch and Gillian just suddenly says:

  “Jeremy what’s going on here?”

  “What do you mean?” I say.

  “You know with us.”

  “I don’t know” I say.

  “Yes you do.”

  She’s talking in this normal voice so I don’t think anyone else knows we’re talking about it.

  “What do you thinks going on?” I said.

  “So you do know somethings going on?”

  I fell into her trap.

  “I I don’t know. Nothings going on. With me personally. Nothing. What do you think?”

  “Have an idea for yourself Jeremy” Gillian said.

  That was harsh.

  “I have ideas all the time” I said.

  “I suppose” said Gillian.

  “Well what’s going on with you?”

  “Jeremy you’re so. You’re impossible everything isn’t such a big deal you don’t have to create a big deal out of every little thing.”

  “I don’t create a big deal out of every little thing.”

  “You do you really do. Everything doesn’t have to mean something.”

  “I know.”

  “People can just, do things. It’s not always so important.”

  “I know” I said.

  We sat there for a while and then Gillians mood changed she seemed so sad or full of memories or nostalgia now.

  “You’re a wonderful man Jeremy” she said.

  “Thanks” I said.

  “So don’t forget that.”

  “You’re a great person” I said.

  “I suppose. But just remember. Be true to yourself that’s your challenge. Your weakness Jeremy your Achilles Heel you’re not always true to yourself.”

  I didn’t say anything. Then Gillian said “Just always be Jeremy all the time. Because if you do - if you do - then your heart will shine some day Jeremy.”

  I didn’t really know what she meant but I thought about it a lot later and even though I’m still not sure I think it’s important to listen to your friends like Gillian when they’re talking about you and try to be a better person. I said “I will”.

  “Try” she said. “Yeah” I said.

  But everything was different.

  CHAPTER 19

  BASEBALL

  I decided on the spur of the moment to go to a baseball game. It was the 1st 1 I ever went to because 1st of all we don’t have a baseball field at school so they play at Baileys Farm (which isn’t a farm it’s a place with baseball fields) and you have to go there an
d 2nd of all since I was about 8 (before then I liked baseball) I hate baseball. Because it’s so boring. In soccer stuff happens the balls always moving and you don’t stop every 2 seconds and that’s why it’s fun and exciting. Baseball should be called “Standing Around Ball”. Boring with a capital Snore.

  A bus goes after school to Baileys Farm for home games or wherever they’re going for away games and I was just walking through the parking lot going home and then before I knew it I was on the bus. Like I went through the Star Trek transporter and there I was without knowing it. There were only about 5 people on it because 1st of all nobody goes to baseball games and 2nd of all everybody gets rides. Anyway we go out to Beane Municipal Park which is distant where some schools have their home games because this isn’t a home game and there’s about 5 games going on and 1 has a lot of fans because I guess at some schools they don’t know baseball sucks and each field has bleachers next to it and this is where the fans from Hutch Falls are sitting by the Hutch Falls game not very many of them. The teams are warming up and they start the game.