What's Different???

What’s Different???


          It was the same neighborhood I’d lived in for seventeen years of my life, but something was different. The air had a musty taste and the sky was rampant with dark fluffy clouds. It was only a little before sunrise, but I didn’t hear any birds chirping. Then I remembered it was January. I looked out the window, and there was no snow, but everything appeared glazed in frost. Resentful of the fact that I’d have to defrost my car, I made my way downstairs.
          I grabbed my physics book and I tried to avoid an encounter with my mother as I looked for the cordless telephone. I called Mike, my best friend, to tell him that I was going to school early and couldn’t give him a ride. He seemed irritated, but I wasn’t sure if it was because I’d woken him up or the fact that we were seniors and his mom would have to drop him off at school. On the way out the door, my mother called out my name, but I did my best to ignore her.          
          On the way to school, I thought about why I was going early. I had to get help with my physics homework, but I knew that Coach Gist would just stare at me the way he did everyone and leave me to figure it out on my own. I guess he thinks that if I’d relax and concentrate, I would be able to figure things out for myself.
          At school the halls were dark, like the sky, and as usual my teacher wasn’t there. Coach Gist never came before the five-minute bell. So why did I come early? I traveled down the hall to the lunchroom and sat at a table by myself. I watched a group of kids at a table in the back. One of them was trying to climb the wall and the others were cheering him on. A couple sat down at the end of my table, and started kissing and nuzzling each other. The whole sight disgusted me, as I a senior had never had a girlfriend, and I left the room. I almost left my physics book there, but why would it have mattered; the teacher still wasn’t in his room.
          I wandered the...