First Intro Post for sunny_dale
This is how it all went down. I dropped out of high school.
I mean, there's more to it than that -- but, basically, I'm totally over going to high school. I'm better than grainy films in Personal Growth (although "Red Asphalt" was pretty much a show stopper). I'm better than boring "college prep" classes. I'm better (and smarter) than the entire football team -- especially the cavemen who couldn't imagine a more original way to insult me than calling me a "faggot" while coughing to muffle the noise. I'm better than sitting in my room reading D&D Modules by myself when I could be playing with other, more experienced gamers. I'm also waaaaaaaay better than doing the high-school McJob of food prep -- even if that's how I had to spend the last half of my junior year after I dropped out. I pretty much morphed into a new creature -- salt-of-the-earth, old-fashioned, blue-collar Andrew. A workin' man. Yep. The daily grind. Not like my layabout brother, Tucker the Destroyer, who was lounging around in silk PJs at his private technical academy. It was hard work, pulling dinner rolls out of the oven at Cafe Fontina at night and working on getting my GED and applying for student loans in the morning hours.
My older brother (henceforth to be referred to as "Tucker," rather than his full name, "Tucker the Destroyer") didn't make it all the way through Sunnydale either. Maybe leaving high school early will be some kind of a Wells legacy. Curse. Whatever. He didn't drop out, though -- he was transferred to some smartypants academy an hour away. Dutton Technical Academy. My mom sent him away after siccing some lame-o devil dogs on his own senior prom.
When I, too, decided to leave Sunnydale High behind me, I asked my mom and stepdad if I could go to the same school, but they turned me down. I guess school is, like, tres expensif. They blew a good portion of Tucker's college fund on half a year of boarding school and, later, booking him a spot in the dorms for his first semester at UC Sunnydale as a transferring sophomore.
I was really happy to see Tucker go, at least at first. No more Death Pinches or kicks in the behind while I carried full bowls of cereal across the kitchen. Without Tucker at home, I would sleep undisturbed. My stepdad wouldn't threaten to punch me out after hearing a report from my older brother about something "bad" (meaning "totally falsified") that I'd (not) done. I wouldn't wake up to have to feed Tucker's stupid hellbeasts, get spilled pig's blood out of the carpet, get my head flushed down the toilet, or the worst, get up in the morning just to find him on my PlayStation. I wouldn't have to endure his long tirades about yuppies, or preppies, or girls, or the stupidity of his schoolmates...
Smooth sailing, I thought. But. It didn't happen like that. It was nice, at first. Chill. I schoolinated. I hominated. I looked like a loner. I took pictures for Yearbook. I started to become Andrew, and not just "Tucker's brother." I also read all of Tucker's magic books that my mom had put in the garbage and tried to summon a lesser demon. (I failed, but I would have never tried if Tucker still lived at home.) But then, I noticed that I was getting picked on a little more than usual during school hours. It started off as getting shoved as I skipped down the stairs, or bumped while walking through the Cafeteria, but, the abuse quickly escalated into the aforementioned name-calling and obviously misplaced gay-bashing. Then, not even weeks after Tucker left, I got profoundly thrashed by something called a "tight end" on the football team. I'd been pummelled by Tucker before, but, not like this. Tucker had to answer to my mom, and my mom is a b-i-t-c-h, so he never broke my nose or anything. But, this tight-end guy sure did.
That's when I realized that Tucker had acted as kind of a buffer for me at Sunnydale High. For all his cruelty at home, he must have been keeping me a little safe at school. Perhaps he had an agreement with the burly jockos that he, and he alone, had Andrew beating rights. I don't know. All I know is that a good three beatings into the second half of my junior year, I started homeschooling so that I might graduate early. Which I did. Then, the school exploded (something about a giant snake), summer rolled around, Jonathan (who'd lived through his senior graduation) and I got to be better friends, and I decided I wanted to start going to college with his class.
I worked really hard all summer, like I said, and I did it. I got my GED. I matriculated (hee hee), managed to not get my ass kicked, and am starting school. Tucker, as it turns out, was earning college credit through his senior year and all summer, so he transfered to UCSD as a sophomore. I haven't hung out with him more than a couple of times since he moved out, so I haven't really had a chance to talk to him about high school, or thank him for protecting me for the first few years. I'm also looking forward to being in the same class as my best friend -- The Honorable Jonathan Levinson -- and maybe finding some people to play D&D with. I'm also thinking about running a WarHammer game, so... it should be really cool.
I wish I had enough money to move out of my mom's house and live in the dorms, though. It would be way easier to run games after classes were over if I was still on campus at the end of the day. Plus: slumber parties and spying on the girls' locker room. I've seen Revenge of the Nerds. That would be fun fun fun!
I mean, there's more to it than that -- but, basically, I'm totally over going to high school. I'm better than grainy films in Personal Growth (although "Red Asphalt" was pretty much a show stopper). I'm better than boring "college prep" classes. I'm better (and smarter) than the entire football team -- especially the cavemen who couldn't imagine a more original way to insult me than calling me a "faggot" while coughing to muffle the noise. I'm better than sitting in my room reading D&D Modules by myself when I could be playing with other, more experienced gamers. I'm also waaaaaaaay better than doing the high-school McJob of food prep -- even if that's how I had to spend the last half of my junior year after I dropped out. I pretty much morphed into a new creature -- salt-of-the-earth, old-fashioned, blue-collar Andrew. A workin' man. Yep. The daily grind. Not like my layabout brother, Tucker the Destroyer, who was lounging around in silk PJs at his private technical academy. It was hard work, pulling dinner rolls out of the oven at Cafe Fontina at night and working on getting my GED and applying for student loans in the morning hours.
My older brother (henceforth to be referred to as "Tucker," rather than his full name, "Tucker the Destroyer") didn't make it all the way through Sunnydale either. Maybe leaving high school early will be some kind of a Wells legacy. Curse. Whatever. He didn't drop out, though -- he was transferred to some smartypants academy an hour away. Dutton Technical Academy. My mom sent him away after siccing some lame-o devil dogs on his own senior prom.
When I, too, decided to leave Sunnydale High behind me, I asked my mom and stepdad if I could go to the same school, but they turned me down. I guess school is, like, tres expensif. They blew a good portion of Tucker's college fund on half a year of boarding school and, later, booking him a spot in the dorms for his first semester at UC Sunnydale as a transferring sophomore.
I was really happy to see Tucker go, at least at first. No more Death Pinches or kicks in the behind while I carried full bowls of cereal across the kitchen. Without Tucker at home, I would sleep undisturbed. My stepdad wouldn't threaten to punch me out after hearing a report from my older brother about something "bad" (meaning "totally falsified") that I'd (not) done. I wouldn't wake up to have to feed Tucker's stupid hellbeasts, get spilled pig's blood out of the carpet, get my head flushed down the toilet, or the worst, get up in the morning just to find him on my PlayStation. I wouldn't have to endure his long tirades about yuppies, or preppies, or girls, or the stupidity of his schoolmates...
Smooth sailing, I thought. But. It didn't happen like that. It was nice, at first. Chill. I schoolinated. I hominated. I looked like a loner. I took pictures for Yearbook. I started to become Andrew, and not just "Tucker's brother." I also read all of Tucker's magic books that my mom had put in the garbage and tried to summon a lesser demon. (I failed, but I would have never tried if Tucker still lived at home.) But then, I noticed that I was getting picked on a little more than usual during school hours. It started off as getting shoved as I skipped down the stairs, or bumped while walking through the Cafeteria, but, the abuse quickly escalated into the aforementioned name-calling and obviously misplaced gay-bashing. Then, not even weeks after Tucker left, I got profoundly thrashed by something called a "tight end" on the football team. I'd been pummelled by Tucker before, but, not like this. Tucker had to answer to my mom, and my mom is a b-i-t-c-h, so he never broke my nose or anything. But, this tight-end guy sure did.
That's when I realized that Tucker had acted as kind of a buffer for me at Sunnydale High. For all his cruelty at home, he must have been keeping me a little safe at school. Perhaps he had an agreement with the burly jockos that he, and he alone, had Andrew beating rights. I don't know. All I know is that a good three beatings into the second half of my junior year, I started homeschooling so that I might graduate early. Which I did. Then, the school exploded (something about a giant snake), summer rolled around, Jonathan (who'd lived through his senior graduation) and I got to be better friends, and I decided I wanted to start going to college with his class.
I worked really hard all summer, like I said, and I did it. I got my GED. I matriculated (hee hee), managed to not get my ass kicked, and am starting school. Tucker, as it turns out, was earning college credit through his senior year and all summer, so he transfered to UCSD as a sophomore. I haven't hung out with him more than a couple of times since he moved out, so I haven't really had a chance to talk to him about high school, or thank him for protecting me for the first few years. I'm also looking forward to being in the same class as my best friend -- The Honorable Jonathan Levinson -- and maybe finding some people to play D&D with. I'm also thinking about running a WarHammer game, so... it should be really cool.
I wish I had enough money to move out of my mom's house and live in the dorms, though. It would be way easier to run games after classes were over if I was still on campus at the end of the day. Plus: slumber parties and spying on the girls' locker room. I've seen Revenge of the Nerds. That would be fun fun fun!