She Starts to Fall

Yo. I"m Damien. Seventh grade, pretty smart, I guess. I"m in three advanced classes, something that our school readies you for when you have "em in high school. I have friends, so don"t underestimate me as a shitty outcast. His name is my Michael. We"ve been best friends since fifth grade. He"s actually one age older than me, along with being a grade above me, so he"s gonna be graduating this year from eighth grade. He walks over to me, as it just so happens he bumps into me in the hallways of our so-called "school." "Hey, Michael. Nice day, right?" I said, obviously getting it from my book How to Start a Conversation Like a Pro (written by a college drop-out). "What"s this, lad? Now you"re the proper one?" Michael seemed shocked. Now, let me explain something before we move on: Michael is Irish, and he likes to think he"s very Irish. He will do this annoying Irish accent here and there, and he also likes to make himself look smarter than most people. He"s also homophobic, not that I"m gay or anything. But it"s because he"s Christian. Christianity is against gays or LGBT, with the optional "Q" at the end, rights in general. Did I mention he has few friends? Oh whatever, back to the story. "sigh Do you really get excited over things like that?" "Says the person who gets excited over a girl who talks to him." Michael laughed at his own, weak joke. "Boy, you can"t even talk to a girl." I high-fived a guy behind me to top my excellent comeback. "Oooh, look who"s comin" over..." Michael started to walk off. Alexandria Da"Argelo. Alex for short, which I prefer. Unfortunately, she"s your typical, smart, easy-going, and sweet nerd. Oh, she was Asian, too. That was the redeemable point. She was also pretty too, just to really make that stereotype fit real nice. No, it"s not me not having good ideas; it"s just that my school is boring. But trust me: if you actually met her, she"d surprise you. Alex was also in eighth grade, and I was taller than her. I was taller than most of the eighth graders. I was five feet, seven-and-a-half inches. The only one taller than me was this Hindu kid named Arjun; he was five feet, nine inches. Crap, I got side-tracked. And Alex is staring at me. Fuuuck... "Um. Damien?" Alex flicked her finger on my forehead. "W-w-w- Huh?" "Don"t act all awkward just so I can do that to you. It get"s embarrassing!" "Ah, right. I"m sorry." "So... Have you cleared your name with Michael?" "That"s in the past. He knows I"m not gay." He better f*****g remembers, too. "Cool. Well, my first advanced class is about to start. Bye~." Alex ran off as the school bell rang. I was gonna be late for my regular class. I needed to hurry. I started to sprint down the hall. I would explain why I"m a fast sprinter, but that would just make me look like a Gary Stu so... I"ll let you guys leave it up to your wonderful imagination. Then, I tripped. I never bother to tie my shoes, and I actually tripped because of it; something I"ve avoided to do for the longest time. My upper lip was slightly bleeding from the fall, but I didn"t care much about it; I just wiped it off and started speed walking. And then, I saw Jenna Cras-Henery. Did she look... sad? No, that didn"t seem right. It looked like she was scared of something, perhaps even traumatized. She was surrounded by her girl group, too. Something was up. Luckily, the bathroom was right next to her. So I pretended to go in but stayed close to the bathroom door to see if I can make out anything. Here"s what I was able to get: "So, you know how my parents are about my grades right?" Jenna asked. There was a pause; the girls were probably nodding. "Well, I ended up getting a B+ in my last math test.. and my mom got mad." The girls gasped, which was able to cover up my gasp. "And then I saw her go up to her bedroom," Jenna started to tear up at this point, but the girls urged her to continue, "she was writing something, probably a letter. Not sure who"s it to, but it still scares me.." I ran out of the bathroom, now completely missing my first class. But with that out of the way, a letter? Jenna"s parents want the best for her; they"re even trying to get her into Harvard by writing letters about how she"s been acing all the classes she"s been in. So, was this letter something regarding it? But it"s not like Harvard considered her to attend, and then all of the sudden she"s off the student list because she messed up her record with a B+. Either way, Jenna sounded traumatized by it, so it had to be something more crucial. Something must be going on at home, but this is the only conversation I"ve heard this year. Looks like I"m going to have to do some work if I want to get this off my mind. Of course, I could just leave this alone, but I already know this much; keeping it to myself would just feel stupid. It"s official then. Damien Collins, seventh grade nothing, praised by the eighth grade, along with having a skinny appearance, will have to figure this out. I don"t care if it ain"t my business; this can easily lead to Jenna committing suicide if someone doesn"t do anything.