Trabuco Canyon

So off we went to move to Trabuco Canyon. I was the new kid and starting first grade. First kids I met were Chris Bates, and John Day. Chris Bates was always a big braggart. He was so competitive that it was really hard to like him. He always had to use big words, brag about how many stars he had in class than you. And he was there longer so yeah he should have more stars. He always thought it made him so much cooler to make fun of others using words he thought were the most appropriate. Like buffoon! I think Chris was either in the next grade up or he skipped a grade. Sure he was smart, but he was a smart ass and could never keep his mouth shut. I never tried to compete with anyone. But I was jealous of John Day. Good looking kid and popular. Everyone like him, and occasionaly he'd get full of himself. But he was a good kid. John and I ended up getting into a fight, I don't remember why. I just wanted to be top dog a little bit. I got exausted during the fight and couldn't continue. So I was humiliated. Everyone thought it was a good fight, and I realized there was no real animosity in it. We were just fighting and John and I became friends. John lived just up the hill from me and right next to Chris Bates. It seemed like everyone competed to hang out with John. Chris always trying to convince John he was cooler and more fun to hang out with. John excepted me for who I was but wasn't always immune to Chris's influence. John had learning issues like me, and his self esteem seemed always in a deficit. I think he competed to be his big brother far too much. And his brother Brian was so involved in his own life that he didn't care that John in a discreet way envied his brother a lot and wanted to win his brothers respect, and his fathers. John went to a different school halfway to 6th grade, probably in 3rd or 4th grade. We enjoyed hanging out with John after school.
I had a crush on Chris's sister Lisa. I had crushes on other girls too, but Lisa was the only girl that gave me a chance. It got weird of course. She was the girl up the street and her parents and my parents did not get along. Her mom Thelma, who went by Ziggy, seemed out of her mind to me. This fued with her parents and mine started cause they had this rotweiler named Duke. He would run around wild with his canine friend Cozmo. They went around killing cats, and getting in fights with other dogs. Our dog pal wouldn't hurt a soul. But Duke came on him and dragged him into the bushes. It scared us to death, and my parents dragged us away before we could see what happened. We put up a chain link fence around the entire yard right away after that. And they kept letting their dog run around loose. The Bates insisted their dog was wonderful and not a mean or dangerous dog. However one day John and I were playing cars and we turned around to see Duke, walking away from Kip's dead kitten he just laid behind us. There were no other dogs that did this. Yes we didn't see the kitten drop from his mouth or him kill the kitten. John and I knew though. And Ziggy snapped at us when we told her. She looked hysterical and like she was keeping tears at bay and hating us for dropping this bomb on her. All we thought about was "poor kip" he loved that kitten.
Kip took it really hard when his dog was put to sleep. One day my sister Becky and I were climbing up the hill infront of our house to walk around. Becky got pooped less than half way up. I went ahead to motivate her, only to turn around to see Cozmo chewing on my sisters face. My sister was crying "Cozmo no" and my sister face was just covered with blood. I felt guilty about what happened and secretely took the blame. However as scared as I was that the dog may attack me too after what looked like him ripping my sisters face off. I chase him away and carried my sister to the house so my dad could rush her to the hospital. Becky was fine but had to have like 25 stiches on her face. To an extent I was a hero chasing the dog away and carrying her to the house so she would be ok. But I always took the blame, even though I had no idea Cozmo was going to start eating my sisters face. I had always wanted to protect my sister just like any big brother. Anyways Cozmo had to be put to sleep and Kip didn't handle that well at all. I was told that he wrote stories demonizing my sister. That they went something like her teasing or hitting Cozmo causing him to attack her. It was silly, but it scared me. Kip was a nice kid, but he carried a grudge, for us being the cause of his dog being put to sleep.
Trabuco elementary wasn't a very good school in my opinion. The 5th and 6th grade teachers in my opinion sucked, even though I didn't have either of them for teachers. The new teacher/principal was cool though. But my grades suffered because the teachers really didn't give a damn. And I was a slacker too. I read comics within my math book, I'd stare at the book not doing a damn thing. They didn't collect home work, or anything. I just sat there.
One day I got bored and thought maybe doing the math would be fun. I wanted to learn, and by then I was really far behind. The kids were learning division and I didn't even know my multiplication for beans. I ended up struggling through 5th grade and started being tutored by David Kroopniks mom. I'm not sure that's how you spell their last name. But David was a big blonde guy who rode and jumped horses. He was really good at it. He took lots of lessons with my sister and mom back in the day. And he rode our horses often. So, during 6th grade I ended up going to another school or risk flunking. I was really glad for this because I didn't like the 6th grade teacher at Trabuco at all. I had trouble with that teacher one day, when Jerid Thompson who we called Jerid Jar head, kicked a rock at me. I kicked a rock back at him cause I was mad, that sucker hit me in the ankle. Well my rock hit another rock on the pavement and went airborn and smacked into the 6th grade teachers back of their classroom wall. And not listening to a work I said. That fucker made me spend my lunch and recesses in the library.
I was the bottom of the food chain at school cause I was hyper and I didn't care what anyone thought. My dad was a drunk whom everyone thought was the coolest dad. And he always had his foot up my ass when no one was looking. He was mean and he would scare the shit out of us.
So during school when he wasn't around. I was off the hook acting like an idiot. When Joey started at our school he was the biggest idiot around. Everyone hated his stupid mouth. And I was relieved that I wasn't the bottom of the food chain anymore. Heck Micheal Supino was the bottom of the food chain too. He did some crazy shit. Like hitting Terri in the mouth because she cried when the softball hit her head. He walked right up and punched her in the face like it was cool. We were looking at him like he was out of his mind. Then one day he challenged me to a fight, and I had no idea why. I think it was because I was given money on the day we were going as a class to knott's berry farm. To learn about the old west and stuff. Well I thought we were going to go on rides and stuff. I didn't have a chance to spend the 5 bucks that was burning a hole through my pocket. So stupid me figured I'd buy Mikes hotwheel cars or risk having to give the 5 bucks back. I should of bought candy at the general store instead. Then I was asked later and I spilled my beans. I spent the 5 bucks on those stupid used hot wheels cars. Mom told me she'd get the 5 bucks back. Well she did, but I never saw it. And Mike apparently was mad and I had to fight him. So after school the big kids escorted us to the parking lot of the Trabuco Oaks Steak House so we could fight. They wanted to make sure no one chickened out. I felt like I didn't have a choice in the matter. And I didn't know why Mike wanted to fight me. We used to be friends now he hated my guts. And there he was moving his hands round and round like he thought he was the pistons of a car engine. Moving them round and round like some hyper active retard. I swung out and nailed him right in the nose blooding it. Fight over! I felt robbed!
There he was being escorted home like I was som bully that punched him for nothing. My parents heard about it and they chastised me a little and asked me why I hit poor Michael Supino. They didn't listen to me of course, they really didn't care. They were just going through the motions. Or since I didn't know why he wanted to fight me, they seemed to only hear. I didn't know why.
When I went to the new school I was still having trouble. Learning, and with kids, it just sucked. These were city kids to me and they were a lot meaner. You had to like the right music, say the right things. It was so important to be cool. And if you weren't cool, you had to find someone to kiss ass with so they'd take you under their wing. Every year got worse till I became a freshman in highschool And worst thing about Jr. High is all your old friends got into cliches and they didn't know you anymore. It hurt bad that John Day didn't want to be my friend at the time. It wasn't cool to be friends with me or anyone outside your cliche.