The Parade

The Parade

At this time the bell rang for classes to start and we walked in separate directions to go to our classes. The day went like all the other days. We passed notes in the hallways to each other in between classes, however, one big change happened today than all the other days. Tim and his football goons were giving me more eye contact than usual as I went to my classes. There was even one instance in which John had shoulder bumped me pretty hard. Hard enough to where it pushed me into other people in the hallway. When that happened, I turned around thinking he would apologize but of course, that is wishful thinking. Instead, he yelled out, “watch where you’re going you idiot”. He started laughing with the people that were walking with him.

I don’t dare say anything back or make a scene because of all the friends that Tim has and all the bidding that his friends do on his behalf. That would be considered a suicide mission, to say the least. I quickly turned back around in the opposite direction of them and continued to class.

As I was walking down the hall, I noticed that Mr. Davis was standing in the doorway of his classroom. I guess he say the interaction with what John had done to me and asked if I was alright. I let him that everything was just fine, that nothing was different out of the ordinary. He nodded his head and said OK.

I forgot to mention that on Homecoming Day we get let out of school early because we always have a parade. The parade was a big deal. All the parents of the kids on the football team were there along with just random people from the city, I think, who even shows up to it. The parade, I guess, is a way to pump up the players and the parents before the start of the game. I think it’s a waste of time, personally, because the team we are playing tonight hasn’t even won a game yet. Oh well, they didn’t ask me for my opinion, plus they have been doing this forever, I think. This is also a time to show who was nominated for the homecoming queen. As if you haven’t already figured it out, Jackie was one of the seniors that were nominated, so she was going to be in a convertible sitting on the back seat where the headrests sit. Our school marching band leads the way with the music that they play. The parade loops around our school. If I were to take a guess, the loop is equivalent to about 3 miles. That’s just a guess though. I don’t think I would want to walk it, especially if I were carrying some type of musical instrument.

As the band passed by, I could see several trailers coming down the road. These trailers held the football players. The first trailer was the Freshman football team, then the JV football team, and lastly was the Varsity football team. When the Varsity football team trailer got closer and I stood a little further into the crowd because I didn’t want Tim and his goons to see me. They were throwing candy into the crowd and I was afraid that if they saw me that it would give them the right to throw the hardest piece of candy at me because they would absolutely do that. After the Varsity trailer passed on, I came out from the crowd to the front of the crowd so that I could see what was coming next. The different homecoming queens were coming through. The freshmen homecoming queen was first and it worked its way towards the senior homecoming queen. Two homecoming queens were nominated and of course one of them was Jackie, and the other nominee was Jennifer.

I was completely fixated on Jackie. She looked absolutely immaculate (in my opinion). She had on this beautiful blue dress which I assumed that is what she was going to wear tonight after the football game. I was sure lucky to be going to the dance with her. As the car passed by, I was hoping she would be turned my way so that I could let her know that I saw her. She did just that. She turned my wave and waved in my direction though I thought her wave was just for me, but probably in reality it was meant for the crowd.

As the car passed by to the point where I couldn’t see her anymore, I had a scared thought come over me. If she was to be crowned queen during half-time at the football game who would be crowned King? If you haven’t guessed by now then the king was sure to be Tim. He was the most popular guy in school so it has to be him. All I could do is shake my head at the thought. Going back to the conversation that John had in the parking lot with Jackie the week before the dance, I’m thinking now that maybe the conversation was about John possibly letting Jackie know that Tim couldn’t wait to dance with the Queen. I guess that’s how they do it at these dances. I wouldn’t know since I’ve never been.

No need to be bummed out about this. I told Jackie that I was going to the game so that’s what I’m going to do.