Immortal's Throne

Donny Reese: Sep 12, 2019

“We are not a school, we are farmers harvesting the future!”

That line had my parents salivating and a week later I was on a bus to the middle of nowhere. A scrawny kid plucked out of Phoenix, Arizona because of an essay that was truly “profound”. Yes! The essay was profound, profoundly plagiarized. I didn’t write a single word of it, I probably should have mentioned that before getting on the bus to Mass Burial Site, USA.

Hindsight is 20/20

The point remains, I was never meant to be here. A school for superior students was not in the cards for me, I am the average. This is probably not the best way to start a senior project “Journaling my life as a Golden Oak Graduate.” but I can’t find a better way to kick things off. Years from now if there happens to be a desire for the ordinary, this should do. As a matter of fact, that’s a good place to start

This is the tale of the absolutely ordinary…

Where do I begin? I started the day the same way that most people do. I was in no rush but I still dressed rather quickly, the wrinkled red shirt and tattered, black sweats were the first thing in sight, so I figured they were as good as anything else. My dorm mate, Ricky Stevens, was M.I.A. which wasn’t unusual, but it always came as a pleasant surprise. As usual, I took this moment to pace around and reflect on life, pausing only to stare at myself in the mirror giving myself all sorts of random looks just to see how other people viewed me.

I am not the most handsome lad, my face was slightly pudgy, and it lacked any notable features. I had an uncanny ability to make babies laugh, which may come as a bonus somewhere down the line. My body was scrawny and freckly (Is that a word?) You’re probably wondering why any of that matters, it doesn’t, not on the surface level.

It was just one of those moments where your whole day can go left or right. You can choose to go right, believing that you are perfect the way you are, and boost your self-esteem for the day, probably causing numerous good things to happen because…Law of Attraction? Or you go left, and everything goes the exact opposite, your day starts in a gutter, the clothes you are wearing don’t fit right, and your nose, body, and pretty much everything about you is a flaw. A belief that causes numerous bad things to happen because...Law of Attraction? I come across these moments every morning. I don’t go left or right; I simply turn around. That’s the ‘Who cares’ option.

It’s a comfortable one.

Why would today be any different? Sometimes I'd get motivated to make a push for the extraordinary, but I couldn't overcome my fear of failure or being judged. So I stayed in the middle of the pack. It is not too difficult now. An A+ student anywhere else would skate by as average here. So I had to work hard because I never even sniffed an A+ before. Lots of tutoring in the beginning but at a certain point, you realize that a lot of the homework was more like thought work. All of it was meant to push the student to think three or four steps deeper. At some point during my sophomore year things just sort of clicked.

The academics at least.

I still haven't and will never get used to the campus, nobody goes home. That was an odd adjustment. The senior teachers and students just get tucked away into this huge dorm. It's nice, probably the nicest place I've lived. But it's still odd being a couple of hundred feet away from your teachers at all times. I would imagine that puts a damper on the party planning.

Even more strange is that students can't travel between dorms. Doesn't that make it more like comfy prisons?

I digress.

Ricky and I aren't the bestest friends more like casual acquaintances. We both respect each other's space. After three years and a half years of bunking together, you'd figure we'd be the best of buddies but we operated in different stratospheres. Unlike me, he was an accomplished athlete and performed at the top in every single academic category. I assumed he'd be some sort of cocky asshole(pardon my language) but he was very mellow.

I'd even go out on a limb and call him nice. He invited me to all the social gatherings that were going on and he even helped tutor me for a while early on.

I liked the guy.

He's the type of guy your parents want you to be. Nearly every student here was that type of person. And I guess to an extent that's what my life has been like here at Golden Oaks. Seeing all these people, your peers, being groomed to be the leaders of society while you just watch from the back and wonder why you are not.

This doesn't seem like too great of a beginning...maybe we should start from scratch.

"Donny!" Ricky strutted towards me with an aura of extreme confidence, he seemed to be gliding as he stepped. "What are you working on in here?" He leaned over my shoulder, glancing casually at my laptop.

"Just the senior project." I closed my laptop up and rotated my chair to face him, "What do you need, man?" I stood up and casually stretched.

Ricky ran his fingers through his blonde comb-over and looked at me with pleading eyes. There was a favor coming. "I need you to hang out with me and this new girl f--"

I shook my head and stared at him with slight disbelief, "We don't get any new seniors here, Ricky, you just probably don't recognize her."

"Ms. Eckles personally came up to me and said this was a favor for the Headmaster" He stepped towards me and clutched my shoulders. Which was a little jarring simply due to the strength disparity between us, but you could see that he was overwhelmed with joy. "I do this and I don't have to do a senior project, you gotta help!"

"Why do you need me around?" My face scrunched up at the mere idea of dealing with some elite, snobby girl. Also, throw in that she is the headmaster's daughter and we're dealing with a minefield.

"So, it's like a normal, not tense, environment. I don't want to get axed by the headmaster because his daughter hates me." The desperation on his face became more apparent as the conversation dragged on. Maybe it was a look I made or some type of signal I was giving off but for some reason, he felt like I agreed.

I was not.

"Great, because she's outside!" He darted to the door like his feet were burning while leaving me to process the situation. I doubt being dressed in ripped sweats and a bleached red shirt were the best clothing options, too late to change!

I turned to the door and put on a smile. Ricky inched the door open and flipped on the charm. He was big and blocked my view of her, which was fine. I needed a few more seconds to find my opening pose. Leaning against desk? Yeah, we'll go with leaning against the desk.

Arms crossed?

Arms not crossed?

Crossed?

Not crossed?

Hands on desk!

Nope! Hands in pockets. The girl slipped by him and surveyed the room, way more focused than I thought she'd be. My heart started to beat a little faster as she neared. She walked with stature and elegance which seemed to contradict her casual training bra and yoga pants attire. My full attention was on her.

"All that time you needed to clean," She spoke at a near whisper but very direct. Ricky and I both had our eyes trained on her "Did you also gossip about the headmaster's daughter?" My eyes widened with shock.

Ricky and I shared a glance, you could easily tell we were trying to think of a response. The girl stopped a few feet in front of me and peered into my eyes.

Activate nervous smile

Her eyes were a dazzling greyish color and her hair, which appeared blonde from a distance, had a faint hint of pink washed over it, "My name is Elana, refer to me as such."

Pretty name...

Donny Reese: Sep 15, 2019

A Day Just Like Yesterday

Life at Golden Oaks was exemplary. A dream come true. In the truest and purest form of the words possible. I am appreciative of all my time here. The teachers were amazing, there wasn't any bullying or elitism amongst students. It's all that you could ask for. I made great friends and lifelong companions.

I want to say all of that is my experience at Golden Oaks. But only ninety percent of it is true.

I didn't do much with my time at Golden Oaks. My freshman year was spent boxing anxiety, and losing, while the other half I crammed books and caught up on history.

By sophomore year a class of thirty freshmen dwindled to fifteen, I had barely made the cut, literally! I edged out some girl named, Dorothy Hidalgo, by exactly one-tenth of a percentage point.

She wailed like a baby...literally.

At that point, I felt I earned my place here slacker or not. I did beat her.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME MISS ECKLES!!!!!!!

I half-heartedly smack my laptop and take a long swig of the coke on my desk. Ricky and Elana snicker behind me like two little schoolgirls.

"Are you having troubles, Donny?" The pair of them snicker again, the second time was more micey than schoolgirl, "I'd be more than willing." If Elana's voice wasn't so angelic her snide remarks would be ten times more infuriating.

“I am fine, I’ll get there. Just don’t know where to start.” I spin around in my chair as I gaze up at the ceiling. I’m sure she didn’t care too much for an honest answer, but she was going to get one anyway.

“Hmm. I hope so.” Elana let out a soft laugh much different from that annoying snicker, when she laughed that was so cute, lots of things about her were. Ricky had fallen under her spell. The two of them had been nearly inseparable since that first meeting and he certainly didn’t mind, “If you keep erasing and starting over eventually the right words will find the screen!”

I shift my gaze towards her and playfully roll my eyes, “Don’t you have a senior project to do too!”, My voice likely revealed a lot more of my frustration than I wanted.

Elana’s face lit up with a smile, nice and wide, flashing pearly whites. But her eyes still seemed distant and the happy demeanor came across more like a mask, a facade, “Ricky and I must go now. It is getting very late.”

Ricky snaps out of his self-induced stupor and quickly rushes towards the door. He was way more invested in getting her back home than whatever conversation we were having. Ricky had gotten more spacey over the last few days. His mind always seemed more eager to be somewhere else.

Probably more alone time with the pretty girl.

Elana stands up and adjusts her eighties-looking pencil skirt and loose crop top, “Ricky, wait for me outside.” Her voice came out soft and direct.

“You got it.” Ricky was nearly out of the door before the words left his lips. Alone time with this girl was probably amazing.

Elana confidently struts towards me, closing the gap between us with impressive speed. Her lovely vanilla perfume fills the air and her lips glisten with some sparkly red lip gloss. She’s close enough for me to see every beautiful curve and angle of her face. Those eyes. I back in the chair as far as possible and hold my breath in fear of accidentally breathing on her.

“W–wh–Why are you so close?” My voice came out meek and mild, Elana responded with a wide grin, another mask.

“Because you get all flustered like someone I once knew.” Her eyes match the joy in her voice. She slides me out of the way and reads the work on my laptop. She takes way too much time to read it and my heart starts to wrench tightly in my chest.

“What’s wrong with it?” my voice still comes out mousey and restricted. Elana shifts her gaze back to me; she seems to be analyzing me like some sort of patient instead of anything with actual merit.

She shrugs her shoulders and walks back towards the door before I could muster the courage to speak to her again. I’ll have to do it next time when my resistance meter is all the way charged.

Who did I remind her of?