Stuck in Lockers 1

Sometimes we take a break, a breath, a moment in time where all our thoughts get labels, categorised and stowed away into dust covered folders.

Sometimes its not that we don't want to be apart of the world around us, but that we want to step back from it and see it from a new angle; a new perception.

The smarter ones in life will do this, will try and see life from different angle; to understand what it is that makes us, well us.

The more ignorant will walk around on a pinnacle under the belief that everyone has the same thoughts, emotions and feelings as them. Those that don't are obviously not worth their time.

But then there are some of us that need the helping hand of others to grasp the complete concept of their surroundings.

There are some of us that haven't yet realised the overwhelming effect someone else's shared mindset can have on them.

There are some of us who were born to share our views with that one person, so together they can grow.

Even if they don't realise it now.

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Analee stared at the pale blue row of lockers before her; a small crease formed itself on her forehead as her head tilted slightly to the right - she wondered in interest how many people had called the square tin enclosures before her their own over the years that they had stood solemnly against the walls of Queen Of Peace High School. She closed her eyes and breathed in the toxic fumes that came with any building housing hundreds of hormonal teenagers - the strong 'manly' scent wafting up from the boys locker room, the gag worthy burning stench from the science labs last attempted experiment; the overly toasted smell of pizza from the school cafeteria.

Analee didn't really enjoy her time enclosed in the brick walls with her high school chums, but she did love the interesting thoughts that came with observing her Hollywood desensitised colleagues. Her eyes opened and her mouth emitted a small squeak as she was pushed against the wall by a passing clique, sometimes she had fleeting moments where she wished she could slap them across the face. Most of the time though she enjoyed the solitary life of being a nobody, no one expects anything of you or from you, you can never let anyone down that way.

Pushing herself away from the wall, Analee ducked blindly into the hoard trampling towards their next meal and found herself in the cafeteria a few minutes later. She tugged on her dark denim knapsack which was adorned with buttons she had sewn on one thrilling Saturday, and passed the lengthy que of starving children; her lunch having already being organised that morning like always. Analee skirted around the hard plastic tables that filled the large space and made her way to the far right hand corner, placing herself down systematically at her silently agreed lunch residence.

She pulled her bag onto the table in front of her and drew from it a bottle of water, already half empty, and a large green apple; the red ones had never taken her fancy. Analee twisted the top off the bottle and took a long drink from the warm contents, the school had introduced a new policy last semester stating that students were not permitted to drink in class or corridors, "That's for the cafeteria" they had argued. She hoped someone died from dehydration one day just to show them how ludicrous their system was.

As more students filled into the cafeteria and gathered together their food, the sound of screeching from chairs being pulled out and pushed in against the floor echoed in Analee's ears; she was glad she didn't feel like reading this lunch. Instead, as she crunched on her favourite fruit, she quietly observed her peers. She knew more about them then they did about their friends; she knew that last week after cheerleading practise Aimee, the head cheerleader, found her boyfriend Perry making out with the captain of the girls hockey team; they broke up for a whole weekend and let their anger out on a few willing party goers only to make up, or rather make out, again on Monday during science. They were currently canoodling a few tables up.

She knew that Katie Salvi, probably the smartest Junior in the school, had not only being given the student of the month award last month, but had also managed to obtain a perfect grade point average. Her parent's took her out to the most expensive restaurant they could find in celebration; they ate shrimp for entrees and got food poisoning. She knew the new art substitute was really the principals mistress, the lunch lady had been working in here for twenty-five years and got her first raise of thee percent last Tuesday, the guy sitting behind Joey who was last years prom King secretly had a crush on him and the new exchange student that was staying with the Klippel family had her first kiss and lost her virginity all in one night last Friday, trust it to happen in America.

Analee sighed and subconsciously picked at one of the buttons on her bag, nothing interesting really ever happened in this school, no matter how much she looked for something secretively going down around her. There never was. Twisting the lid back onto her water bottle, Analee stood up and disposed of her apple core before slinking her way towards the exit; commenting mentally on people as she passed them.

She made her way through the corridors until she found herself standing at the top of the steps which lead up to the main building. She stopped and took a deep breath, the New Jersey smog entering her lungs soothingly. She looked down at the groups scattered around the green grounds, the navy, blue and cream coloured uniforms blended in together to form some sort of twisted conformal smudge. She couldn't help but smile at the irony of the cliques; they were wearing the same thing after all.

Analee's head snapped to the right as a familiar unique laugh rang in her ears, she stepped cautiously over and poked her head over the cemented stair handrail; looking down at the small congregation below. Seniors. Not just any seniors though, these were her favourite seniors, though she had never uttered a single word to them she had always felt herself drawn to the conversations they shared with one another in the row behind her on the school bus. She smiled to herself as the shortest member of the group punched his friends shoulder lightly.

Frank Iero.

Well, there was one interesting thing about this school she supposed.

Stuck in Lockers 1

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