B - A Story about Rejection

The school playground, full of sweaty faces, stressed teachers and swearing teens. With this, it holds many different sections. Let me list them for you: 

-          The cool section

-          The geeky section

-          The sporty section

-          The poncy section

And then there is Alex’s section. Alex didn’t really fit into any of the sections above. He was turned down by every single group in one way or another. 

First of all, he tried to enter the lowest of the low, the ‘geeky’ group. Alex tucked in his discoloured shirt and tried to iron out the creases with his hands. He also let his hair fall flat and didn’t touch it in the morning. He walked over to the corner of the playground, just behind the goal posts; this is where they stayed, as to distance themselves from any ‘predators’. He took a deep breath and crept into the hustle of people, I say hustle, but it only consisted of five, they were just on the larger side and took up a fair amount of room. Alex started off with a simple, ‘Alright?’ The main ‘leader’ replied fairly friendly, ‘Oh, hi; Alex right?’ Alex gave a slight nod, and asked what they were doing. One of the other boys bluntly said, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t get it.’ ‘Try me.’ Alex quickly replied. The boy swung his ruck-sack around, unzipped it, and retrieved Plato’s book, The Republic, this was after rummaging through banana skins and ten year old comics. Alex had heard of the book, but only briefly in a few religious lessons. Alex didn’t care much for religion, he thought how people could think there is a man in the sky who looks at us, knows what we think, and has a list of ten things what we can and can’t do. So therefore, what he had heard of The Republic he liked. However, he had never read the book and sort of wished he had now. Out of stupidity he confidently said, ‘It’s a great book ain’t it? I read it a year or two ago.’ The group could see right through his lies, but due to their own entertainment carried on talking about the subject matter in hand. Alex tried desperately to keep up, but to no avail. He returned home at 4:00 p.m, dropped his bag on the floor next to his cluttered desk, and collapsed on his bed and let out a faint moan. 

He gave up attempting to mingle with the ‘geeks’ due to numerous embarrassments. He left it a couple of weeks before he approached a different group. During his time of ‘relaxation’ at school (lunch times) he used to sit by himself on the stairs leading up to the library, with his headphones plunked on his head. What he listened to was not what the ordinary boy would listen to at his age. It was mostly jazz and what people around him would call ‘old music’. Alex was also interested in a wide range of films as well. His favorites were Chinatown, Sunset Boulevard and 2001: A Space Odyssey. He hated blending into the crowd especially regarding arts, he wanted to be different. He thought very lowly of the people around him, he thought they were tasteless, uninteresting and most of all, seeking for the most attention possible. Alex’s dream was to be able to find someone, preferably a girl, that shared the same interests that he had, was this so much to ask? Well, yes, at the age he’s at, it’s very hard to find someone with a mature taste. Alex believed he was like this because he was an only child and only raised by those who were 45 and above. 

On the week of the 20^th of October he tried to take on another challenge, to get into the ‘cool’ social group. This was not an easy feat. To prepare himself he bought gel, lots of it, and did some sit ups, he wasn’t much good at these. He noticed that the guys that were in this group tried to be different, but by doing so, changed into everybody else. He strolled over to the group, trying to look sleek, with not a care in the world… to cut a long story short, he ended up with a black eye at the end of the week. Not only did he accidently insult every one of the participants, but he took the piss out the way they talk, walk and dress. He didn’t even mean it! It was safe to say he wouldn’t be joining that group. 

Weeks passed and in that time period he strived to join at least one group, but the poncy and sporty group denied him access. To be fair he was rubbish at sport, his legs were so thin you thought they were going to snap if he kicked a football. And yes, although he liked arts, the poncy group tried desperately to be somebody they weren’t, but this could be said for most groups. 

Since that he was now on holiday and had time to think things over. He came to the conclusion whilst lying on his bed listening to Joy Division that he should just give up and be totally off the wall. His first step was to go to the hairdressers; his hair was the most average hair any one did ever see. It was a dark blonde, slightly gelled up and just overall, very bland. He went just to get a trim and spike it up a lot more, so it looked extreme. But whilst he was sitting on the soft leather chair waiting to be seen, he noticed hair dye on a shelf behind him. He whizzed over all of the colours and saw the most outrageous one… ginger. He left the hairdressers looking… different, that’s all that could be said. He went home, opened up his laptop, and directed himself straight to a clothing website. Now, that he was entering six form he had to by a suit. And what was his instinct? To buy a yellow suit of course, along with a fedora. He was all set for school; he only needed to wait five days until he could see the results. 

The first day of school he arrived and Alex rolled up with his yellow suit, fedora, smoking a cigarette, whilst listening to David Bowie. He sure got some weird old looks on the way, but he just kept his head down, dragging on his cig. Weeks passed and he sat on the same step listening to his music at break and lunch times. 

One Tuesday afternoon, a girl came up to him, she had brunette hair, dark eyebrows, beautifully applied eye liner and wore dark lipstick. She asked Alex if he wanted a smoke. Alex nodded his head and gave a slight smile to her. They sneaked outside; the teachers always leave the back gates open so they could have their own drag. They strolled out; they turned the corner and saw an English teacher enjoying a cigarette. So they jumped back around and legged it in the opposite direction. They finally came to a stand still, panting and looking around. They still hadn’t spoken a word to each other apart from her question a few minutes ago; they looked at each other and smiled again. Alex reached into his inside pocket and retrieved a box of smokes. He placed one is his mouth and placed another in hers. She then followed up, lit his and then hers. They smiled again. After taking a few drags, Alex finally said, ‘So what’s your name?’ She said softly, ‘B’. She blew her smoke away from his face and said ‘What about you?’ Alex said, ‘A’. She smiled and threw her fag on the floor, put the sole of her foot on it and twisted. She bounced back to the school gates. Alex stayed there for a few minutes, shook his head and left. 

The two outcasts met liked this for a few weeks, only finding out little things about each other at a time, and only knew themselves as A and B. Alex discovered she liked film, music and books, especially To Kill a Mockingbird. This was going well for him. Apart from one thing… he didn’t really enjoy smoking. One rainy afternoon in their usual meeting spot, Alex picked up enough courage to ask her to go to the cinema. She nodded and asked when. He had a think, he pretended like he was recalling what he was doing this week, but the fact was that his life was very mundane and boring. But finally he said, ‘Saturday? I’ll meet you at the cinema.’ She nodded and said goodbye. They went to the cinema a couple of times that month and really enjoyed the art of acting. 

A year passed and they attended acting clubs and plays, they really appreciated them. The downside was that they weren’t really enjoying each other’s company; they bickered about the littlest of things. It was inevitable they were going to split, and Alex was devastated. His position in school had sky rocketed, he was seen as a rebel even though he didn’t do anything, it was just the fact that he kept his outside life secret and didn’t blabber about what he did at the weekend. Funny enough though, he didn’t care about any of that since he was with B. But that was all going to come crumbling down. When they finally sat down to talk and make the deed final, they just looked at each other, knew what they were both going to say, smiled and gave one last hug. They both went their separate ways. 

Ten years later Alex was eating lunch with a friend, he had met him just after B left. Alex’s acting career had picked up; he had been in a few crap TV dramas and was in quite a lot of plays, it was all looking good. His phone rang, he pulled it out of his tight jean pocket and had just enough time to look at the caller ID, and it was his agent. ‘Do you mind?’ Alex asked his mate, the friend shook his head. Alex dispersed from the table and went outside. He returned to the table a few minutes later with quite a shock on his face. ‘And?’ the friend questioned. ‘I’ve just been offered a role in a film, sounds big budget.’ ‘Who’s in it?’ the friend asked.

‘B’. 

D. R. HAYES