I thought I would share with you this memory a "WTF" moment in my life. I suppose I could have just written the simplicity of the exact moment but here is a little background to go with the situation.
I started out a straight A student who graduated 10th in my class. I never smoked cigarettes, weed or took any kind of pills. Once I walked in on my friend smoking in the bathroom, she went white when she saw me. This incidence kind of made me laugh inside because I was brought up in various bars. My exoskeleton that I shared with the world was definitely not that person. I fit in with everyone no matter what click they were in. I had some very wealthy aunts and uncles who I spent the summer with. That coupled with the street smarts I learned at the bar helped me to fit in with most any type of people or situation.
I never skipped class, wouldn't of thought of skipping school and I never went to any party like the ones you see in the movies. Even though we had a turbulent household we usually lived with my grandparents. They were very religious and policed our music and the television shows we watched. I was living at home in my first year of college. My grandfather passed away in my senior year and my parents had finally got their own place. I went a little crazy with my new found freedom. Since my first year class schedule was pretty lax, I started hanging out with my brother and his friends. I didn't have any local friends because I attended school through a vocational program a couple towns over.
Most days I didn't have to be to class until eleven so I packed my car with kids and wrecked havoc. We drove around sneaking kids out their bedroom windows, random egg throwing at passerby's at high speeds, probably the usual for high school kids. I guess for all the different types of maturity I possessed, being a general kid wasn't one of them. I went home every night after the parties, I worked a 20 hour week at a local restaurant and being such a straight edge I definitely kept most of my shenanigans under the radar of my parents.
Trying to be the cool sister one day I let my brother drive my car. He was old enough to get his license but my dad wouldn't let him. I only got mine at 17 because of my grades, and they were tired of bringing me to and from work. So once again we were driving around with a load of kids. We actually picked up a kid we had just met a couple of towns over. Well the kid ended up being an instigator and I lost my car that day. We were headed back to our own town when my brother started talking big. The kid we picked up said "o yeah, who rules the road?" Pressing down on the accelerator my brother yells "I do!" and this banter goes back and forth until the engine is screaming. We had been driven around on those back roads our whole lives. However we hadn't actually drove on then until this day. We came to a sharp corner with a huge oak of doom right at the bend.
As hard as he tried the car wouldn't slow down enough, even with the wheel completely turned we continued to go straight into the tree. The impact was amazing but none of us died or were even critically injured. Several of the paramedics commented on this as did the 3 tow truck drivers that it took to get the demolished metal off the tree. My brother had the imprint of the steering wheel bruised into his chest with a couple cracked ribs. The girl sitting in the middle next to him had a broken nose from the impact of the dash board on her face and some scratches. The girl sitting next to her had the imprint of the seat belt bruised across her upper torso and a couple broken ribs as well. As far as the back seat, the kid we picked up got hit in the head with a speaker we had in the back window and I had a sprained ankle. The kid on the other side of me broke both his ankles when he grabbed me because I didn't have a seat belt. He crushed the front seat with his legs upon impact. No more car. My dad was thrown out of the hospital when he came to pick us up because he was drunk and being an ass.
After that we found an abandoned blast shelter in the woods left by the local granite company. We dragged an abandoned couch there and we would walk around town most days and usually end up there. We had to skirt the cops, because they would harass us just for walking around. They told us a group of 4 or more kids walking around together was a gang so they were keeping there eye on us. We would sit in the shack passing around a joint or a honey blunt talking about the crap happening in our home lives and what we wanted to do once we escaped. Then we met this kid Dave and his dad co-owned an apartment house.
It was as close to a crack house as you could get. Most of the apartments were rented by shady people but the first floor was the biggest and under renovation. The kids dad was in jail for trying to burn the house down for the insurance money so the updates were on permanent hold. Now we had an awesome hangout with doors and windows, bathrooms and sinks. We had to deal with the occasional run in from the cellar dweller tho. An old guy named lumpy would threaten to call the cops on us if we didn't give him cigarettes. We also had random visits from the crack head on the third floor. She roamed the house naked, just walking right into apartments without her teeth in...asking for cigarettes or looking for her cat. She overdosed and was revived 3 times in the first three months we started partying there.
I was 2-5 years older than my cohorts. Even tho we partied with weed and alcohol we never touched anything else. I was the mother hen of the group and steered the kids away from bad ideas and kept at least a few out of jail for stealing or possession more than a couple times. W weren't disrespectful to people as we paraded through town, and we never defaced or destroyed anyone's property. The stealing actually came a little while later when the world went gray and a bunch of the kids were tossed out by there parents so they stole so they could eat since most of them were under 18.
When this next part happened I was like WTF?? I was the damn golden child, I had never been in trouble in my life! One day I come home and there's 5 big black garbage bags on the porch. I head up the steps and my dad meets me outside with his arms across his chest. He informs me that he heard a kid that I've been hanging out with had scabies, that I am now a dirty bitch and I can get the F*ck out! I really stood there for I don't know how long probably looking like a glazed donut because WTF is happening right now? Let me also point out that it was the middle of March in New England! There was a foot and a half of snow on the ground and it was snowing as this all played out.
I walked up the street and grabbed a friend. He helped me heft my worldly possessions to the shck. Of course this was a cement box with a square opening. Not a lot of warmth in the middle of winter. I used some large sticks and a blanket and that was that. I continued to work but I didn' t have a car so I couldn't get to school which was in the next state. I slept in the shack, partied and worked my butt off. I got a car soon after and my brother, his girlfriend and I took over the other 3rd floor apartment next door to the crazy crack head. What happened next is for another story. Thanx for listening and Blessed Be