Kayana Kirkpatrick
The last day of school was always chaotic at Muirfield High School. The sounds of teenagers laughing echoed throughout the halls as the bell for first period rang. Ty Edleman and Zee Carson maneuvered their way through the crowded halls headed to Mr. Green’s Biology class. Sophomore year had been a breeze for Ty, but not so much for Zee. While Ty always seemed to ace each one of his classes with little to no effort, Zee had struggled to maintain a C average, and was lucky to even consider himself an upcoming Junior. In fact, the entire school year had taken its toll on Zee both physically and mentally. He didn’t attract the girls as easily as Ty, and although the two had been best friends since second grade at Brookcreek Elementary, Zee always had the nagging feeling that their friendship was moving in a different direction since Ty made the Varsity football team earlier in the year. It wasn’t the fact that Ty was treating him any different, but Zee definitely didn’t think that some of Ty’s friends enjoyed having him around. “Hey Ty, are you going to the end of the year party tonight at the Hangout?” Zee’s thoughts of his shaky friendship with his best friend were disrupted by the melodic sound of Farah James’ voice. Somehow, she had wedged herself between the two boys just as they reached Mr. Green’s door. Farah was the co-captain of the Muirfield In Motion Dance team.
As pretty as she was, Zee knew that Ty wasn’t really interested in her because he had just mentioned that she wasn’t his type to Zee when they were playing video games last night at Ty’s house. However, Zee would have gladly gone wherever Farah wanted him to go but apparently Zee wasn’t her type since she didn’t even acknowledge his presence as she stood there smiling at Ty. “I doubt it,” Ty replied, nonchalantly, “the Hangout gets too crowded for me, and anyway, I owe my boy Zee a rematch on a video game since he beat me last time”, Ty said, playfully punching his friend on the arm. All the teenagers loved getting together at the Hangout, which was a on old warehouse that had been converted to a bowling alley complete with laser tag, bumper cars, and a dance floor. Truthfully, Zee would have loved going to the Hangout tonight, but try as he may, he just wasn’t as popular as Ty. It wasn’t for his lack of trying, but it was no secret that he didn’t have the same look and presence that his best friend commanded without even trying. “Maybe you’ll change your mind since the entire football squad will be there”, Farah gave Ty a wink as she turned and did a model walk back down the hall, which was now thinning out since the warning bell had just rang. Ty seemed oblivious to her openly flirting with him as he shook his head and told Zee, “I can’t wait to get this last day over with”. Zee didn’t say anything as he followed his friend in class and took his seat in the back of the classroom.
By the time lunch rolled around Ty was starving and he knew that Zee had to be too since the cafeteria was serving their favorite pepperoni pizza. If there was one good thing they could say about Muirfield High was that the food was always restaurant quality. Either that or the growing boys thought everything taste delicious.
’’Man, if I could take anything from the school this summer it would definitely be this pizza’’, Ty laughed as he stuffed his mouth with food. After a few moments he glanced over at Zee and noticed hadn’t even taken one bite of his pizza. Ty nudged him, “ You barely said two words today. Are you still mad about that argument with your dad last night?” Ty knew that Zee’s relationship with his stepfather had taken a turn for the worst in the last few months. They argued constantly and his mother always seemed to side with him instead of Zee. In fact, Zee had gotten to the point where he preferred hanging out at Ty’s house instead of his own. “ Yeah, it got pretty bad and I’m really considering moving in with my dad, but—“, Zee’s words were interrupted by Ty’s friend and teammate, Tony who had just appeared at the table the boys were sitting at. “Let me sit right here Zee, I need to talk to Ty about something private.” Tony didn’t even wait for his response as he ushered Zee out of the seat. It never dawned on Ty that Zee never got the chance to even get the rest of his story out. Zee gathered his tray and his book bag and began to make his way out of the cafeteria.
He didn’t even attempt to say anything else to Zy because he could tell that he was too engrossed in his conversation with Tony, and he knew Tony would just cut him off when he tried to speak again. He figured no one would even notice he had left because most people seemed to ignore him anyway. There was about five minutes left of lunch so Zee decided to wait outside of the cafeteria since his next class was just across the hall. As soon as the bell sounded Zee proceeded to his World History class. He was the first one to make it to class because most students stood around in the hallways to talk to their friends instead of getting to class on time. After the bell had rang and the class had settled down, Ms. Soloman told the students to take out their World History notebooks for a notebook check that was for their final grade. She called up each student in the class one by one to receive their grade and suddenly Zee realized he forgot his notebook in his locker. ‘’Zee, you’re up next”, Ms. Soloman said.
‘’Uh, I forgot my notebook in my locker”, Zee stammered.
Ms. Soloman gave him a firm look, “Zee this counts as your final grade and based on your current grade, you could really use this. I’ll let you go to your locker to get it, but you have to work on class preparation for your upcoming Junior year.”
“Thank you ma’am”, he said as he walked towards the door. As he walked out two girls giggled and one said, “ I don’t even know why Ty is friends with him in the first place.” He ignored them and pushed the door open with more force than was necessary. Once he arrived to his locker, Zee’s thoughts drifted to a dark place. This whole day had been a disaster from getting ignored by Farah, pushed out of his seat by Tony, and even Ms. Soloman seemed to be irritated by his very existence. Zee’s anger began to rise even further as he hurriedly flipped his locker open. He knew that he was supposed to be retrieving his notebook, but instead he reached into his backpack and felt around until his hand wrapped around the cold steel object. All Zee could think about was the way the entire school seemed to dismiss him. Even his home life was turning out to be a disaster. Truth be told, Ty had been the only person who truly seemed to care anything about him. He gripped the object even tighter and slowly began to lift it out of his bag when a familiar voice startled him.
“Are you ok, Zee? I just asked my teacher if I could be excused for a moment because something was telling me that you seemed distant today, and I didn’t want to wait until after class to check on you. I was just about to head to your class when I saw you at your locker”. Ty gently placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder, and Zee sighed deeply and hung his head down.
“I can’t take it anymore, everyone looks at me like I’m an outsider and nobody understands what I’m going through”, he said.
“ Come on Zee, don’t do this you have so much going for you, even if it may not seem like it. I know I may not understand some of the things you struggle with, but I’m here to tell you that your situation will get better”, Ty replied. “ I want you to know that I’ll always be here for you and it doesn’t matter who looks at you as an outsider, you’re my best friend and nothing can change that,” he added as he slowly grabbed the object from Zee’s hand and placed it back into the book bag. “What’s going on Zee, what exactly were you trying to do,” Ty asked in a very concerned tone. “I just wanted to get back at all the people that have done me wrong. I’m tired of people ignoring me and leaving me out like I don’t exist, but I’m just thankful that you came out here and helped me before I would have made a big mistake,” said Zee. “Of course, lets go have a discussion with Principal Ike”, Ty answered.
It’s been six weeks since Zee contacted the depression hotline. He had gotten much better and he was enjoying his summer with his family and Ty’s family. He realized that hurting others would never be the answer to his problems.
