And Thus Began the Complexities of the Strange

End of Year Memoir

By: Max Duckworth

And Thus Began the Complexities of the Strange

After having completed seventh grade with my entourage of nerds, I eagerly awaited new arrivals. With the end of the 2010 class, our table sustained two losses of two not-so-valuable friends: Sebastian Alvarez and Mathieu Jacobs.

Mikkel, Brandon and I waited patiently in the W.O.L.F. room as we sought out new friends to assimilate into our nerdy clan. Unlike previous grades, we had let down our guards while seeking companionship. The novelty of meticulousness when seeking companionship had been abandoned so all were welcome.

Sadly, our loss of care had come back to haunt us with the arrival of quite possibly two of the most annoying people to have ever walked the earth: Vigan Osmani and Daniel “Leniad” Bouzas. They were eagerly accepted into our obscure society of freaks.

The boy in glasses—Vigan—resembled something of a weirdo by wielding an egg-shaped head and a spasm-encrusted walk. The rounded one—Daniel—seemed almost stranger; his fat lips seemed as if he was eating invisible food. Mikkel had brought the two people to the table for an initiation conversation. I almost dispelled them both instantly for I could not be seen hanging out with people like that.

Mikkel convinced that these people were worth my valuable time and I trusted him before due to his normality. However, this time, my trusting nature betrayed for I was now stuck with the freaks.

And thus began our first lunch and the complexities of the strange. We all sat at the nerd table—situated outside of Mrs. Walker’s room—and stared at each other awkwardly. Dyvon—the one who had the ‘crystal skull’ shaped head from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom Skull—broke the silence with his daily video game updates.

“Did you know that ‘Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days’ is coming out soon?”

We at stared at him and thus began the rein of Vigan and his vast knowledge of random videogames. “Yes!” He raised his right hand and formed a fist that he then curled over his shoulder and pointed his elbow at us, “August 16^th!”

Dyvon stared at the thing speaking to him and was dumbfounded. He was the previous videogame source for he spent endless hours on Gametrailers.com. “I think it will be good.”

“Yes. I believe it will.”

“Hmm. Maybe we are friends?” Offered Vigan.

Dyvon looked at Vigan intensely before confirming, “Yes, we are friends.”

Vigan was ravaged with glee. He had made his second friend. “What about Daniel are you friends with him as well.” Daniel was like Vigan’s pet; he was loyal, loving and admired Vigan with all of his heart.

Dyvon looked at us to confirm that Daniel was in fact allowed to join us. Looks of disgust pervaded the table at the sight of this new admittance. I nodded at Dyvon to say that I would allow this child on our vessel as did Mikkel. “Yes. Daniel may join our alliance.” Said Dyvon.

The lunch went on and the dawn of the strongest friendship ever emerged. The nerd table had grown by two. Two unconventional, weird, creep allies that would prove themselves as grand comrades.

“Hey, guess what.” Said Vigan. “Black Ops!”

And thus began the complexities of the strange.

MY BOOK COVER

This is my To Kill a Mockingbird front cover. My internet was down--because Cable Onda fails--so I had to hand-draw it despite my incredible lack of talent.

My front cover portrays scout (leftmost figure) and Jem (Center figure) running into Atticus' (rightmost figure) arms. In their front yard.

I drew this because it shows you what Boo Radley sees. In the final part--when Scout leads Boo to his door--she stands on his porch to "see what he sees". She explained how he would see her and her brother love their father and enjoy the life that he never had.

Yes, I know I cant draw and yes, I know Scout and Jem look like Siamese twins but nonetheless, I believe my cover is one of quality and symbolism because you feel as Boo feels...and yes I appreciate how 'showy-offy' that sounded.

If you have a query on the post date of this then here is your answer. As I have previously mentioned, Cable Onda messed up--yet again--leading to a massive internet outage which meant no homework or TV for me.

JEM'S JOURNAL

JEM’S JOURNAL

By: Max Duckworth

***BEFORE YOU READ: Yes, all bad grammar is intentional and all of the unnecessary apostrophes are to create the accent.

Journal Entry Number 36

Today I woke up extra early. I had to see Atticus’ trial but I had to do it quietly ‘cause he said that Scout and me weren’t ‘possed to be seeing those kinds of adult environments. I was really lookin’ forward to it; I love to see Atticus at work. It makes me proud to be a Finch.

So, I woke up early and walked over to Scout’s bed. She was sound asleep—as usual—so I had to wake her up, it took a lightning bolt—like always—but I woke her up and kept her mouth shut.

We went downstairs to eat the breakfast that Calpurnia had made for us. It looked like she gave it a big thought—due to the situation—and made me my favorite food, it tasted like a slice of heaven.

“Now you chillun aren’t to be goin’ to that there trial.” She warned.

“Yes Ma’am.” I said.

“You’re not supposed to be seein’ that stuff at such an early age.”

Scout and I both nodded and Calpurnia left us alone.

“You lied to Cal!” Said Scout.

“I did it to protect us. She’s skin us alive if she knew we were going to that trial!”

My sister seemed to understand what I said and did not question my authority which is a nice change of pace. “Okay then, just don’t tell her.”

Later, we walked to the courtroom with Dill and had to sit upstairs on the ‘Colored’ Balcony. We could see the whole courtroom and we saw Atticus do his job. He put up one heck of a fight, I thought Tom Robinson would be freed.

I was wrong. After a ridiculously long wait, the jury finally decided that he was guilty. They looked full of hot air, Dill said they only convicted him ‘caused he was colored. This really got me thinking about what it would be like to be a black boy.

Atticus says that to understand a man you have to step into his skin and walk around in it. I wouldn’t want to be in Tom Robinson’s skin, I want to free. While we were waiting, Calpurnia found us and took us home, this made me sad because I wanted to see the trial.

I only hope that Tom Robison comes out of jail quickly because I know he was an innocent man.

Maycomb Chronicle