Ramblings From Justin Penney

I went to school but held this deep resentment because it was President's Day and I wasn't supposed to be there (Queue a Dante Hicks sound bite). At lunch, Chris Santiago and I decided that we weren't going to take it and we were leaving. We said our good byes to our lunch compatriots, walked right past the teacher's table, and exited to doors across the hall from the lunch room. None of the teachers tried to stop us, or even noticed, but I'm sure most of them would have been happy to see us leave. 

We didn't have any grand plan, unless you count hanging out and smoking cigarettes, and we just started walking. Eventually we meandered our way to the shiny new outlet mall at the edge of Odessa. We wandered around asking the other teenagers we saw if they skipped or had the day off ... they all just had the day off. We now felt justified in walking out, not that we needed justification.

We hitched a ride back in to the downtown area and were hanging out on the steps of the Christian church and smoking. Jason Durham, a guy that I perpetually tried starting fights with me, pulled up. I was sure I was going to get punched. Thinking back, I have no idea why that guy hated me so much as I only knew who he was after he tried to start a fight with me. Apparently I was "talking shit" on him. I think he just had delusions of grandeur, he didn't even register in my mind enough for my to say bad things. Anyway ... he was asking where Zach and Adrian were, some mutual friends of ours. 

The weekend prior to President's Day, Zach and Adrian, some friends of ours, had run away. I didn't even know that they had run away until Chris mentioned during our long walk. Zach and Adrian are both fairly tall and thin and Adrian has red hair. Pretty defining characteristics. Chris and I are both short (Chris grew some through high school while I stayed short) and have dark hair. There is absolutely no confusing them for us. 

Jason left, without any fanfare, and Chris and I decided to head back toward the school so we could meet all our friends ... and hang out and smoke cigarettes. School let's out at 2:35 and it's roughly 2:30 when we get to the block of the high school. We sit down on the step of the Catholic church ... and smoke. A woman walks toward the door of the church and we move out of her way ... pretty politely. Then she says, "Aren't you supposed to be in school." I said something like, "Yes, but schools about out." Then the release bell rang. The woman then told us that we really needed to go over to the office. I said, "Oh, it's OK, I'll go to the office in the morning." And she keeps pushing the issue.

At this point my rebellious attitude takes control and I say, "Don't be a bitch."

Then Coach Schreiman comes over and asks the woman what's going on. It's at this point that we learn that the bitchy woman is the assistant superintendent. Coach goes into his "you boys have so much potential" speech when a police car rolls up. 

I know that Odessa does not have a truancy law so I assumed that the police car was there for a reason other than Chis and I skipping school. He did have a different reason ... but we were still involved. The cop came over and asked us if we had been at the mall and downtown. We said that we had been and he directed us to get in the car. I flat out refused saying that I would not get in the car unless he arrested me and told me why. He grabbed his billy club and said, "get in the car!" I got in the car. 

This guy is driving 55 MPH down 2nd St., a 25 MPH street, wheels it into the lot in front of the police station and takes us inside. Someone had called in to the police station saying that they saw Zach and Adrian at the mall. The cop thought Chris and I were Zach and Adrian. After 10 minutes of them asking me about them I was let go. Chris, who was only 14, had to wait for his mom. 

Chris got grounded, mostly because his mom had to get him. If they had just let him walk, he would have never been grounded.

I showed up at school the next day to receive my punishment. Normally I'd just get a detention for skipping but in this case the little altercation with the assistant superintendent made it a little stickier. I was completely correct when I implied that she was a bitch as she was pushing for me to be expelled! In the end I was handed the sentence three days in-school suspension.