Not very long, but some lead up to the good stuff. Flags below if you’re impatient.
I was 17 and a sophomore in high school and had been in an alternative track to graduation since halfway through my freshman year (read: I was likely to drop out, and they knew it, so they offered me an easier way out). So was Mary. She was a gutter punk girl who wore tights with tons of holes under jean shorts, a jean jacket, and fucked up blonde hair. She was pale and gaunt and had a low voice from all the cigarettes she smoked at class breaks. She seemed older, but so did everyone. We were the kids the mainstream people avoided for the most part.
A year into this program, I’ve developed a strange friendship with Mary. She gets my jokes (dry, gallows humor, nearly undetectable to most), and we seem to have a lot to commiserate about in life. She would seem a sullen girl to most people, unless you knew that underneath she was just biding her time. We both know we just need to ride this thing out long enough to graduate, and the middle part should be over soon. So we flirt some to pass the time.