Will E. Juniffern

August 18th, 2023



There I sat on the bus to my new high school, it wasn’t necessarily new but it was new to me. I had missed the first year due to a family emergency, I’ll talk about it later. I was sitting next to Rachel Sturgeon my closest friend and ally on the battlefield that I would soon call my school, Rachel knows everything about everyone, she’s the head of the schools newspaper, a high ranking official on student council, and a top student, don’t ask me how she managed that in a year, she just did. The bus is not as gross as I thought it would be to be honest, I guess the mainstream media my parents have been feeding me about high school life forgot to account for rich magnet schools. From what I can see, that’s the only thing they got wrong, I can hear the jocks yelling and bouncing around in the back of the bus with the cheerleaders who are whispering about some girl on Picsta. The nerds are sitting in front of us and are playing some sort of card game, and the preps, coincidentally the schools hall monitors it looks like, are all sitting in the front, straight backed and eyes forward. Me and Rachel are in the middle of the bus, where we’ve always been.

Enough talk about the bus though. If this is to be made into a historical document I’m sure the archeologist in the future reading this won’t need to know about high school life so let me introduce myself. I am William Evergreen Juniffern, I am an only child and I have everything handed to me on a silver platter, that’s what Tray Stigma told me in 3rd grade, who is Tray Stigma? He’s a backstabber, one of the many I encountered in later years, he was the most memorable though, the one who set an example, the first one. It was a cold February evening, and I came to school in a fluffy jacket, one of the butlers brought it in, I think it was Ferdinand but maybe it was someone else. I had asked for an extra, less heavy coat in case I got warm, of course my idea was met with a chorus of yeses and I got a second jacket to bring with me to

school.

I walked into school with a light jacket in my bag and a heavy puffy jacket on. I saw Tray sitting on the bench outside of school, waiting for me, he wore his usual outfit, athletic shorts and a t-shirt, I could tell he was shivering, so I pulled out my lighter jacket and gave it to him, if Ferdinand asked I lost it somewhere in school. Some of the big kids came around the corner then, Xavier Tuckermen and his cronies, “The No Brainers” as me and Tray had nicknamed them, as they had no brain and were always picked first for sports. Xavier started in on me and Tray first “Hey, look at this the prince and the pauper, how ya doing kiddos?”

Tray cringed and so did I “Prince and the pauper” was a frequent nickname for us, everyone in the third grade, maybe even the whole school, knew that I was rich and he was poor. Me and Tray stared at Xavier and his lackeys dumbly, no one really teaches kids to deal with bullies so we had no idea what to do.

“Hey pauper,” Xavier looked at Tray with mock confusion “How’d you get your hands on that?” He gestured vaguely to the jacket that Tray now wore, it was designer and it was clear as day that is was new

Xavier looked from me to Tray and back again and then he faked realization “Oh! Your prince gave it to you did he?” Xavier and his cronies cackled, they sound like dying chickens, I thought.

Xavier had recovered from his laughing fit and turned to me “So when are you putting a ring on it bud?” Again they burst into laughter, I know what he means, I know what he’s saying. I thought then I realized: Tray doesn’t, he doesn’t know.

I stared up at Xavier with a blank look, and he turned to Tray again after he got bored with me “So Are you marrying for the money, or what?” Xavier and his friends laughed like this was funniest thing ever said. Tray’s ears went red and I think he finally half got what they were saying. “No, I’m not marrying him I’m not gay or something,” Tray said defiantly crossing his arms, Xavier stood up straight and looked at him with a bit of shock. “And even if I was” he continued “I wouldn’t ever date that” He spat the last word and gestured with disgust to me.

Xavier buckled over with laughter and clapped Tray on the back playfully “This kid is hilarious man! Tucker give this kid some money so he can get lunch with us!”

The bigger of the two boys behind Xavier stepped forward and gave Tray a 20 dollar bill, his orange curly hair fell in front of his face and he had to brush it back up to see again.

Tray beamed up at the three of them as they shoved past me and walked to the cafeteria, from then on I was known as Prince, and three days later I found the jacket i had given in the trash bin and brought it home, it’s still in my closet,

sometimes I just stare at it, thinking of a time when things were easier.



Thank you for reading
this will hopefully be updated frequently
if at any point during this series I offend anyone please notify me and I will correct it