Just started school again after an awesome summer
off. I hate school. Hate it. Don't know why Marcela insisted on enrolling me
in this stupid, pinche stuck-up-girls school. First of all I have to wear this
dumb uniform, which makes me look worse than the Catholic school rejects. It
has a skirt. A skirt! I don't do skirts. Every morning I have to get up super
early, because this school is in the Palisades and it takes forever to get there
by bus from Boyle Heights. Everyone in the neighborhood gets to see me dressed
up like a geek. I feel stupid.
And that's only the beginning. I feel like a
total outsider with the other kids. And that's because I am. They talk
different. They look at me like they're trying to figure out how I got in to
their exclusive school. Everyone is sort of polite, but it's only on the
surface, like they don't want to get in trouble for dissing the new Mexican
chick who showed up out of no where at the end of last year's school session.
In fact, all the students are super nice to even
the teachers. Kiss asses. But when the teacher leaves, they make fun of her or
act up. In my East L.A. high school, we did and said what had to be said right
in front of the teachers. If they didn't like it, too bad. That way they knew
we were in charge. Here, the students pretend that the teacher in charge -- they
let the teachers believe that, then do things like smoke weed behind their
backs. I saw some girls when I got off the bus the other day smoking behind the
cafeteria loading zone where no one could see them from the school. I saw them
from the street. I don't get them -- I really don't. It's like they think it's
cool to pretend to be a geek, and not letting adults know how cool they are.
Weird.
Probably the worst part about the school is that
it's hard and the teachers are always singling me out to give me "extra help".
I have to stay in during breaks; they invite me to have lunch with them so they
can help me. I wish they'd just leave me alone. I'll get it on my own. I'm
not that dumb. Marcela says I'm really smart. And she helps me with my
homework a lot of the time. It's because she wants to make sure I do it, I
know.
My mom
doesn't really care if I do my work. Well . . . she does. She thinks that by
going to this fancy school way out in the rich part of town, she's going to keep
me away from my friends and out of Juvie. And she's right, because I've got no
time to hang out with my comadres. By the time I get home, it's so late and I'm
so tired. Shit. I miss my friends. I miss my old life. And I hate my new
school!
