Last night I wrote a very long post titled “Miserable Monday” which detailed the type of day I had. For those who didn’t read it, this was day I would like to forget as I spent it in a bad mood and getting in trouble from mom for various reasons but the big thing came as it relates to my friendship with Chris. We started out in high school as the best of friends. Initially I didn’t even want to start high school as I knew I wouldn’t be one of the popular kids. Having a best friend wasn’t as much of a priority to me as having a girlfriend was but this is how it worked out. Now I’ve written numerous posts on how Chris and I met and it seems as though the main thing where he is concerned is pity. Everybody that has been friends with him more than likely do so because they feel bad about his disability not because of the normal things that draw one person close to another as a friendship begins.

Now this isn’t such a bad thing. :I was in fact one of those people who started hanging out with him as I felt bad over an issue he was having with the gym teacher. It was none of my business and I knew I couldn’t get involved but deep down I was thinking that the teacher had gone too far in saying what he did, having reprimanded him more forcefully and rudely than the situation would have called for. All that happened was the teacher brought out a bin of basketballs. Chris was walking and grabbed one. As the teacher saw this, he yelled at him and said “Chris, did I tell you to get a ball yet?” after which he supposedly slapped it out of his hand before saying “That’s what I thought.” I just happened to be within earshot of this conversation as it was taking place but I I have a problem of my own with the sound of people crying. For some reason, it bothers me. Chris began to pout and walk around. He approached me and brought about his grievances before beginning to cry and hitting the floor similar to a child throwing a temper tantrum. Unsure of what to say, I dismissed him. When Chris began talking to me and hanging out with me in the months following this, (having still not forgiven the teacher for the issue at this point,) and constantly bringing it up to me as if I could help him at all, I began to show my allegiance to him by taking part in a hobby that he loved to do. His thing was writing stories involving characters from tv in certain situations either similar to the one he was in or the exact same situation. He would use characters he liked in situations that were to his favor or that he agreed with and attribute them getting the same treatment as he presently was. The most notable of these characters was Peter Griffin from “Family Guy.” Upon something happening that was a favor to him ETC, he would say “That’s (insert name of character from a tv show that he liked,” although more often than not, it was Peter Griffin. Other characters he used were Johnny Bravo, Homer Simpson, Stan Smith, (after the show “American Dad” started,) among others. He would do the opposite when things happened that weren’t to his favor and attribute characters he didn’t like receiving the same treatment. The most notable of these characters was Patchy the Pirate from Spongebob, or Steven Burns from Blue’s Clues, ETC. Pretty much any character that was in a show meant for a child like audience rather than a teenager. Upon something happening that he didn’t like, he would attribute that situation occurring to one of those characters. He would say “That’s (insert name of character from a tv show that he didn’t like”) although more often than not, this was Patchy the Pirate.

The problem for me was that even though Chris may not have been acting his age, I noticed a pattern developing in the way he was treated as opposed to the way I was treated by teachers when they heard him do this. Even though I wasn’t treated badly, there was much more expectation from teachers for me to be a nicer person and they were much tougher on me than they were with him. Teachers often would tend to be less strict with him in administering punishments in situations where the blame should have been split 50/50 if we both were involved in something and we both did something wrong. They would calmly address him “Chris , that’s not very nice, you shouldn’t do that,” ETC, while turning around and giving me a more strict lecture on the issue, “Jeff, I expected more from you, you should know better,” ETC. When these situations kept occurring in the months that followed, I began to believe that maybe I was doing something wrong in the way I was acting. I thought that maybe to get any respect from people at school, I should start acting the way he does. I did it once. I attributed characters from tv in situations I was in, (sometimes even the same respective characters as Chris and I share admiration for Peter Griffin while disliking characters from Spongebob,) ETC. After this began to stick, I developed a knack for doing that myself believing that it would improve the way I was treated if it worked for Chris.

For months, everything that happened, (even things that didn’t involve Chris,) was attributed to Peter Griffin/Patchy the Pirate once again depending on the type of situation I was in. I also adopted his knack for laughing loudly during class or in situations where being quiet would be an order. I also took on writing stories involving characters from tv rather than the good stories I had written in grade school. These stories following pretty much the same premise as the ones Chris would write with me attributing situations I was in to those characters. The one difference between the stories I wrote vs. the ones that he wrote was that I included wrestlers in my stories . Chris did not like Wrestling at this point. Though the wrestlers didn’t make an appearance in my stories, often times I would imagine in my solitude Chris and I being an accomplished tag team similar to the Dudley Boys or Kane and the Undertaker. When situations occur that I don’t like, I would think of each school day being a Wrestling show where Chris and I take on the role of each person in a tag team and our opponents are always the gym teacher and an educational assistant who had sided with him. This was never shown to anyone as I was able to keep it to myself.

In the months leading up to Christmas 2004, (which was my first year of high school,) the stories that Chris wrote continued and became more violent and inappropriate if I may say so myself, (though I failed to realize this as it was happening possibly due to my own dislike for my treatment from the gym teacher.) I noticed he had gone from writing about Johnny Bravo/Peter Griffin to writing about the teachers dressing like women and being harassed sexually by Johnny Bravo, (this ties in with the character Johnny Bravo being a ladies man.) Anyway, though I can’t remember exactly what he wrote, I remember coming back to reality to read the story and realize what the consequences would be if it was found by them. It was something to the effect of, “Oh we’ve been beaten so badly, it’s like we’re women now,” or something like that. I remember it was something to do with men beating on women, with those women being portrayed in the story by the male gym teacher and educational assistant. Fearing that we may have gone too far, I urged Chris to delete the story only for the school bell to ring before he had the chance to.

In a last ditch effort to show my allegiance to him, (promising to stop doing this afterwards to avoid trouble,) I drew a picture in my free morning period which was meant to depict Peter Griffin physically assaulting the gym teacher and the educational assistant. They were just stick bodies so it didn’t look like them. I used ac red crayon to draw what should have been blood on both of their faces with a third stick body meant to be Peter Griffin with a caption on the bottom that read: This is a picture of Peter Griffin physically assaulting (Insert name of gym teacher and educational assistant. My initial intention was of course to discard the paper but the bell rang before I hand the chance to. I took the paper and quickly put it in my bag. Little did I know that forgetting to throw out the picture would be what would make the difference.

Having forgotten about the picture being in my bag for over two weeks, I was getting ready for school one morning when mom was going through my backpack. At this point, she was oblivious to what had been happening. After finding the picture and recognizing the name Peter Griffin on it, (she can’t stand Family Guy and hates Peter Griffin himself,) she became suspicious. After looking over the drawn picture, she asked what the red crayon was meant to represent. Wrongfully dismissing the red substance as sweat, she made the joke, “Ok so now Peter Griffin is going to workout with the gym teacher?” What happened next was no laughing matter as I corrected her mistake and said it was blood. She gasped and then having noticed the written caption on the bottom of the page, she asked me what I had written as my handwriting wasn’t legible. However, she was able to read it enough to notice the word assaulting. After getting me to admit what the picture was supposed to be, she wasted no time in suspending my Wrestling privileges as she thought I had drawn the picture as a link to Wrestling. She went nuts screaming at me and telling me how everybody was good to me at the school, ETC. After telling her that Chris was involved in the situation, (and at this point having only heard of him through the countless times I discussed Patchy the Pirate ETC, she said she was calling the school herself to report me and she did just that while questioning whether Chris hanging out with me was the best thing for me as she could not “get over the shock” as she put it over me having done something as bad as that. She would later learn there’s much more to the story though.

The preceding paragraph was part 1 on how Chris and I met and became friends. Please stay tuned for Part 2.