The P. P. A. Project: Revelations

Chapter One - Greek Projects

Chapter One – Greek Projects

The only thing worse than being the new kid was always being the new kid. I’d had the speech memorized and could say it in my sleep:

Stupid Teacher: Perses, why don’t you introduce yourself to the class.

Stupid Student: Perses, what kind of name is that?

Nerd Girl: It’s the Greek titan of destruction, (insert name here)!

Stupid Student: We aren’t in Greece!

Me: My name is Perses Phillip Alexander, just call me Phillip. My parents travel for work so I probably won’t be here for long. I have been to all the continents and yes… I have had all my shots.

I suppose high school didn’t affect me like the others of my generation. I felt more like a cloud mass over a large city. I was there for a while but I always passed through. Luckily, my parent’s travels had intertwined with several army brats so this time I was not the only new kid. It was rare but that usually spread the focus out a bit allowing me to blend in a little more.

Normally, I would make temporary friends to last me through the couple of months or weeks that we stayed in one place and we would always promise to keep in touch but we never did. When I was little it seemed to matter more than it did now.

I was in my last year of high school and so whatever I did from here would be my own business and no one else’s. I might stay with my parents and work for them, which is what they really wanted, but I didn’t know if I could do that forever. I had seen the world and I was not impressed.

After class, everyone decided to accumulate around the “General’s Son” from northern Michigan. He looked like a 30 year old man he was so huge but I didn’t care. As long as they weren’t rushing me I didn’t care. Small town kids especially seemed to take an interest in hearing about what it was like to pee in the toilets in Japan or eat German chocolate in Germany.

Like most of my first days in school, it was raining. I didn’t care because I liked the rain. I also didn’t have an umbrella so I simply stood out on the stone steps of the school and waited for Dr. Wilcox to escort me back to his house for my monthly checkup. Normally he was on time but he was probably lost on all these backwoods dirt roads.

Despite the fact that I was nearly a head taller than most of the kids here, I didn’t really stick out. I was able to adapt my wardrobe to my location well enough by now. Kids just sort of walked by me with big, curious eyes towards the rain.