I then wrote a short story in my second year of High School, just before adolescence. I re-keyed what I had to a brand new Mac and spent another couple of months finishing it off. As far as I know a copy still resides in the library of my old High School. By my third year in High School I'd lost interest in reading and writing. High Schools are, after all, about spoon feeding information, teaching compliance with the system, and how to fit in.
Original thought is a very distant last.
Complicity, 'fitting in' and the mob mentality are what matter most. Okay, maybe a bit harsh. I did, throughout High School, have some teachers who were interested in challenging the minds of their charges, encouraged them when they twigged to something they were trying to teach or responded in a way that suggested some notion of mental activity. But the classroom isn't the only learning experience in a High School. Though more time is spent inside a classroom, more is learned outside it.