Chapter 0

How in God's name had this happened?

Matt always found it a little ironic when he found himself "taking the lord's name in vain."  It's not that he was some out-and-out raving atheist. Far - or at least somewhat - to the contrary, he had been raised by two parents who he believed believed in God.  He had always celebrated and enjoyed both Christmas and Easter, though he could never come to any cogent reconciliation of a savior on a cross and a pastel clad bunny hiding hard-boiled eggs.  And, to be sure, he knew that the socially acceptable answer to the question of whether he believed in God was that of course he did, but saying so always felt kind of disingenuous.

But God or no god, he was forsaken on this August morning.  The spring of his eighth grade year, his dad - a "fastener" salesman in the auto industry - got transferred from Chicago to Indianapolis.  Matt, his mom, and his sister stayed back so Katy could finish up her senior year and he could finally put the nail the coffin that was middle school. (As you might imagine, middle school was not easy when his dad "sold screws" for a living. At least it wasn't his mom though.). They moved down to Indy over the summer, but Katy was already gone off to college, having left just the weekend before to start her orientation week at IU.

So here he was, a freshman in high school in a new town, and faced with his own personal hell.  The only thing worse than a classroom full of kids staring at you was what he faced at this interminable moment - a classroom full of empty chairs.

"Come in and sit down!" Ms. Newell cheerfully greeted him.  Matt had always been a decent student - mostly A's and a smattering of B's, and his parents had engrained in him the doctrine of punctuality.  To a fault, clearly.  As the teacher again insisted that he sit down, Matt began to have cold sweats that were imperceptible to all but him.  This was high school - HIGH SCHOOL.  Who he sat next to - or, as it turns it, who would sit next to him - in this very first day would change the course of his entire existence.  Who would drop their books next to him and nod hello? Anyone? The pretty blonde?  The dumb jock?  The nerdy girl that was actually hot?  The nerdy girl that was actually just a nerd?  Or maybe a just a regular dude?  Would he come to hate this person, or would they become inseparable friends? From the cavernous abyss that stood before him, there was just no fucking way to know.

The predicament Matt found himself in, that which he could not escape, was that had no choice in the matter.  All he could do was sit somewhere and hope to god that the seats filled in around him with someone tolerable, perhaps even worthwhile, and hopefully who wasn't already strapped to a prepackaged set of friends.  With just he and the teacher there, awkwardly sizing each other up, he couldn't sit all the way in the back, but he'd be damned if he was sitting in the front.  It was best, he thought, to sit on either the far left or far right edge of the class.  At least that way he could slowly immerse himself into this new universe a bit at a time...just like boiling a frog.

A) Resigned to his unknown fate, Matt made his way to the left side of the room, farthest away from the door, and sat about halfway up.

B) Not wanting to move any farther into the room than he absolutely had to, he grabbed the seat second from the back on the right edge of the desks.

## **Author**

*This Chapter was originally authored by Matt Bruno on February 19, 2015.*