In sixth grade, I went to Cabrillo Middle School, which was all the way accross town from my house. My other Saticoy School buddies, other than Chad Henderson, went to Balboa Middle School, the one closest to our houses. I reverted back to being really shy for a while, but I did make three fairly good new friends that year. That year, however, the school district changed the boundries for attendence at the middle and high schools. One of my new friends moved to the city north of us, while the other two ended up going to Anacapa Middle School the next year. Chad and I ended up at Balboa Middle School, back with our friends from Saticoy. I made many new friends, while again meeting up with Vlado and Paul. Seventh and eighth grades were cool years, I gained a lot of confidence. Oh, with one exception... Eighth grade ended up ultimately causing me to lose pretty much all faith in girls. Along with my confidence around them. You see, one girl I knew, that I thought I had a good chance with, told me so many times (as in every time) that she was busy when I called her, that I knew she just didn't want to do anything with me. This meant both that she was lying, and that she didn't like me. Two birds with one stone there, eh? ::weak smile:: To this day, if a girl tells me she's busy, I can't help but think she's lying and/or doesn't want to see me. Granted, this one girl did not cause all of it. But she was the major player in it.
My freshman year, however, I did end up with a girlfriend. Granted, dating her was a mistake, but at least I knew I could do it. My sophomore year passed rather uneventfully, I dated a friend for 13 days, but other than that, not much happened. Oh, the one thing was that two of my best friends moved after that school year. Ian (eye-an) and Matt Rosenfield. Those two were always crazy. Weird, but funny. They now live in South San Fransisco. The city of South San Fransisco, not the south part of San Fransisco. My junior year in highschool, I started seeing another girl, and this time was when it started being great. I'm not sure exactly when it started and ended, but I know we were together on Valentine's Day. It couldn't have been much more than 2 months, but it was fun while it lasted. I had still never kissed a girl, at this point, however. I think that may have been something that caused her to break up with me. Anyway, later that year, I started seeing another girl, who I'm still friends with. Her name is Sarah-Lee. Heh heh, yeah, she's the one who gave me "kissing lessons," although after she did she asked if I really had never kissed anyone before. I thought it was cool that I was that good the first time. I dated her for 5 1/2 months.
During the time that I was dating Sarah-Lee, one of my good friends was murdered. When my dad was trying to tell me, I thought he was joking. It really came out of nowhere, and my dad is someone who jokes around a lot. I didn't realize he was serious until he hadn't said "just kidding" for like a minute. Then I realized he would never make that kind of joke and then leave you hanging believing it for that long. It was really sad. My friend, Jake Bush, had been out with his mom, and when they came back home, they noticed that the front door was slightly open. His mom went in to call the police, and Jake went to look to see if the person was still there. Well, upon entering one of the bedrooms, he found that the guy was still there. Having no place to run, the man pulled out a knife and stabbed Jake several times, then ran out the door, right behind his mom. She said she heard the door shut, and just figured it was Jake. But soon afterward, Jake crawled out of the room, bleeding heavily, and said "Oh my God. I've been stabbed." His mom held him, and he died in her arms.
This was the summer between our junior and senior years. There are many more things to say about Jake's death, but I best keep this moving. My senior year turned out to be a great year... I started feeling very wanted. Sometime during my sophomore year, Paul started hanging around the drama crowd. Eventually, Vlado, Ian and I followed him. This is where I really started feeling accepted. Girls there would randomly come talk to me. And most of them were at least decently attractive, if not very attractive. By my senior year, I was really feeling great. All these girls were interested in knowing me... I broke up with Sarah-Lee sometime near the very beginning of the school year, and in the mean time I met a girl named HannaH. That girl never really stopped affecting my life. I think I'm over her now (four years after I met her), but she's not exactly someone I'll forget. The only way that could happen is if I forgot the last 4 years of my life, since even after she hated me and I didn't see her, she was still connected to so many things. I refuse to go into the details, but you can find at least some of them in the ramblings.
After I graduated, I went off to the University of Portland, a private Catholic university. Most of my dad's side of the family still lives out in the Portland area, so we visit every summer, and I really liked the area. Anyway, while there, I met a girl named Natalie. She was sitting out by herself on the edge of the crowd, looking a bit uncomfortable... (Hmm... kinda the same way I met HannaH...) We talked a bit, and somehow or another started talking a lot. I know one of the main reasons we became such good friends is that she'd listen to me when I needed to complain about HannaH. At this point, as well as the end of my senior year in high school, HannaH and one of my best friends, Matt, were dating. That was weird, and a whole nother story, as they say. Anyway, Natalie was great about listening to me bitch about that whole thing, and I started to be more and more attracted to her. I asked her out sometime in... late November or early December, but she said no. When we came back to school after Christmas break, I asked her again, and she said yes. After only 3 or 4 months of hanging out with her almost every day... :) I think the original reason she held back from saying yes was... yes, shock of all shocks, since she never affects anything in my life... HannaH. I was "officially" with Natalie for 7 months. I did very poorly at UP, and my parents, who were paying my tuition, decided it was a waste of money, so I had to come back home and go to community college. After those 2 1/2 months or so of not seeing Natalie almost every day, it just kinda fell apart. We saw each other that June, but that didn't hold it together. She came to my place for part of Christmas break also. That was fun, and we ended up "going further", so to speak, than we had when we were going out. ::shrug:: Things just happen... So then, that May, I think, (2000)... yep... my aunt died. Now, I didn't really see much of her, so it wasn't that hard on me. The funeral was to be held at the church my grandpa attends, so there we went back up to the Portland area in early June. This meant I could visit Natalie. And you better bet I did. She was so happy. I surprised her by showing up right after she got back from work, if I remember correctly. One day I picked her up from work, I do know that much. She spent the night at my grandpa's house (which is where my family was staying) one of the nights that weekend. And that thing that was going further happened again. ::slight laugh::
