#2. Four Days in May (Thursday, May 16, 2003)
What was your best day…of growing up?
If there’s one conclusion I’ve reached from coming up with this list and writing out all these stories, it is that the preteen years are the most emotional years of a person’s life.
And it’s mostly because this little gem of a story, involving twelve-year-old me, somehow made it to number two. Despite not being that glorious tale of perfect unrestrained revelry (#4), of pure immeasurable die-hard sports fan elation (#3, #7), of shocking life-altering success (#5), or of the simplest of teenage desires being satisfied in the most unexpected of ways (#8).
It was the story that preceded all that.
It was the story of how, in the span of four days in May, I came upon an unending series of wild emotional swings; as well as a few simple but powerful life experiences. Life experiences that would mark my first step towards adulthood, and which would stick with me forever and ever.
Thursday, May 16:
Steven Fennessy (#16) has been picking on me a bit harder than usual the past couple of days, and I’m in a phase where I think I’m depressed about everything, so there’s been a lot of crying on my part. The day before on the bus ride home, Shangyu calls me out on this melodramatic self-pity; which I don’t take well, and leads to a rare incident between us.
This Thursday morning, our teacher announces the results of the Gauss contest – the Grade 7 math contest that we did yesterday afternoon (#47). To this point in my life, I’ve gotten no true recognition for my math talents (#99 doesn’t count), so I’m not expecting anything here.
But then, in a moment that comes with no buildup whatsoever, it gets announced that I’m the only person in the school who got a perfect 150 score.
For about a full minute, the rest of the class applauds me on my accomplishment.1 Deep inside, I also know this is a big deal; and in time, I will see it for what it really is – that long-awaited validation of me and everything I represent, and that crucial seed of confidence that would feed into every success I would have for seventeen years thereafter. But in the moment, the full meaning of all this is lost on me.
That night, there’s a special band concert for next year’s incoming Grade 7s. It only requires a subsection of the band, though, so the music teacher only selects the better players to take part. For the only time in my life with regards to band, I’m one of them. Shangyu (#47) and Nigel Healey (#14) are the other clarinets.
Shangyu tells me that since the concert is at seven, instead of heading home he’ll be grabbing dinner nearby. I think that going out after hours like that and eating on our own would be the coolest thing ever, and so I call my parents to ask them if I can do the same.
To my great surprise, my dad says yes right away. And so, Shangyu and I just hang out for the next two hours: as we head over to the mall (a twenty-minute walk away), munch on our A&W burgers, and then head back. During all this, we’re back to being good friends again, and I feel bad for the fight yesterday. All the while, I am soaking in every minute of this first-time experience.
We do the concert. Steven is there as well, and is friendly. Darla Smith is there playing the baritone sax.
Friday, May 17:
More Steven drama today (specific content unknown). I’m crying all through morning math class because of this, and Derek Dunlop (#116, #96, #9) – of all people – comforts me.
I’m so pissed off that at lunch I slam my bag down so hard that the juice box explodes and goes everywhere. Suddenly, the whole thing turns comical and we all get along for the lunch and remainder of the day.
It’s the Hawaiian Dance – for the grade seven and eight students – that afternoon in the gym. I don’t dance, so I hang out in the other gym with Todd Xing and a bunch of other guys playing Magic.
Now a week or so ago, Aiden somehow got it in his mind – from something I inadvertently said – that I liked Darla Smith (#8). Of course, this whole concept of liking girls didn’t really exist to me at the time. But in any case, this rumor has spread, and someone (I don’t recall exactly who) thinks it’s a great idea to get me to dance with her.
While I’m in the other gym playing Magic, there are machinations going on in the background. Steven, Aiden, and Shangyu keep coming to interrupt me about me asking Darla to dance. I keep saying no I’m not interested, but they keep doing this back and forth. Finally, they come up to me and tell me she said yes. I’m like, sure – I don’t care. Then, soon enough, several guys sort of drag me up against my will and start pushing me into the other gym, all the way to Darla.2
And I end up dancing with her – the first girl I’ve ever danced with in my life. For the first few seconds of this, my mind just legitimately blanks out. But soon enough, I return to reality to feel myself swaying while Darla stares back at me smiling. She seems amused with this whole thing, while I’m completely dazed for the few minutes that it lasts (I don’t even remember the song). I’m not sure exactly how to feel, all I know for sure is that this is…different.
The dance ends. Everybody congratulates me. I feel exhilarated and quite self-satisfied by all this. Now that it’s all done, I realize that was really a cool, wonderful experience.
Saturday, May 18:
I go to the local library, and check out this book that somebody my age shouldn’t have been allowed to check out.
That book is – for lack of a better term – incredibly stimulating. As I turn through all of its pages in the course of one afternoon and evening, I feel a strange fluttering sensation inside of me that keeps getting stronger and stronger. It’s like this strange combination of being highly uncomfortable and highly excited at the same time.
And it’s the first time ever that I have anything resembling that feeling. It’s weird and confusing and I don’t really know what’s going on there. But I like it.
Sunday, May 19:
It’s Todd’s (#28, #9) birthday party at the Famous Players Coliseum. There’s a party room booked beforehand, where I meet all the guys – Steven, Shangyu, Aiden, Noah, Jake, Dean; plus two guys I don’t know – and we all hang out and have a lot of fun there, having snacks and Mountain Dew Code Red while watching Monsters, Inc. For Todd’s present, I get him Ender’s Game and another Orson Scott Card book.
Then we go in to watch the main attraction: The Matrix Reloaded. My first R-rated movie. And one that makes no fucking sense whatsoever. But I don’t care: the visuals are stunning, and I leave the theater feeling for the first time ever that I just watched something totally epic.
I then say goodbye to the others as I leave with Todd and the other two guys – Todd’s childhood friends Sullivan and Andrew – to his house for the sleepover. (Note that this is at the peak of our friendship.) The first time I ever slept over at my friend’s (i.e. not my parents’ friends’) house, and with more than one friend.
We spend the rest of the afternoon in Todd’s backyard playing and trading Magic, and then playing several rounds of mini-golf. Then we spend all night in his giant basement, having contests to see how long we can stay on his treadmill turned onto max, while playing every single video game he has in his library. The four of us just chilling till three in the morning by ourselves, doing whatever we want in that big open space…the coolest experience ever.
During all this, nothing about math contests or Darla or that book I read yesterday comes to my mind. This night is amazing in its own right.
But taking it all together…the greatest four days I could ever wish for.
- Derek Dunlop, the well-established slacker, gets the second-highest score at 145 – he missed one of the easy section questions. Nobody recognizes him. Between the second (#116) and second-last entries on this list, that guy really got a raw deal.
- By Nigel’s account, this was immediately followed by someone shouting into the Magic gym: “Jeff is dancing with Darla right now!”, followed by half the gym rushing onto the dance floor.