History of the Trap: January Campaigns Part 1

1

I didn't want to do it.  No way.  I was sick of politics, sick of being around my Dad.  When it came time to file to run (which was just going to the administration and putting your name down on a list of those who want to run for student council), I would not go in and put my name down.

Since the trial, I had barely spoken to my father.  I did nothing to initiate contact with him.  The one council meeting I had attended, I did not say a word.  He tried to stop me after it was over, and ask me how I was.  I gave a curt "Fine" and I walked out.

The passing of the New Year was a terrible milestone for us.  It shattered any illusions that the Trap would ever end.  There was a New Year's Eve dance, but it was a rather depressing affair, except for the people centered around Mark Granite and Robert Pelley.  They whooped it up like they had won the World Series.  Morgan was with them, but she seemed a little more subdued than the rest.  I didn't know why.  I wasn't a part of that group.

I only went to the dance because Artie and Ginny insisted.  I wallflowered it most of the time, which for once, was just fine with me.  Robert Bond sat with me most of the time.   He spent most of the time looking at Artie.  I wasn't quite sure why.  Did he have a crush on Ginny? 

Larry Wiseman danced a lot, with a surprising number of girls.  He seemed to have no reserve on who he asked to dance.  Whether it was the attractive student council rep, Lindsay Starn, or the heavyset Katie Kurrash, he didn't seem to care.  He asked Jan Houser, the student Judge, who gently turned him down.  He asked Morgan Tigh, who just laughed at him.  None of the rebuffs seemed to matter to him.

Most of Artie's gang came and sat with me and Robert, at least for a few minutes, here and there as the evening progressed.  The only one from outside of the gang who came up to me was Lindsay Starn, who put her arm on my shoulder and asked how I was doing.  Thankfully, she did not ask me to dance.

The Graduation ceremony of December changed what we called ourselves.  The seniors were now "Graduates", what ever that meant.  Many wanted to still participate in schooling, so a small college course program was being built, with the aim of starting later in January.  Others just wanted to shift into their job responsibilities on a more full time basis.  My father was open to whatever they decided.  Technically, they were adults now, and should be allowed more latitude in their decisions.

I and much of Artie's gang were now seniors.  We started new classes at the beginning of the year.  I was looking forward to Mrs. Forsyth's World Humanities class, but not PreCalculus.  I might have appealed to someone to try to get out of it, but I didn't want to make the effort to contact my father or anyone else in administration.  I had decided to just suffer through it as best I could, as if it was some kind of penance.

Students like Lindsay and my sister, Diane, now moved up to junior status.  Larry Wiseman was now a sophomore.  There apparently were no more freshmen.  We didn't think too much about it, but that meant if we stayed in the Trap long enough, we would all be "Graduates".  But before that would happen, all these labels would fall away.