A Slow Descent

Chapter 2
Freshman Fun

Chapter Description: Brandon gets to relive Freshman year, the most horrible year of Highschool known to man (or boy).

I woke up with a really strange taste in my mouth. I wasn’t sure what It was, it was that sort of taste you have when you wake up at noon which the sun coming through your window. But this wasn’t my room.

For a moment, I was very, very confused. It was like I had woken up in a hospital room, but it was strange. There I was hooked up to a food tube.

I saw the date on the calendar and immediately remembered what was happening. I had hoped it was a dream, but I was very, very wrong. The date read August 15th.

After my heart meter started beating, the Doctor rushed in.

"Your awake, good! That means that your brain has finally started to reverse itself. You should be about Fourteen Years old now."

"You mean this is real?" my voice sounded a bit different, maybe a pitch higher.

"Yep!" God I hated how happy this guy was all the time. "You have been in a sort of comiatic trance for about six weeks. You might feel a bit antsy."

I did feel a little bit more energized. "Don’t get up quite yet." he said, putting me back down. "I’ll bring your parents in, and they can talk to you."

Oh, yah, those two. Those two horrible people who are going against the laws of physics to make me a little kid. Yah, real excited to see them.

The two walked into the room as the doctor stepped out. It got really awkward, really fast.

"How are you feeling?" said my dad. "A bit chipper?"

"Shut up!" I said, looking away. "You don’t care how I feel, you just want a little kid so you don’t feel so old."

"Hey!" he said. "You don’t talk to us like that, young man! Apologize."

I laughed. "I’m not apologizing to you people. Look what your doing to me! Your not my parents! Your just two lunatic people who need to go to an asylum." I was really mad, as you can tell.

"Brandon." said Mom calmly. "You’ll like this! I promise, by the time these six months are up, you’ll be much happier with this decision. And don’t worry, you’ll grow right back up again, this time the right way. It will just take a little while."

I looked away. I vowed then and there, that I wouldn’t let my brain be turned to liking this.

"Starting in two weeks, " said Dad. "You’ll be going back to your school, as a freshman. You’ll take freshman classes for a month, and then, after that, you won’t be old enough for High School anymore"

"What’s the point of going to school for a month? It’s not like I’ll learn anything." I said.

"Mrs. Figg said that it would help you cope with the condition." said mom. She didn’t mention what else Mrs. Figg had said, that I didn’t learn until later. By going to school a lower grade, my brain was relearning those things, forgetting things about the above grade. Slowly but surely, I was forgetting things I learned in school.

"No way I’m doing that." I said. "You can’t make me do that."

"Well." said dad. "We would hate to have the doctor set your destination age to be even younger. A fourth grader can still play and have a lot of fun and even think, but a little newborn will just pee his pants, and spit up on his bare chest, unable to control his limbs."

"Are you blackmailing me?" I asked.

"Don’t think of it as blackmailing, honey." said Mom. "Think of it as helping you to go with the flow."

"Look on the bright side!" said Dad. "You still have two weeks of summer before your big day going to your first day at High School!"

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It was hardly a bright side.

I spent the first and last two weeks of my summer watching TV. I didn’t want to risk going outside and seeing somebody I knew, because I knew I couldn’t take the sadness that they were no longer my friends.

Another reason I didn’t want to move was that getting around in my slightly smaller body was much more annoying. It wasn’t hard, but sometimes the little things got to me, like just barely not being to reach something, or missing a step on the stairs because of a small height difference.

Finally, the day for Freshman Orientation came along. My parents wanted me to go so i could introduce myself as a new student. Even though the procedure is supposed to be "Legal"(At least that what they told me), they wanted to keep it on the down-low.

I thought about telling somebody about my situation, but I realized nobody would believe me, especially as I got younger.

When I got to orientation, I knew that the next month was going to be a nightmare. I really didn’t like these kids, they seemed very immature and made way too many "That’s What She Said" jokes. It annoyed me because I was supposed to be a Junior this year, but of coarse, not anymore.

Freshman orientation was pretty boring. It was really weird being given a tour of my own school. So many memories of this place that I wouldn’t even have in a few months.

I thought a few teachers recognized me, but apparently not. I changed a lot since freshman year, so I must have looked legitimately new.

The day after that was the first day of school. I knew that it would be horrible, because it always is for Freshmen.

It’s really strange to be spoken to like your going to be there all year. I was only staying until October, when I would move to the middle school. I realized that I would start reversing through puberty next month, so I had a bad few months ahead.

During lunch, I sat alone. I took out a piece of paper and started to figure out when I would be what ages.

This month, September, Im Fourteen. Im in ninth grade now. Then, October, I would be Thirteen, and then Twelve in November. That would be Seventh Grade. God, I hated seventh grade. After that, I would go to the elementary school for Sixth Grade. I guess by then I might already believe in Santa or whatever. January would be Fifth grade, and then in February or March I would be Ten and then Nine, and in the third or fourth grade.

This is when I became really upset. I realized for the first time, that all the progress I’ve made in life, socially, academically, it would be all gone. I wouldn’t know how to multiply fractions or do long division, or know about dirty jokes or sex. It made me sort of want to have some intercourse, (I never have) just to do it before i’m banished to thinking girls are gross. I knew nobody would do that with me, since I was the new kid and all.

On my way to last period, Garret Johnson, a friend of mine, grabbed me and threw me against the wall.

"Hey look, we got a freshman over here! Let’s give him the school welcome!"

To make a long story short, I was dunked in a toilet, after it was used, of coarse.

I spit out the putrid water and tried to speak.

"Garret, its me! It’s Brandon!"

"Yah, sure." he said. "Only Brandon I know moved away." So that’s what my parents have been telling people.

"Please, believe me. Im Brandon, your best friend!"

"Haha, good one. Just for that, extra dunks." It was not a fun half hour.

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The next few weeks were not fun. Nobody in my current grade paid any attention to me, and my old friends were killing me. Not literally of coarse, but you know what I mean.

As much as I hated Freshmen, though, they aren’t that bad. They we’re just a little younger, is all. Some of them were even funny.

Thats what I thought for a a week or two, when I realized that I only thought that because the procedure was making me think like I was younger. Then I stopped thinking like that.

It’s weird how things stick in your mind, even after you stop doing them. I picked up my old routine as a freshman, which was walking to school instead of taking the bus. It was weird, I remembered the way perfectly.

I saw myself getting smaller. I became much skinnier, and about two inches shorter. I was losing a whole year in the coarse of a month. I stood at 5’4 now, when I was 5’7 before.

Finally, the day came to get examined by the doctor. This was the first time. I was actually happy to go, so I could stop being a freshman. At least in eighth grade I’ll be the oldest again.

The doctor said I was about 13 years old, now, physically and mentally. He said that I was bound to start getting a lot of mood swings, headaches, muscles hurting, and the unspoken one, loss of control over my "Excitments."

"So, he should be enrolling in eighth grade monday." said the doctor. "if you didn’t know, Mrs. Figg has notified the principal of the middle school and Elementary school of the ’situation’."

"Great." said Mom. "Aren’t you excited honey?"

I didn’t say anything. The truth was, yah, I didn’t want to be a freshman anymore. However, I wasn’t speaking with my parents currently. I did slam the door a lot, though. I realized later that this was just showing them how much my maturity level had dropped already, and how well this was working.

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