Well, the month of March has begun; as such, things have changed in Lochland Middle School. But it's not what you think.

In fact, things at school have gotten so much worse.

Today, the principal learned about the eighth grade class being punished for, basically, not being teenagers. Yet he didn't agree with the cancellation of the eighth grade trip or promotion or the party, as those things cost a lot of money, money we can't afford not to spend. It's so sad we're being punished because we chose not to act like we're supposed to.

Plus, it's better to be isolated and happy than be in a crowd and feel lonely.

Yet, many things happening in the school were canceled, from a group of activities catering to the sports-loving jerks and the pro-social idiots. This means we anti-social nerds might have something special planned. We never caused trouble for anyone, save for not being social enough for middle school, so we should be getting all the rewards and pro-social kids should get jack squat.

Well, that's how it went.

Anyway, when I got to school, the principal had announced that from now on, students were to remain on school campus at all times, if not in our classes. The library and computer lab were off limits during lunchtime. And to make things worse, anyone who isolated themselves from the rest of the school was ordered to see the school counselor and explain why they felt the need to avoid interacting with other people like the plague.

In short, the new school rules were put in place to punish any people who were shy and lonely.

With that, over 65 students left the campus in protest; those students were the smart kids, the kids who didn't have time for the social aspects of middle school. They weren't going to become extroverts and give up their anti-social ways because a school rule that was against their way of life said they should.

While the protests were going, Clayton and I decided to hit the gym for a much-needed cool down. Mainly for him. As I've said before, I'm not good at sports. But who cares, as long as I'm out of the classroom in a school that continues to stifle me because of my anti-social introverted ways.

As Clayton continued shooting basketballs into the hoop, he said, "I don't know half of what's going on, and I could really care less about what the rest of the school is doing, but I can't sit there and allow people to take away my education because they want to punish a bunch of antisocial nerds for not ooogling other people's bodies like the other losers."

"I know," I said "Plus, I remembering promising never to date until I got an engineering degree."

"What about when you got to college?" said Clayton.

"I decided to change that," I said. "I can't think of other important things while I'm trying to get a date. That’s why I don't date."

"I see," said Clayton. "Anyway, Milton called me last night..."

"Really?" I said. "I thought he wasn't allowed to use the phone."

"He wasn't," said Clayton, "but his family left the house to deal with Barbara's stuff and left him at home. Milton tells me that he's already been sent to the counselor's office twice and it's only his first week at that school."

"The Holts are making a big mistake," I said.

"Indeed they are," said Clayton. "The sooner the principal of our school knows this, the better. We can't have two of us without Milton, or can we?"

Well, he was right. There can't be Jed, Clayton, and Milton without Milton. What kind of friendship would that be? As a rule, the students of Lochland Middle School weren't allowed to have any form of contact with the students of Clatskanie Middle/High School, as the conditions of that school and its students were less than satisfactory. Plus, that school was a dumping place for kids who couldn't handle life at a regular public school. And don't get me started on the rumors of girls as young as 12 getting pregnant and the beatings that took place once a week. (I'm surprised that Milton went this long without being beaten up, but someone who doesn't give a crap about the rules will beat him up. It's going to happen soon; no one will be able to stop them when it happens.)

Clayton said, "So, what should we do now?"

I didn't know what to say, knowing we had to save Milton from that terrible school and his uncaring family, no matter what they thought. We also had to find a way to make Barbara pay for hurting Milton and not letting anyone help him escape from her wrath. Something had to give; the minute we made things get back to normal, the better.

But my troubles at school didn't end there; in fact, everything at the school followed me home. Of course, mom found out everything that happened. She was so angry, she spent an hour and a half on the phone, yelling at the principal for imposing those stupid school rules that punished shy and lonely kids for being shy and lonely. You'd think most kids would choose to be shy and lonely, but what if they were unhappy with their lives? You can't force people to be happy, no matter who you are. You've got have a little sadness sometimes.

But that didn't excuse the fact that I was or wasn't being punished for being friends with Milton Holt when the rest of the school was picking on him for no reason. Nobody seemed to care that Barbara was beating up Milton and his parents ignored the abuse. I knew that if Milton were my kid, I would get him away from Barbara and send her to a place where she could be restrained and not be allowed to interact with the other kids until she got rid of the things that were bothering her.

Anyway, I'm glad Jem didn't bother me today, as she's still feeling upset over the cancellations of the eighth grade events. (There's no word on if the school trip or the eighth grade promotion were back on.) I'm sure that the next day, she's really going to light into me for being a part of the reason those events were cancelled.

But we'll leave that for tomorrow.

As for the rest of that day, mom was so angry with the principal, I'm shocked she didn't pull me out of Lochland Middle School and sent me to Meadow Wood Academy or Hollowpond Middle School immediately. Dad, on the other hand, told me that I didn't need to get tough and follow those school rules, but to instead be an example to the other students about what a boy my age should and shouldn't do. As in a boy should be paying attention to the lesson and doing homework, not ooogling girls or picking fights or defying the teachers. (This was what everyone else in the school was doing.)

Well, I now knew what to do, and how I was going to solve that problem.

At the same time, Claire called and here's what she told me:

Claire: Hey, wassup, Jed?

Jed: Oh, not much. Why? What's going on?

Claire: Well, a few people and I had a meeting to discuss everything that's going on at Lochland and we all agreed that some changes needed to be made.

Jed: What changes?

Claire: Well, that's the problem. Nobody can agree on the changes that the school needs.

Jed: Like we don't know.

Claire: Stop being funny, Jed. We need to agree on some changes or else all the nerds and antisocial students will leave Lochland and go to Clatskanie. We can't have that happen.

Jed: What we do know is that there are more shy and quiet students than students who are all about the social scene.

Claire: And those kids are the biggest dumbasses the community has produced in recent years. They need to be destroyed.

Jed: And I know how to do that.

Well, I was about to go into detail about what changes needed to be made when the twins called:

Adrian: Hey, Jed. What's going on at the school?

Dorian: And don't say that everyone's missing us because we know they're not.

Jed: Well, nothing interesting happened, unless you want to talk about the new school rules discriminating against introverts.

Dorian: What the hell?

Adrian: So now it's come to this. The school is racist against introverts. I should have known something like this was going to happen.

Jed: Like what?

Dorian: For the past few years, Lochland Middle School (and Lochland High school for that matter) have been getting a bad rap because they have rules that ban shyness and force shy students to be more sociable, as if those students chose to be shy and lonely.

Adrian: Don't be stupid, dude. Nobody chooses to be shy and quiet.

Jed: OK, what do you have in mind?

Adrian: And in getting that bad rap, we can remind everyone of their bad reputation and order them to fix it immediately or else Javier will take over the school.

Dorian: And he means business too.

Jed: Who is Javier?

Dorian: Only one of the most powerful men in the city. Everyone has to answer to him. If he finds out that something like this is going on, he won't be happy.

Adrian: It's true. I've seen him take down people who hurt other people and steal money. I shudder to know how he'll react when he finds out what's going on at our school.

Jed: Well, I guess I don't want to mess with him.

Dorian: No, you don't want to mess with him. In fact, you would want to keep away from him if you want to live.

Of course, Claire isn't too happy about the twins interrupting her in the middle of the conversation; she lets them know how she felt about that. I frowned, knowing that somehow, I had ceased to be the mild-mannered boy that very few people spoke to and instead became a boy who broke the rules and exposed other people for the bullies that they truly were.

Speaking of which, do you remember when I told you about Claire and the people who tormented her? Well, there's going to be a school trial for them tomorrow and I'm wondering how everyone else in the school is going to take this. I bet those kids had friends who helped them keep Claire isolated from the rest of the school. If that's so, then those friends are guilty by association.

Well, let's cross that bridge when we reach it, OK?