-Josh-

Ezra is infuriating. He's just so... tolerant. And weirdly personal. Fixing my tie yesterday... what is going on in his head? He's insane.

Yet he acts completely normal. Whenever I have to interact with him-- mostly in our room, because we don't share any classes and I actively avoid him at meals-- he just... acts like a normal person. He reads books, he listens to music, he writes emails home to his family. With how weird he looks, it kind of weirds me out that he doesn't act the same way.

Moreover, he actually studies. I don't think I've met a single person who would ever choose to study in their free time, let alone on the second day of school. But there he is, flipping through a history textbook and taking diligent notes.

I don't speak-- I try not to, when he's around. I don't need him thinking he can try to talk to me. Not that it's stopped him yet.

I'm composing an email to my own family at the moment, just to keep them updated on how I am. They usually don't care that much, but I feel like it's worth it anyways.

TO: prestonfc@gmail.com

FROM: josh.preston@gmail.com

Hey guys,

It's my second day here. I felt like I needed to touch base since I didn't really talk about it at the end of the summer. I'm okay-- my new roommate isn't the best, but he's not the worst either. How are you guys? Mom, got a new craft project going on? Has Dad made a sale since I left? Maybe that's a little hopeful. I hope Jesmyn is okay, though I can't remember when she leaves for college again so that might also be a weird question. Whatever.

I love you guys. Write back.

I'll write again in a couple weeks if I remember.

Josh

I oftentimes feel disconnected from my family-- my parents are both sucked into their jobs, and when my mom isn't working she's experimenting with new crafts (Dad's always working). My sister is just enough older than me that we're not really close.

I do love them all, but a lot of the time, I feel like I don't really fit in. My family is so business-oriented, and what I want to do is... well, it's sports. I play football-- I'm passionate about playing football. It's what I want to do with my life.

My sister is studying business. My dad's a real estate agent. My mom is an administrator in the marketing firm she works at. And I... I play sports.

I'm kind of an odd duck.

I shut my laptop and sigh softly, then try to come up with something to do to kill the time before dinner.

I decide to just read, like Ezra's doing, and grab one of my graphic novels to flip through. Even though he glances up at this action, he blissfully doesn't say a thing about it, so I don't have to confront it.

I sit with the football guys at dinner again, and Ian briefs us a bit on what the next game will be like-- who we're playing against, what they're like, their recent wins and losses. He seems very confident that we'll get on a win streak this year, and given how abysmal our performance was last year, I sure hope he's correct.

Kieran seems to be hopeful. He points out some inconsistencies in what Ian says, which Ian takes fairly well for the guy who seems to love yelling at his subordinates (us).

I'm maybe not as hopeful, but I can't say I don't harbor a little hope somewhere in the depths of my heart. I was devastated by the stacked losses of last year, and if we were to come back from it this year like Ian projects, it'd make us all look so much better to college scouts. Given that Ian and Kieran graduate this year, and a bunch of us will graduate the next, it's good news for all of us if scouts have their eyes on us.

I leave the meal feeling a little better and more reassured than I did this afternoon. I think this year will be okay.

If Ezra will just stay out of my way.