Chapter 5 · Something new

As a high school student, I thought I was doing well. I was fourteen and still cared about my grades and my performance as a student. I wasn't an A student, but I tried hard. I really struggled with my foreign language class and so I sat in the back where my teacher left me alone for the most part.

Although my mother was French and spoke it around the house sometimes, the only phrases I could speak after taking the class were; je m'appelle Michel, and voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? Clearly, I was distracted and not very interested in speaking French.

Toward the end of my Freshman year at Beverly High School I was sitting in my French class not paying attention and a couple of kids sitting to my right were having a conversation about something I couldn't quite make out. Then I heard it, "let me buy a joint".

Now, up to this point, the only time I had really heard anything about pot was when I was about eight or ten. I was over at my aunt's house and I was watching Superman with my cousin Kelly. We had been running around the house full of childhood energy, sugar and excitement from eating snacks, and playing with all the adults that were drinking and being fun. I was walking back to the bedroom to finish watching Superman on our little 12-inch color Zenith in my cousin's room, and I overheard one of the adults say, "let's go out on the porch and smoke some pot". I looked up on the table and saw what looked like a pot that you would water a plant with.

They were using it as a homemade pipe, but like a child I asked the obvious question, "how are you going to smoke that pot, and why"? In response, I got a bunch of adults laughing at me and dismissing my childish interruption. I was ushered back into the room to finish watching Superman with my cousin Kelly.

With this limited experience, I still decided it would be a good idea to inject myself into the conversation that was happening next to me in French class. I asked for a joint myself and was immediately included in this little drug deal. At the time, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it once I got it. I thought about buying it and saving it until I found someone to help me with it. Buying this joint wasn't much of a financial investment, because back then they only cost about $1.00.

After French class I met up with this kid at his locker and he very casually handed me my joint, I gave him my dollar, and we both moved on. My first drug deal had been completed successfully.

Due to my limited experience, I had to reach out to the only person in our neighborhood that I thought would know what to do with it. We will call her Linda. She was open to the idea but when I asked her she looked a little confused that I wanted to try it. I don't think she ever thought that I would be interested in doing drugs, and I'll be honest with you, neither did I. Until this point in my life it just never seemed like a good idea.

In our little suburban neighborhood, we had access to a football stadium and a baseball field. The baseball field was called Cooney Field, and had a variety of spots to choose from to hang out and do "stuff". Linda and I chose to go under the old crumbling concrete stadium seating at Cooney and I had my first experience with drugs.

There was a dampness in the air under the concrete steps that was cut with the overwhelming scent of urine and trash. We deodorized this powerful stench with the refreshing smell of weed and together we smoked the whole thing. I guess I just didn't know what to expect, but it was not the life changing high that I had expected. As a matter of fact, I didn't feel much, I just felt weird.

It was not the high that I ended up falling in love with. What I did fall in love with, was the whole experience of buying it and the sneaking around to do it. I enjoyed the fact that I had something in common with people that I never had anything in common with before and it excited me. This experience changed everything for me. I felt like I had been introduced to a fantastic new multi-purpose tool that gave me access to a whole new set of social circumstances.