When I was fourteen they hired a new vice principle at our school. He was a bit of a tyrant, like I suppose all vice principles tend to be, but this guy was a little over the top. He had worked in a juvenile detention center in New York City, and it seems he felt all kids were bad in some sense or another. Anyway, he proceeded to have all the "really bad" kids, who most of happened to be my friends, removed from school and placed in the remedial school across town. I "luckily" missed the inquisition of sorts by being hospitalized for most of the first half of school because of an injury. When I returned to school everything had changed. The doors were locked between classes, and teachers strolled the halls like prison guards. There were no kids smoking behind the gym garage doors, and all my friends were gone. The salad days were over, and I was alone.
After a few months of detensions and suspensions I moved to Queens to live with my Aunt and Uncle.
