Other Shoes Project Day One, September 2nd, 2010

Day One of my goth project started out with a huge bang.
Well, at home after I got done putting my make up and gear on, my mom, who was in on the whole thing, was scared of me. I was scared of myself, I didn't reconize myself in the mirror. So, my mom drives me to school, and as soon as I walk in the cafeteria of the school, Billy Geiger, Nick Barber, Joshua Nelson, and Alec Deshaun all stared at me and chuckeled, whether in fear or in hilarity, I don't know. Billy said, "That's a good look for you, Ben." Joshua said, "Is it Halloween alreay?" Finally, Alec Deshaun said, "I thought you were better then that, Ben." I went and sat down at a table that wasn't too far from their's, Nick got up and asked me, "How's your day, Ben?" I then said, "Painful, as always." Nick walked away laughing. As time went by, more and more kids asked me what was wrong, and I just said I turned goth. One kid that show positivity toward my change was Luke Murphy, who said, "Wow, I love it. Being emo for a day?" I then replied, "I"m being goth permenently. I discovered the only point of living is for God to enjoy our suffering." To which Luke replied, "Now you've got smarts. God is like the kid with the magnifying glass on an anthill, and he's burning us ants with it." Luke walked away. I then sat down for a while when a Sophmore that rides my bus with me named Matthew Roderick was worried about me. He said, "What are you doing?" I told him I'd turned goth. He said that I shouldn't and he tried to get me to take off my necklace and my makeup. I said I wouldn't. Matt looked at me with a cold stare as if he didn't know who I was anymore. Then, the bell rang to mark the start of school.
After I got my stuff from my locker, I went to my first class, Algebra 1, to see Mrs. Campbell sitting at her desk. She stared at me with concern. "Ben?" she asked, "are you alright?" "I just went over to the dark side," I said, "I discovered the only point of living it to suffer." She then got worried and said, "Are you seriously alright?" I then got worried because she really showed concern. Still in character, I tried to tell her I'm fine. She then walked out of her room. Meanwhile, as my classmates walked in, they all stared and said basically the same things other kids said, some scared of me, some liking my change, more or less. However, I heared that Mrs. Campbell was running around the school, freaking out and showing concern about me. Pretty soon, Ms. Laughhunn came in and looked and me and shouted, "You had me worried, Ben! Ben!!," and she walked back out. Then, one by one, kids from Ms. Laughhunn's room peaked in to look at me, all scared. All my classmates were worried saying, "Ben, what did you do to scared Mrs. Campbell?" "Nothing that I'm not supposed to say," I said. Later, after more concern towards me from the students, Mrs. Campbell came back in relieved and found out that is was all a project. She blew my cover. She was so relieve that I had not gone over to the dark side. After all that, Algebra class went on like normal.
   My next class was English III.On my way down the hall, Mrs. Holladay looked at me. "Hi," I said. "Hello," she replied, with a shocked stare on her face. I walked in to Mr. Toland's room, and my classmates who were in on my project were scared of me, and others loved my attire. Mr. Toland came in, and he liked my attire. I was worried if I got him in trouble with Mr. Lamkey because of Mrs. Campbell's gossip around the school. Mr. Toland told me my get up didn't get him in trouble with anyone, however, Mr. Lamkey sent and email to every teacher in the school that if they see me, they shouldn't be worried. Wow. Mr. Toland said that this was the first time doing this project that the principle had to send and email to the whole school about one kid. Dang. English class went on as normally, with the other students discussing their Other Shoes project. My only hope was that Mr. Lamkey's email didn't ruin the shock value that I would get from all my teachers.
  My next class was Junior Seminar, when I walked in there, I could hear Corey Galassi say, "Oh, my God!" when he saw me. Mrs. Wade then saw me and smiled as if she knew what was going on. As more kids came in, Austyn Mulcahy said "I look like like Sam Manson," Sam Manson is a goth character from this former Nickelodeon show called, "Danny Phantom," in case you were wondering. I then claimed, "I make Sam Manson look like Mickey Mouse." That scared Austyn. Austyn kept asking about me, and I kept giving negative and dark answers, she then claimed I was making her depressed. As he walked in the room, Austen Kuizin saw me and I told him that I was a goth. He asked if I listen to death metal, and I said music doesn't distract me from the suffering in this world, to which Austen sat down. After that, the bell rang and class went on like normal. Nothing happened until the end of class when me and Keleb Penny claimed this was for my English project and I would be back to normal tommorow, but I claimed it wasn't. We went back and forth until the bell rang.
 When I got to the gym for P. E., Mr. Lamkey was in there monitoring a scoreboard being fixed. He saw me and said, "Ben, come here." I then got nervouse and walked up to him. "Yes, sir?" I asked. "Are you dressed appropiatley for school?" He asked. I began to say, "I read the handbook yesturday and I didn't see anything..." "I'm kidding," he claimed, "go get dressed." Looks like Mr. Lamkey really was in on the gag. I then went in the locker room, and changed into my uniforms. While I was chaning, a lot of kids were commenting about me. It was the same old stuff, like "Ben's goth now," or, "Oh, my gosh, Ben's goth now." When I walked out, two Freshmen I don't know showed concern. They were like, "Ben, what's wrong with you?" I replied, "I'm goth now," "Why?" "Because, I felt like it." I then walked away and saw a blank stare on their faces as I walked to my spot for P.E. After we got done stretching, Zoey Dodson, who I always get along with saw me and was like, "Ben, what's gotten into you?" "I'm goth now," I claimed. "Why?" "Because the only point of this world is to suffer." Zoey then said, "Well, you were always making me happy because you were so happy." "Times change," I replied. "Fine, be that way," she said as she walked away. As we did the activity for the day, Ms. King kept laughing at the gothic things I was saying, "Suffering," and, "Conformist's are behind our suffering." As time went on, the bell rang and I went into the locker room, and Tyler Hauck claimed I was also doing this for the English project, to which I denied that. We went back and forth on this until when went out into the gym and sat on the bleachers, to which Brian Seagle told Tyler I can't be doing this for my project because I'm taking the role very seriously. So, then Brian and Tyler went back and forth. Then, Kyle Miller walked up and asked me, "Going to go cut yourself after school?" I then replied, "That's emo, you pathetic soul." Kyle then backed away from me. The bell then rang and we walked out of the gym.
  My next class was Chemisty, when class started, Mrs. Brock walked up to me and said, "Is this just part of a project," I said, "I can't tell you." Then she said, "I just hope it is, and tommorow I'll have normal Ben back." I wish I could tell her that was true. Nothing else out of the ordinary happened in this class.
  Next was lunch, I sat at my table normally, and Jay Forness and Kim Melton said I was good at what I was doing. David Callaham was freaked out about me.
  Next was Art class, where a lot of kids I don't know were scared of me, they backed away and they looked like they wouldn't want to see me down a dark alley. Later in the class, Mrs. Grimaldi made me run to the library to run an errand for her. Out of the all kids you have in that class with free time, why make the goth kid run an errand for you? So anyway, I wlked to the library and Mrs. Hollady was at her table. I said, "Mrs. Grimaldi needs copies of these papers." Mrs. Hollady started copying the papers, and while we were waiting, she asked, "So, what's with the face paint?" "I'm goth now," I replied. In a casual voice, Mrs. Hollady replied, "Okay." I then took the copies back to Mrs. Grimaldi where she also asked about the face paint, I gave her the same answer I gave eveyone else and Mrs. Grimaldi replied, "Okay."
   The bell rang and it was time for my final class, American History. I went into the class room and Luke Murphy was mad that I hadn't gotten in trouble for my face paint, because he always got in trouble for face paint. Mr. Upchurch called us up to show us our homework from last night, I was next in line and I was in Austyn Mulcahy's way and she said, "Scuse me, darkness." Mr. Upchurch then chuckled and repeated, "Darkness." I showed him my homework and sat back down, and class went on like normal.
   When I got on my bus to go home, more kids were shocked, but a lot of the kids on the bus are the most unsophisticated kids I see the whole day at school. One kid called me a "gay goth," I'm just as confused as you are. Nothing else happened as I was dropped off home and I later went back to the school for play practice.
 When I got there, I was the first one there, so I sat outside Ms. Stephenich's room. Kelsey Hindert appeared next, and was in on the project, no matter how much I denied it. Veronica Geidiemen walked in after her, and since she's in my class, she new about the project. Leanna Painteir came next, and I was depressing and negative to her, but she laughed and was in on the project. Then came the toughest person that I had the toughest time getting past through this whole expierement, Blake Gracia. Everything I said, I had a comeback for, he was so surprised about it that he claimed, "He's got this all planned out, I'm shocked." Blake starting eating Reese's Pieaces, I said, "Those are nothing but a distraction from your suffering." Blake laughed. Ryan Fisher came next, and at first he laughed, but through the night, I made him depressed. Ms. Tester and Mr. Eaton arrived and weren't shocked at my appearence, Ms. Tester claimed I better give it my all when learning the dacne for "Pandemoniam." Anyway, no matter what Blake said or did, from dancing to puppies, I had a comeback for. It got to a point where Blake was shocked I was taking the project serously and was like, "Ben, I love you, but come on, you can't be taking this project that seriously." I replied, "If you me the project up God torturing us, then yes." Blake got frustrated. So, through out the night when we were supposed to be learning the dance, Blake was trying to get me to smile. Knowing Blake, he is just a one of a kind character that I have no choice to laugh at him on a normal day, but this wasn't a normal day. I couldn't laugh or smile at all, I had to keep it all bottled up inside like a champange bottle ready to explode. Some of the tactics Blake tried to get to laught or smile was shouting his signiture catchphrase, "Brackagow!" To disguise a laugh about to come out, I acted like I was yawning. So everytime he tried to get me to laugh, I yawned, and he knew I wanted to laugh so badly. Another tactic he tried was starting the "Benny Ben" dance and it was a dance and a song that I can't describe with words, it can do it justice. While he was doing the "Benny Ben" dance, all the guys started to tap their feet and clap with the beat. As much as I wanted to laugh, it didn't work, Blake was furious. Later, I was in a different location of the dance, I was right in front of the middle of the black curtain. Alex Berhens walked off for a second but I didn't see where he went. When I was listening to Ms. Tester, Alex popped up out of the middle of the curtain right where I was and screamed. I almost fell out of my stool, and the whole auditorium went silent, like a gun going off. However, I didn't smile as much as Alex begged me. When I didn't smile, he got mad and was like, "No!! I almost had him!" Blake continued to try to get me to laugh to which Ms. Tester was mad that he was distracting us and she asked, "What are you doing?" "Just trying to get Ben to smile," replied Blake. Ms. Tester then said, "Well, stop. Don't worry about him, worry about you, because you're starting to make me lose my patience." Blake toned down his tactics after that. He tried everything but the kitchen sink, but I bet if he had one, he would use it, but nothing got me to smile. When we practiced the dance we learned, I didn't put full effort into it like I normally do, and I bet that was shocking to everybody who knew me from "Beauty and the Beast" from last year. I continued to be depressed and negative to which Sarah Klebe said, "Ben, I don't like how your acting." "Get used to it," I said. "I want the old Ben back," she said. "That Ben's dead," I said. Kelsey Hindert got frustrated, walked over to me and stared at me and said, "I'm not leaving until you smile." We stood there staring at eachother for what seemed like years, shen then quit and walked away. Blake then asked, "Ben this is who you are on the outside, is the who you are on the inside." "Yes," I said. "What color is Godzilla? Oh, I don't want to get you started on that." I then said, "I don't care anymore, I hate Godzilla." Blake then fell out of his chair. "I think you just made my heart stop," Blake said. He then asked me about all the cartoons I liked, and I said I hated them all. He gave me a look that just said, "Dude, you've changed." After practice got over, I walked out and drove home, starting to feel like I've really become this person. I didn't feel like me anymore.