Chapter 5: Clean Up

"Clean up Clean up everybody clean up..."

Why do the worst songs play in my head at the weirdest times? I was doing punishment work and partnered with the worst person too.

"Hey, you missed that one," Sarah chirps as she points to a nearby piece of trash

"Oh, look another one I missed," I mock as I point out more trash,"and another one too, wow, it's like that's why we're out here," I continue

"Y'know, you could just be the tiniest bit nicer, O 'Great Jackass'" Sarah lips back as scoldingly she points at me

"She's right, Jack- I mean Luke, be nice," Mrs.Batman half-heartedly yells from halfway across the field

Great now I have two Neat Freaks in my ear

It's like it doesn't matter that whatever I do is to clean up this godforsaken field, they just yammer on about how *I* need to pick everything up

"Why are you so difficult, its like you would hate me even if I said nothing," Sarah asked pointedly

That's it, time to let it all out

"Oh, I don't know, maybe its because Im stuck out here with the one person who got me in trouble to begin with, and now since you are the 'Best' student, I also happened to make an enemy of the whole school" I yelled

"Well, maybe you could learn why everyone likes me instead of hating me for it" she fires back

"Or maybe I could snort glue," I snide, trying to hide the fact she had a point from myself

"Ok, so, imagine this, you find someone hurt and you think they're hurt, you try to lend a hand but its slapped away" Sarah starts

And she's talking about me, great

"Sounds like this person wants to be left alone," I howl

She walks away in a huff, defeatedly, and keeps a distance for the rest of the time we pick trash

I get frustrated and silently pick up trash, left to pick up the pieces of other people's lives

The car ride home is the worst part; I get to imagine the tortures that dad will set up over the weekend, or just imagine all my favorite characters running next to the car, like a crazy person