Personal Interest

Coming home, Scott was looking at the ground while walking on the sidewalk. Confused about many things that happened last year with Troy chasing him, Ashley dying from his hands, Jim being manipulated, John's reflection on the mirror and many things that he thought about. The biggest thing that Scott wanted to know was about a contract that Troy mentioned before he died.

"A contract, what does he mean by John wanting a contract with me?" Scott was confused as he walked home.

As he made it home, Scott put his bag down on the couch as he sat down. "What is a contract?"

"Sweetie, can you come to the kitchen?" Mrs. Smith looking at her bills in the kitchen.

Scott walked into the kitchen. "Yeah mom. What is it?"

"I recently got your friend's hospital bills and it seems to be very expensive."

"How expensive can it be?" Scott looked at the bill.

However, he was in shock as the bill was nearly five thousand dollars. "Five thousand dollars! I thought the bill would be around a thousand!"

"Scott. Can you explain why the bill is higher than it was supposed to be?"

Scott then realized that Jim's appointment was checking on his hypothermia, but also thought about his fake braces and glasses removal as well as the clothes he bought from a clothes store.

"Mom. I think I know why the bill was higher." Scott making a fake smile towards his mother.

Scott expected his mother to be angry but was instead disappointed. "Scott. You know that my job as an online accountant can't handle this high of a bill and you should be responsible for this bill."

"I'm sorry mom. There were things in Jim's body that weren't supposed to be there, so I told the doctor to check on that."

"It's okay. It was for your friend's safety and I understand that. But you need to find a way to pay off this bill."

"Well how am I supposed to do that mom? I'm just a high school student."

"And you're eighteen, a legal adult. Try to find a job in this town. It'll be good for you to try to find other interests besides going to school, you know."

"Sure mom."

"Also, maybe join a club. I don't know whether you wanted to join the baseball team this year, but if not then maybe you can pursue another club."

Scott thought about whether to join the baseball team after what happened last year where his anger led him to beat up another student with his baseball bat. Besides being exiled from his home neighborhood, he also gave up on baseball as he believed that he'll never touch a baseball bat ever again after that incident.

"You know what mom, I'll see what that school also has even though I really don't like a few students over there."

"Splendid. But can you promise me to find a job in order to pay for this medical bill?"

"I promised." Scott hugging his mom. 

"Now wash yourself before supper time alright." Mrs. Smith then went back to the kitchen to get ready for dinner.

Scott then looked out of the window at the same area that he saw John's reflection questioning about the uncertainties that Sunshine High is unfolding. 

The next day, Scott went towards the board in the central area of the first floor containing all the club offerings the school had.

"Let's see. Cooking club. I'm a decent cook but no. Video game club? I'm not that much into playing video games."

Jim then approached Scott. "Hey Scott, what are you doing?"

"Just trying to find a club to join. Ever since I came here. I never had an extracurricular so I decided to find one."

"I see. I'm already in an extracurricular but I don't think it'll be to your liking."

"What club is that?"

"The physics club."

"Yeah, I'm not interested. I'm not a fan of education that much."

"I knew you were gonna say that."

Scott then stopped looking at the board and looked at Jim.

"Jim. How can I find which club I can join? I never really joined any clubs in my high school career and was expecting to just play baseball my last year. But after the incident, I don't know whether I want to play again."

Jim thought about it. And had an idea. "How about try to join a club where it can benefit you."

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is maybe find a club where it can help your personal life. For example, I wasn't much of a physics person, so I joined a club where it can counter my struggle. As a result, I really like physics."

Jim was then next to Scott as he tried to see which club there was. "Maybe there might be a club where it can help you. What about the wrestling club? You are considered an athlete yourself."

"Just because I play baseball doesn't mean my body is that muscular."

Suddenly, the bell rang. "Look Scott.

I got to get to class. Keep trying to find which club could fit you."

"Alright then. See ya Jim." Jim left for his next class.

Scott kept looking to see which club could benefit him. But nothing came to mind.

"This is hopeless. Maybe I should just get a part time job."

However, he then thought about his early childhood back in Des Moines. "Maybe there's something that I really want to benefit from."

In his early childhood, Scott had many problems with his anger as his father had left him as he didn't want to deal with his son's anger. With his father's negligence, Scott had difficulties dealing with his anger and as a result had been called from the principal's multiple times.

At one time, Mrs. Smith had to pick Scott up from his middle school because of how he broke a student's nose for teasing him in science class.

"Scott. Why did you do that? I've been getting many calls from the school many times and this is your fifth."

Scott in the back seat looking outside in the car. But he didn't say anything.

"I guess you're not in the talking mood huh." Mrs. Smith kept driving home.

Once they reached home, Scott and his mother sat on the couch so they could have a discussion about the situation in school.

"Scott, please answer me. Why did you hit that kid? I want to know so I can discuss it with his parents."

But Scott didn't answer as his head was down with his hands folded.

Mrs. Smith was so stressed that she just left the couch to call the student's parents. "I'll just tell the parents about this situation and try to apologize to them.

"Why did dad leave?" Scott finally spoken,

Mrs. Smith looked behind her.

"Is it my fault that dad left us?" Scott felt ashamed of himself.

Mrs. Smith then went back to the couch to talk to Scott again. "No sweetie it's just that-"

"Dad left us because of my anger problem. I don't know why I'm so angry at everything all of a sudden. It's my fault that I was just born angry." Scott started to cry as he believed that it was his own fault for Scott's father for leaving them.

Mrs. Smith tried to comfort him as she started to hug him so hard. "No sweetie. It's not your fault. It's not your fault."

Back to the present day, Scott realized that throughout his years, he had difficulties of not just trying to control his anger, he had difficulties expressing his emotions as his father nor mother taught him any socializing skills even though his mother did try his best.

Scott looked at the billboard again to see which club might help express himself. Then there was one club that really interested him. "Poetry club. Maybe this will express myself." 

Scott then wrote his name on the paper and saw when and where the club will be held. The club was held in the school theater afterschool and started in the beginning of the year, but still could join the club as the poster was still available on the board.

"Alright. I'll head to the theater today after school. Get to see what it's about."

Suddenly, somebody pushed Scott from behind as he landed on the board to fill the club registrations.

Scott then looked behind. "Hey what's your-"

"Oh shut up Scott you're late for my class right girls!" Laura was with her teammates in the cheerleading squad as they were heading to the gym laughing at Scott.

Scott rolled his eyes as she was annoying as ever.

Meanwhile, as Laura's friends left for their class, she walked towards the gym getting ready to teach her class. But while walking towards the door, she started to cough. A heavy cough. She tried to cover her mouth with her hands. She finished coughing, however, she realized something. There was blood on her hands. 

Although there was blood, Laura still smiled and thought about something else as she happily went into the gym. "I guess I had too much fruit punch for breakfast today!"

School was now over and many people were either leaving to heading to their extracurriculars. Scott, usually heading home after school, has now a club he wants to join. As the students in the school started to thin, he then walked to the school's theater, which was his first time heading there.

It took him a while to find the theater until he finally found it as it was on the far left of the school opposite to the school's gymnasium. He then went to the theater as it was very big with many seats that extended from the first to the second floor as well as private seats that were on the side of the walls. The stage was really big as it was similar to the one in a Broadway show.

"Amazing." Scott looked around to see the whole theater.

On the stage, there was someone who was setting up the chairs making a circle as well as pouring freshly brewed coffee on some styrofoam cups. She was wearing a white turtleneck, a blue and white skirt, black stockings, brown shoes, and is a young Black woman.

Being a bit nervous, Scott walked up the stage as he was slowly approaching her. As he was near her, he was ready to greet her.

"H-Hey." Scott greeted her.

She then looked behind as she finished putting the lids on the styrofoam cups. "Hi."

"Um. Is this the poetry club?"

"Oh um yes. Welcome to the poetry club." She was holding a cup of coffee.

"Coffee?" She offered Scott some coffee.

"Sure." As Scott took the coffee.

"So are you here to join the poetry club?"

"Yeah. I saw it from the school's billboard and thought this might be a club that I might want to join."

"I see. Why won't you come take a seat? This club has an interview, you know."

"Really, I didn't see that on the registration."

"Well, I guess I forgot to add that when putting that paper up from the beginning of the school year."

Both the girl and Scott sat down as they were ready to have an interview.

"As you can see. Poetry isn't just something you write on a piece of paper, but more about expressing your writing as well as yourself. So what do you really want to express for yourself?"

Scott then remembered again what happened in middle school as he was crying about his anger issues as well as difficulties expressing himself. "I want to express my feelings."

The girl seemed confused as well as curious. "Express your feelings? That seems very broad. Can you explain that?"

Scott took a deep breath. "Well you see ever since I was young, my father left me and my mother. As a result I had difficulties controlling my anger. However, I did well to control myself as I realized that there's more within me besides being angry. I want to express myself so I can understand my emotions better and not let my anger take over me. I hope you understand that I want to know more about my emotions and understand myself."

She sympathized with Scott's situation and started to clap. "I do understand. I started off with handling my Depression, but with my love for poetry, it has guided me to a better place. Although I'm not a big fan of John's egotism, I still prefer to let others join this club to understand who they really are."

"Really?"

"Of course. Poetry is a passion and I want to expand it towards others. And I hope you can express yourself when doing poetry."

She then stood up. "Overall, I welcome you to the poetry club."

Scott felt understood. "Thank you so much."

Scott then stood up. "I was only here to see whether I'm allowed to go to the club, so I'm going to head home now."

Scott then walked out of the theater. However, he stopped to say something to her. "I'm Scott by the way."

"Nice to meet you Scott. My name is Natalie Tuckerson. I hope to see you again next week!"

"You too!" Scott then left the theater and then left the school to walk back home again.

Scott finally found a club where he can help express himself as well as understand those around him to help him understand his emotions as well as his anger. "Great. I joined a club and now I need to find myself a part time job to pay off his bills for Jim."

Scott then walked around half of Sunshine Valley to find a job where he can make some cash. However, it wouldn't be that easy for him. He walked to every store that the town has, but some of the stores were fake, similar to the one that he approached earlier. He also tried to get a job at the grocery store, but none of the employees replied as they couldn't reply to anything that Scott said. It was like they couldn't hear or do anything similar to how Andrew was. 

With no hope left, it was getting dark and it was getting colder as the sun started to set. Scott decided to take the bus home as he realized that he was far from his home. As the bus came, Scott got on the bus inserting a quarter to the machine.

"Enjoy your ride." The bus driver gave a creepy smile to Scott.

Scott was really freaked out by it, but tended to ignore it as he was trying to be polite.

They approached the bus stop near Scott's house and Scott got off the bus. 

"Enjoy your evening." The bus driver's smile was creepy.

As Scott got off the bus, the bus driver still smiled as he drove off, still looking at him and not on the road.

"I might need to get some rest, I must be getting tired." Scott walked to his house.

However, Scott felt like somebody was following him. But tends to ignore him. 

Suddenly, somebody from behind him threw a sack on his head, being strangled as well as being carried.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Scott panicked as somebody was kidnapping him.

He then was thrown to be what felt like a cushion of a car. Then, he heard a noise that sounded like a car door closing as well as feeling something cuff his hands

Scott didn't know what was going on but things were starting to turn bad.