walter

most days walter wore an inside-out jerry rice jersey. i never understood why he wore it inside out, but then again walter and i didn't have too much in common. he was the kind of kid who had corn rows and beads in his hair way before any of that was big. i tried to stay out of his way as much as possible. one day, in "careers," my 8th grade elective, walter stolled in a few minutes late. it was a test day, as i recall, and the teacher was already handing out the scamtrons. jacqueline, the class slut, one of the first girls in our grade to discover her sexuality and who i naturally found dreadfully intimidating, made some snide remark about walter's clothes or hair being "nappy," or something along those lines anyway.

at this point, walter hadn't yet made his way to his seat. he was kind of loitering near the front of the class room, and the teacher was somewhere nearby. whatever walter's response to jacqueline was, i missed it. i only caught the end: "... , shit." "WALTER!" the teacher yelled in disbelief, "did you just say 'shit!?'" at hearing the teacher say "shit," the class erupted into a din of poorly muffled and barely contained snickers, which eventually gave way to outright laughter. what walter said next i'll never forget:

"naw, i said fuck you, shit."