At home, my mom has been yelling at me for so long that my mind begins to tune her out—her words sounding like the teacher in Charlie Brown cartoons. I'm sitting on the sofa scratching an itch on the small of my back, just letting her vent, giving no resistance. I get up to go to the bathroom. She follows me to the hallway. I can hear her blabbing on the other side of the door over the sound of my piss hitting the toilet water. I can even hear her over the flush of the toilet.

I wash my hands and resume my position on the sofa, Mom reaming me out about how I only have one chance at an education, that I'm going to ruin it. She says something about getting into the best universities. She tells me I'm irresponsible. She asks me what Dad would think, if he was alive.

I get up to go into the kitchen and she follows me again. I grab a pizza pocket from the freezer and throw it into the microwave. I'm so lazy that I microwave it for 1 minute and 11 seconds so I don't have to move my finger too much. Before the microwave can beep, my mom gives up, walking away, still blabbing into the other room.

I take this moment to escape to my bedroom with my hot plate.

I sit at my desk, staring at my laptop, open but turned off. Laying the plate on my lap, I sink a bite into the pizza pocket and stare at my reflection in the black screen of the laptop, and I don't recognize my reflection. There's no one behind my face.

Whatever I was all year—whatever Sammy Jankis was, is no longer. The school's eyes won't be on Sammy. They will be on Simon Jackson now. Just Simon. And a feeling of warmth pours over me.

Ding.

Bringing my iPhone up under my face, I accidentally open the front facing camera and see my double chin like Jabba the Hutt. I close the camera and open Facebook. There's new notifications for Simon -- two new posts. 

Tyler Dragic posts on my wall:

          Tyler Dragic

          May 19 at 5:44pm

          Waddup brawler!!!

Edwin Batac likes the post.

Junior Hernandez posts:

          Junior Hernandez

          May 19 at 5:56pm

          early vacay! lucky you

Looks like the school thinks Simon beat up Darryl, and not me. But whatever, I don't mind. No one knows who the fuck I am, anyway. But they know Simon though.

Simon Jackson is at 1013 friends now, and I feel more alive than ever.

Ding.

I look down at my phone and see a new notification:

          Nadia Ricci has sent you a friend request.