As a teen I split my schooling between public schools in the USA and private schools in Mexico, mainly because I couldn't help throwing a tantrum mid semester and telling my mother that my tongue was too tired to speak English and that it would be best to speak Spanish for a while as to keep it fresh, sort of like muscle memory. I would then proceed to phone my father's travel agent and in no time I was back in the mother land. My father would then have to pull strings and pay thousands to find a school that would agree to take a troubled teen in the middle of the semester. It was during one of these jet-set schooling trips that I met what I can only call perfection. Her name was Dayana and she had all the right traits to become the next Courtney Love (sigh). She was careless, dark, smoked, and got into fights with other girls out on the sidewalk before walking into first period.
The school had a big open area from where on the far side the actual building stood 3 stories high. All the classrooms faced the huge courtyard, reminiscent of a Motel 6 where all the rooms look out to the parking lot filled with Buicks, and Chevys. On one occasion the director's assistant asked for the whole student body to be out in the courtyard for an important announcement. We were asked to form straight lines by grade, gender and height going from short to tall at the very back. Dayana immediately ran towards me yelling that this was starting to look like a concentration camp and that it was our duty to beat people up and break free. I told her to relax. As we all stood in the sun by height and gender and so on, a tall skinny man in a grey suit came out from one of the classrooms on the first floor, he had a microphone and over the P. A system he proclaimed to be Arturo, the new director. At first we thought it was rather funny that a man who would ask for attention such as forming rows of people would only go by a first name but soon we found out that he was actually a dick and Dayana queen bee wanted him out.
Dayana and two other classmates decided to take action and show Arturo that our school was not to be messed with. She had created a whole strategy to scare him out, and the first step was to graffiti school walls with eloquent words like "pig", "out", and "nefarious" which was my contribution. We even took it up a notch and formed full-ish sentences: "Arturo, you suck" and "get out, you pig". We were to meet on a Saturday night outside the school dressed in black. This event stressed me out. Mainly because I didn't have any suitable black ensembles, I mean, what does a teenage vandal wear to a graffiti party? I was able to bedazzle something just before meeting time, but I still managed to be late because I needed my grandma to fall asleep so I could take her pack or Marlboro reds.
I met my classmates/influential minds ten minutes past the agreed time. Dayana had already broken into the building and thus missing the glamour that I put together for the occasion. I went into the building and started spraying walls. I brought neon pink, yellow, and green. This colors were not only on trend, but there were also cans that I already had because 2 weeks prior I had redecorated my room with said paint and in true Mexican fashion I could not let the remaining paint go to waste. We were to be in the building for only ten minutes and then meet 2 blocks away to smoke my grandma's cigarettes. I made it my personal goal to make works of art and so all of my profane words were written in cursive.
Who said I couldn't be classy while defacing school property?
We went back to school the following Monday and I was excited to see our work. In the dark I couldn't really see if my cursive was crooked or soft enough but in bright daylight it looked better than I thought, I mean, the neon really made it pop. I told Dayana my work was better than hers, she gave me a playful slap and told me to shut the fuck up.
Nobody ever found us out.
On a recent trip to the mother land I reunited with Dayana and another school friend. We had drinks and smoked like old times and we simply laughed at all the "artistic" things we did. Although there is nothing courteous about what we did we did it because we wanted change, we wanted a voice and we wanted people to know that we are not to be messed with. I still believe in this way of life, and I still make my voice heard when I believe it needs to be heard, I however do it in a more courteous manner nowadays.
Dayana is now a lawyer.
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