Episode 1 when we first meet

park

XTC was no good for drowning out the morons at the back of the bus.

park pressed his headphones into his ears. tomorrow he was going to bring skinny puppy or

the Misfits.or maybe he´d make a special bus tape with as much screaming

and wailing on it as possible.

he could get back to new waves in November,after he got his driving license.His parents had already

said park could have his mom’s Impala, and he’d been saving up for a new tape

deck. Once he started driving to school, he could

listen to whatever he wanted or nothing at all,

and he’d get to sleep in an extra twenty minutes

‘That doesn’t exist,’ somebody shouted behind him.

‘It so fucking does,’ Steve shouted back.

‘Drunken-monkey style, man, it’s a real fucking

thing. You can kill somebody with it …’

‘You’re full of shit.’

‘You’re full of shit,’ Steve said. ‘Park! Hey,

Park.’

Park heard him, but didn’t answer. Sometimes, if you ignored Steve for a minute, he

moved onto someone else. Knowing that was 80

percent of surviving with Steve as your neighbor.

The other 20 percent was just keeping your head

down …

Which Park had momentarily forgotten. A

ball of paper hit him in the back of the head.

‘Those were my Human Growth and Development notes, dicklick,’ Tina said.

‘I’m sorry, baby,’ Steve said. ‘I’ll teach you

all about human growth and development. What

do you need to know?’ ‘Teach her drunken-monkey style,’ somebody said.

‘PARK!’ Steve shouted.

Park pulled down his headphones and turned

to the back of the bus. Steve was holding court in

the last seat. Even sitting, his head practically

touched the roof. Steve always looked like he

was surrounded by doll furniture. He’d looked

like a grown man since the seventh grade, and

that was before he grew a full beard. Slightly

before.

Sometimes Park wondered if Steve was with

Tina because she made him look even more like

a monster. Most of the girls from the Flats were

small, but Tina couldn’t be five feet. Massive

hair, included.

Once, back in middle school, some guy had

tried to give Steve shit about how he better not

get Tina pregnant because if he did, his giant babies would kill her. ‘They’ll bust out of her stomach like in Aliens,’ the guy said. Steve broke his

little finger on the guy’s face.When Park’s dad heard, he said, ‘Somebody

needs to teach that Murphy kid how to make a

fist.’ But Park hoped nobody would. The guy

Steve hit couldn’t open his eyes for a week.

Park tossed Tina her balled-up homework.

She caught it.

‘Park,’ Steve said, ‘tell Mikey about drunkenmonkey karate.’

‘I don’t know anything about it.’ Park

shrugged.

‘But it exists, right?’

‘I guess I’ve heard of it.’

‘There,’ Steve said. He looked for something

to throw at Mikey, but couldn’t find anything. He

pointed instead. ‘I fucking told you.’

‘What the **** does Sheridan know about

kung fu?’ Mikey said.

‘Are you retarded?’ Steve said. ‘His mom’s

Chinese.’

Mikey looked at Park carefully. Park smiled

and narrowed his eyes. ‘Yeah, I guess I see it,

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