Chapter 1, the early years..

I was sitting in class in grade 9.. I was a nerdy kid, I would look both ways 3 times before crossing the street, I would buy my mother presents just to make her day.. I was scared to do anything bad in the world..

I had a crush on one of the girls in my class, we were friends, but I wanted her to like me...

A few of my friends had started drinking that year.. I thought it was so bad, and told myself I never would.
But today was different, it was Friday, school just started up again that month, it was close to the end of the day; when the girl I liked leaned over my desk, and asked me if I wanted to drink with her that night... A million thoughts ran through my head, would I get in trouble? what if my mother found out? would she think I was cooler? would I get sick? would it be fun? ... I reluctantly said I would... And we made plans to meet over town with our other friends..

Every Friday night, the legion in town would put on a teen dance.. Everyone went to these dances... you met girls from out of town, you danced and had fun.. A lot of people would drink and smoke weed, and there was almost always a fight at the end of the night..

Growing up, these dances were so much fun, and at least 200 kids would go to them every night. ( this is a small town, and that's a huge number of kids for this area)

So we met up... she was looking cute, and I dressed up nice, sprayed myself with my fathers Cologne, and tried to impress her.

She went to a woman's car, and told her to buy 8 revs.. maybe 12.. for the 4 of us..

She came back, and we went to Jessi's sisters house who was out of town.

I remember my first few drinks, they made me feel sick, but I wanted to impress this girl, so I kept drinking.. even though my mind said not to.

I started to feel the alcohol.. I felt warm, and started laughing, and spinning around on the hard wood floor... I felt great... we were all having so much fun... I thought "this is what I need, this is what my life is missing"

We walked to the dance, and took a couple of eggs from the fridge before leaving...  We threw them at the mean old mans house who lived on that street, and ran to the dance..

I laughed, and had so much fun... I danced with girls, I wasn't nervous and it made me feel good.

I drank a black coffee from Tim's before going home, and shoved half a pack of gum in my mouth...

I didn't get caught.. I woke up the next day, and thought to myself  " I'm gonna do this every weekend" and sure enough I did...