Chapter 1
Rule 1: You should want to find trouble, or you are cooked.
No, I actually mean it. Trouble seems to follow you everywhere if you aren’t looking for it. And if you do look for it, it evades you. Well, you might be that one lucky person to find trouble easily because you want to.
“Well, what type of trouble?"
"When should I try?"
"Where?”
I know, it seems like a lot of details, but I have stories to tell you.
Well, for the first question, it depends on you and your desires. Is it more of a mysterious circumstance, or something you want to make happen?
Here is a story of mine that happened to me once. Well, I went looking for trouble. And the circumstance did not turn out the way I wanted it to.
It was in high school, and I had a bad morning. I had to drive my brothers to school with me, and of course they were fighting and being shitheads. It always ruins my mornings.
I get to school, and I already feel done with the day, and I want to be home watching anime while eating popcorn and chocolate. I end up being late to matins, where grades seven through twelve meet up to sing a worship song and listen to announcements. I went to a private classical christian school, and it was really small.
I sat in the very back next to no one, which was totally fine to me.
I got to first period, looking to sit next to my best friend Sam, but the seats next to her were occupied, and the only available seat was next to Fiona.
So, the deal with Fiona… I can have conversations with her, and I’ve known her since third grade, but she can be really annoying. And I do not want sit next to her.
I sigh, and set my stuff down. Then in comes Fiona, shouting my full name from the doorway with a very cheerful tone. I hate it when she does that.
And this is the day I decide to tell her to stop. I am not exactly a mean person on the outside, and so it shocks people when I say a little rude or mean thing to another person.
So I tell her, “Fiona, one, please stop shouting my name. I do not appreciate that. And two, I really do not want to deal with craziness right now, I am tired and annoyed, so please dial it back.” So, to you maybe it doesn’t seem very mean, but to Fiona, it is very, very mean.
She gives me a weird face and is like, “Ugh, your brothers again?”
I hate it when she does this. She knows that I have trouble with them, but always has to say that, and sometimes it isn’t true, and she always assumes, and gets annoyed with me because of something “not that bad.”
I don’t reply to that, and then she says, “Well, if you’re going to act like that, then I don’t want to sit next to you.” Well, I don’t want to sit next to her in the first place, but it doesn’t make me feel good in this sense, cause then that makes me feel like I am the one in the wrong, when she could just be like “Okay, I won’t bother you and just sit here quietly.” She never does that like a normal person.
And people around hear her say that, and they are like “What is going on?”, and then other people know. Then someone tells Fiona to back off and let me be, and then she got really mad, and kicks the wall behind her and mutters that she wants to punch something. She really needs needs help.
Anyway, the point of this is that it got pointed back to me, and I was really not having it. You might be thinking, how is this related? It isn't that bad.
Well, it may be insignificant, but this is just a small example of what can happen when you make certain decisions.
"When and where?"
Well, depends on your circumstances and surroundings, just be careful with your decisions.
For me, the morning at school was fine because nothing really bad could happen, so I was safe with that.
It could be much worse.
