in retrospect

I wouldn't mind a little manufactured teenage drama. A little he-said she-said would-he did-he ask her out. A bit of I-forgot-my-homework, a dash of can-you-believe-her-hair. A side of and-then-and-then-and-I-would-never cut by how-could-he-even-dare. I would take all that eye-rolling, whispers, and passed notes in straight-up even trade for the kid caught between divorced parents, the runaway, and the drugs. For the lingering affects of past abuse, for the brushes with the law, for the bad bad choices oft repeated, truancy, and petty theft. For "sometimes I think I wanna die." For the After School Special come to life.