After learning of his acceptance into the
Foreign Exchange Study
program, the rest of his school year didn't seem to matter anymore. The days were all just filler until he finally got to go to go live his next life in the
USA
. Roger had grown up idolizing American media. He loved their action heroes like
Sylvester Stallone
and
Arnold Schwarzenegger
-- the
Austrian
who was more American than Americans! -- and their musicians... both the hardcore
gangster rappers
as well as the
rockstars
who wore makeup.
During his bus ride from the airport to his American host parents' town featured a progressive display of increasingly
rural
landscapes. Corn and wheat fields. Red barns like you saw on food packages. And so many people drove large pickup
trucks
. He listened to music while viewing all this through the shaded glass of the bus. He couldn't wait to begin his American life. He was going to do big things. He didn't know what, but he would be like a cowboy here.
His reality had been less interesting. He couldn't go anywhere without a car because there was no public transit here like there was back at home. And everything was miles a part. That exciting, vast American scenery no longer excited him but instead filled him with dread. He spent much of his time on the internet, wasting time. And he dared not let his friends back home know that he was living such a way.
Maybe this was why he was hanging out with Grover. Grover lived somewhat close by, close enough that the two could bike to each other rather than have to wait for a ride. And Grover seemed to accept Roger and his goofy accent. The cool kids called him a
nazi
even though he kept telling them he was Dutch.
The school bus dropped him off at his host parents' house. During the ride he felt a depressing lack of energy. Like he wished someone would ask him to go to Wesley's party tonight. He would so be ready if someone just asked him. He'd have the right outfit and he would make sure to be a good sport. But nobody asked him. By the time the bus reached host parents' neighborhood he looked at the same scenes that once drove him to imagine himself as a cowboy riding into a desolate town to change things forever. He felt completely downtrodden until he stepped off the bus.
Then as the bus drove away and he breathed in the smog of its exhaust while the
sun
hit him, Roger suddenly felt a burst of a new energy. He was determined. He would get himself to that
party
tonight no matter what. He ran inside and immediately opened up
Discord
and began writing a message to Grover.
