Bricks and Mortar

First parts of the woods were torn down. Then a chain link fence went up, and the woods were no longer an extension of our world. It was like watching the Berlin Wall being built; a part of our freedom taken away from us.
Next came the earth movers and the digging machines, so we listened to the sounds of heavy equipment ripping up what used to be Mr. Rizzuto's field.
Cement trucks pouring concrete for the foundations, and then steel girders rising.
Tons of bricks and mortar, and it began to take shape. My brother and I could see it from our bedroom window, and I'd be going to school there in the fall.
It had been decided somewhere that a new high school was needed. Whose idea was this? Who decided that the woods had to come down and that Seventh and Eighth Grades couldn't be in Woodbury Heights anymore? Eventually, when it came time for high school, I mean real high school, I'd go to Woodbury like everyone else before me, a tradition, you know?
But some people had decided that a new school had to be built; that Woodbury High was getting overcrowded or something, so they picked four towns and lumped them all together into a new school district, and that district was just behind my house.
Who could understand how the towns were chosen? I lived right there, but kids all the way from National Park? And Westville? Wenonah was pretty close, so you could kinda understand them going there, but what about the kids who lived in Deptford right across the street from me? I don't get it. All these kids from the other towns will have to ride buses to school. At least I won't have to ride a bus. I'll only have to walk a few yards down Egg Harbor Road and I'm there. Just a few minutes. I'll have to be careful, there's no sidewalk, so I'll be in the street, but like I said it's not very far, not very far at all.
I have heard some people say that it's a way to keep most of us from having to go to school with the black kids. Adults seem to be preoccupied with that. I don't care about that stuff. I don't think about it. I'd just like to be with my friends that I've gone to school my whole life with for as long as possible.
It will stare back at me all summer, this new Gateway Regional High School, forcing me to think about the future and what it might hold.
They have a contest for us to name the school mascot and colors. I submit mine: red and white, and a bulldog for the mascot. Blue and White wins, and our school mascot will be an alligator. Gateway Gators, that's what we'll be. A blue and white alligator. I'm not inspired.
Later I'll find out that I'm in class 7C whatever that means. I won't know how many of my former classmates will be with me until school starts in September. I'm going to have someone named Mrs. Conaway for homeroom. Homeroom? What's that? What do they teach in homeroom anyway?
When I found out that the new high school was going to be right behind my house I rejoiced, thinking that finally after all these years I'd be able to come home for lunch every day. No such luck. Everyone has to stay in and go to the cafeteria, no exceptions, that's the rule.
No, it's not far from my house. Just a few yards, that's all.
But it might as well be on the moon.