Jackson Lowe: The Cool Kid

Jackson Lowe was born to be the “cool kid.” With a deadly combination of perfect hair, a charming attitude, and a smile that made girls swoon, Jackson evolved from an animated boy to the ideal crush. In preschool, he unwillingly wore the outfit his mom assembled, and most days Jackson would come home with mud caked on his khaki shorts and holes forged in his striped sweater. These marks indicated rebellion as well as laughter, and he savored both throughout his life. As middle school proceeded, the St.Jude uniform confined him, though the red and blue shirts could not encompass his personality, and charisma oozed from under the buttoned collar. Jackson began to properly understand the disarming influence of his smile during high school, when

His freshly cut blond hair flew behind him as he sprinted freely outside from one end of the playground to the other. His cheeks burned red and his eyes gleamed as if they were made of the sun. He radiated energy. Faster than any other child in the class, his legs pushed against the pavement willfully and without hesitation, and Jackson bolted forward. He romped wildly about the playground as the other children watched in awe at the boy made of lightning. With soft brown eyes and an infectious smile, five-year-old Jackson charmed his classmates and teachers. One push of his hair behind his ears caused the world to stop and admire his newly revealed face, and his classmates soon copied the hairstyle with the hopes of becoming Jackson’s closest accomplice. The young boys searched and found their ring leader in Jackson, and rose to the position with virtue and confidence. During preschool, Jackson would give his afternoon popsicle to a different girl every day. As they relished in the taste of a cool treat under the afternoon sun, the girls began to see an alternate sun glowing behind the eyes of the rosy-cheeked little boy. Jackson Lowe at five years old was the epitome of vigor, and as his hair turned from blonde to brown, the effervescent preschool boy began to find himself amid the chaotic

Like most teenage boys, girls overtook his thoughts and captivated his body. His mind raced with ideas, and he began to lose himself in the smell of their hair or the wonder in their eyes. Their eyelashes brushed against his cheeks, no longer red from wind but from the delicate girls’ breath. He appreciated the curve of their hips and imagined his hands holding her steady. Their lips, soft and coercive, unraveled him, and he experienced the same thrilling high he once knew in kindergarten. Until one night, when his newest girl parted her lips and spoke the words “It’s like I don’t even know you anymore”. As he contemplated her realization, her lips suddenly seemed chapped, distant, and numb to him. Jackson wondered if his entire persona was built on others’ perceptions; if the idea he had of himself was a lie. These words rooted inside his heart and wore on his mind until he no longer was the “cool kid”. Jackson quit track the next morning. High school shattered the persona he fought to build during his childhood, but he eventually looked to these memories to find the valuable, innocent, and authentic parts of