Every school was a big top circus tent and the pecking order went from acrobats to lion tamers, from clowns to carnies, all of these miles ahead of who we were, we were freaks. Lobster-clawed boys and bearded ladies, oddities juggling depression and loneliness, playing solitaire, spin the bottle, trying to kiss the broken parts of ourselves and heal. But at night, while the others slept, we kept walking the tightrope.