Chapter 1

I suppose I'll start from last Christmas before I got T.B and had to come out to this hell hole of a psycho asylum. I mean, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddamn autobiography or anything - that would bore me to death. It really would. Anyway, I suppose it all started the day I left Pencey Prep. Let me tell you one thing, that place was full of goddamn phoneys! Every last one of 'em.
Well, it was on the Saturday of the big football game against Saxon Hall. It was the last game of the year so you were supposed to commit suicide or something if Pencey didn't win. Goddamn idiots. Anyway, I was stood way the hell up on top of Thomsen Hill and you could see the whole goddamn field from way up there. You could here everyone yelling and shouting for the Pencey side, because practically the whole school was down there apart from me.
Looking back, there were hardly ever any girls at the football games - only seniors were allowed to bring girls with them. I would have at least liked to have been somewhere where you could of seen a few girls around once in a while. It was an awful school, whatever way you looked at it.
Anyway, I was stood on top of the hill because I was on my way to say goodbye to old Spencer. He was my history teacher. He wrote me a note saying he wanted to see me before I went. Oh, I forgot to tell you about that - I got kicked out of Pencey Prep. I was failing in all subjects apart from English. Pencey has a very good academic rating, it really does.
Well anyway, I wasn't really stood on the hill watching the game, I was trying to feel some kind of a goodbye. When I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving. If I don't, I feel even worse. When i got to Spencers Mrs. Spencer opened the door. I asked her how her and Mr. Spencer were but she's quite deaf so she was just going on with herself. I asked her again only louder, so she'd hear me. "I've been just fine Holden, how have you been?" I could tell by the way she asked me that old Spencer had told her I'd been kicked out. "Fine," I said. "How's Mr. Spencer? He over his grippe yet?" "Over it! Holden, he's behaving like a perfect - I don't know what... He's in his room, dear. Go right in."