liked riding with Toby. However, that Monday morning, waiting at the bus stop, I felt kind of stupid.
Here I was, a senior in high school, riding the damned bus. My dad worked at the high school too, but we couldn't all fit in his car. Plus, my dad always got to school about an hour before class started so that he could make copies and get ready. Nobody wanted to get up that early.
Overall, it was good, because I would have felt bad about making Jason fend for himself on the first day. Sure the guys would have looked out for him, but all of them except Chance were strangers in Bramford. The town looked on them as outsiders.
And Chance was only fifteen, so he was a lowly sophomore. He wouldn't have been much help.
I took Jason to the office first thing. My dad had set it up with the school so that Jason could get a schedule. They were used to it, since my family was always getting new foster kids. I sat with Jason in Mrs. Clem's office. Mrs. Clem was the Dean of Students, and she set up all the schedules. I liked Mrs. Clem, but when we arrived, it was obvious she'd already heard about what Jason had done to Eric over the weekend.
Bramford was notoriously protective of its own. Jason didn't belong in Bramford and had already damaged a member of one its oldest families. That wasn't good in the minds of most of Bramford's inhabitants.
Mrs. Clem seemed a little cold. She pursed her lips.
"Are we going to get your transcripts, Jason?" she asked.
"I don't have any," he said.
Mrs. Clem raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
"I was kind of...home schooled before," he said.
"But he reads Plato," I said, feeling like I should defend him in some way.
Mrs. Clem didn't react to that. She just poured over her computer screen, lost in thought. Finally, she began punching keys. "Normally, with no transcript, I'd put you in General Education classes," she said to Jason. "But most of them are overcrowded, and it occurs to me that since you seem to be a little...volatile, it might be better to keep you away from...overexcitement."
She was referring to Jason's fight. She was so prejudiced! She'd never even met Jason, and she'd already judged him.
"So, I'm going to try you out in Honors classes," she said.
Really? Maybe I was the one who was judging Mrs. Clem. That was pretty decent of her.
She printed out Jason's schedule and handed it to him.
"Cool," I said, looking over his shoulder at it. "You've got three classes with me!"
Bramford was on a semester block schedule, which meant we only had four classes a day. I was going to be seeing a lot of Jason. Of course, it also meant that Jason was going to be seeing a lot of Toby. Toby and I had the exact same schedule.
Ugh. And we sat next to each other in every class. I didn't want to see Toby. I was still angry with him. But I was going to have to. In exactly five minutes, I noted as the opening bell rang.
I smiled at Jason. "I'll show you around," I said. "We've got the same first period."
Jason, Toby, and I began the day in Ms. Campbell's Advanced Placement English class. It was downstairs, directly under the main office. Jason followed me as I navigated the crowded halls and staircase. As we approached the door, I wished as hard as I could that Toby wouldn't be there.
No such luck. He was sitting in his normal desk. Ms. Campbell was shuffling through some papers at her podium, not monitoring the hall like she was supposed to. She claimed she always forgot to do it, but once or twice the principal had ducked his head in the classroom and asked her to come into the hall. She'd said sweetly, "Sure.
One sec!" And then she'd never gone into the hall.
Ms. Campbell was kind of a rebel, I thought. I liked her. She'd let us read Lysistrata , which was a pretty racy ancient Greek play about a group of women who withheld sex from the men so they would stop fighting a war. It had penis jokes! I couldn't believe we'd been allowed to read it in class.
I took Jason up to
Here I was, a senior in high school, riding the damned bus. My dad worked at the high school too, but we couldn't all fit in his car. Plus, my dad always got to school about an hour before class started so that he could make copies and get ready. Nobody wanted to get up that early.
Overall, it was good, because I would have felt bad about making Jason fend for himself on the first day. Sure the guys would have looked out for him, but all of them except Chance were strangers in Bramford. The town looked on them as outsiders.
And Chance was only fifteen, so he was a lowly sophomore. He wouldn't have been much help.
I took Jason to the office first thing. My dad had set it up with the school so that Jason could get a schedule. They were used to it, since my family was always getting new foster kids. I sat with Jason in Mrs. Clem's office. Mrs. Clem was the Dean of Students, and she set up all the schedules. I liked Mrs. Clem, but when we arrived, it was obvious she'd already heard about what Jason had done to Eric over the weekend.
Bramford was notoriously protective of its own. Jason didn't belong in Bramford and had already damaged a member of one its oldest families. That wasn't good in the minds of most of Bramford's inhabitants.
Mrs. Clem seemed a little cold. She pursed her lips.
"Are we going to get your transcripts, Jason?" she asked.
"I don't have any," he said.
Mrs. Clem raised her eyebrows in disbelief.
"I was kind of...home schooled before," he said.
"But he reads Plato," I said, feeling like I should defend him in some way.
Mrs. Clem didn't react to that. She just poured over her computer screen, lost in thought. Finally, she began punching keys. "Normally, with no transcript, I'd put you in General Education classes," she said to Jason. "But most of them are overcrowded, and it occurs to me that since you seem to be a little...volatile, it might be better to keep you away from...overexcitement."
She was referring to Jason's fight. She was so prejudiced! She'd never even met Jason, and she'd already judged him.
"So, I'm going to try you out in Honors classes," she said.
Really? Maybe I was the one who was judging Mrs. Clem. That was pretty decent of her.
She printed out Jason's schedule and handed it to him.
"Cool," I said, looking over his shoulder at it. "You've got three classes with me!"
Bramford was on a semester block schedule, which meant we only had four classes a day. I was going to be seeing a lot of Jason. Of course, it also meant that Jason was going to be seeing a lot of Toby. Toby and I had the exact same schedule.
Ugh. And we sat next to each other in every class. I didn't want to see Toby. I was still angry with him. But I was going to have to. In exactly five minutes, I noted as the opening bell rang.
I smiled at Jason. "I'll show you around," I said. "We've got the same first period."
Jason, Toby, and I began the day in Ms. Campbell's Advanced Placement English class. It was downstairs, directly under the main office. Jason followed me as I navigated the crowded halls and staircase. As we approached the door, I wished as hard as I could that Toby wouldn't be there.
No such luck. He was sitting in his normal desk. Ms. Campbell was shuffling through some papers at her podium, not monitoring the hall like she was supposed to. She claimed she always forgot to do it, but once or twice the principal had ducked his head in the classroom and asked her to come into the hall. She'd said sweetly, "Sure.
One sec!" And then she'd never gone into the hall.
Ms. Campbell was kind of a rebel, I thought. I liked her. She'd let us read Lysistrata , which was a pretty racy ancient Greek play about a group of women who withheld sex from the men so they would stop fighting a war. It had penis jokes! I couldn't believe we'd been allowed to read it in class.
I took Jason up to
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