Julia walked down the stairs toward the front door. She wanted to get to school as quickly as possible. She was worried about Kerass. Legitimately concerned with his well being she thought she could help him escape, distract him from his problems.
If only Kerass would say yes to dinner with my parents...she thought. She knew they would be thrilled with him. Sure Kerass was deeply broken right now, but she was fully convinced that her parents would help him to relax. She trusted her parents completely. It seemed implausible that he didn’t trust his father, although Kerass was never one to lie. He was the most truthful person she knew.
She didn’t know how, but she was determined to get him to have dinner with them even if she had to trick him into it. She walked to the kitchen beaming. She grabbed an apple and took a bite.
“Hey, what are you all excited about?” her father asked.
“Kerass said he would have dinner with us tonight,” she said raising her eyebrows.
“Now how about that!” Her father continued asking what caused him to turn around.
“You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you,” Julia said with a snicker.
She walked out the door convinced that she had won. She had made a promise to her parents and she never broke her promises.
Jay closed his locker and jumped back in shock. Damien was standing right next to Jay’s locker as usual. Damien’s face dropped.
“You look surprised,” Damien said. He continued saying that he always stood by Jay’s locker first thing in the morning. “What made you jump?”
“I guess I’ve got a lot on my mind,” Jay said. Biting his tongue he avoided eye contact hoping Damien would catch on that he didn’t want to talk.
Damien put his hand on Jay’s shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Jay sighed. He wanted to avoid the subject at all costs. He still hadn’t told Damien that he was adopted. “I just don’t know if I can…”
Damien locked eyes with him. “Please.”
“I’m-” Jay paused. He couldn’t bring himself to flat out say it. “It’s just,” he froze mid-sentence. “It’s just problems with my dad.”
Damien sighed with contentment. “Nothing major then, huh?”
Jay shook his head.
Damien continued to say that that was good saying he was happy it wasn’t too big and that he was sure he and his father would work it out.
“Yeah, sure.”
“I’ve got big news for you,” Damien said barely able to contain his excitement. Jay just stared at him. “Ok, I’ll tell you. I just completed all my college applications yesterday night!”
Jay smiled relieved to be distracted from the drama back at home. He told Damien that that was wonderful. “Which schools did you apply to?”
“Evergreen Forest University, Oak Stream Community College, and Dowden Terrace College.”
“Sweet, congrats!” Jay continued saying he hoped Damien would get in to all of them.
Damien said he was hoping to only get into one. “I don’t like lots of choices.”
The warning bell rang. Damien groaned frustrated. He kissed Jay on the cheek telling him he’d see him after school.
Once Damien was around the corner Jay walked straight to one of the computer labs. He didn’t care if it took multiple days. He was going to find out who his birth mother was.
Cadence walked into the pre-IB English class a minute before the final bell rang. Gus was already seated in the assigned seat next to hers. She didn’t know what to do with him. He never shared his opinion in class, he never helped her when they had a question during group work, but for unexplainable reasons he always got A’s on his essays. It aggravated Cadence to no end who couldn’t get anything higher than a B. Essays just seemed to come so naturally to him whereas Cadence worked her ass off and couldn’t even get an A. She sat down next to him. The teacher came up to the room announcing they would have a group work day. They were to discuss the book with their partners. Cadence couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
“You don’t have to give me no attitude,” Gus said accusingly.
“I wasn’t giving you attitude,” Cadence lied.
“Don’t lie to me,” Gus said. His eyes pierced her in a way that only one other had done before. Gus was surprisingly like Kerass, but whereas Kerass ran away from problems, Gus seemed to straight up address them.
“How do you do it?” Cadence asked.
“Uh, I think you should ask your parents about that one.”
“Ew! Not that! That’s disgusting!” Cadence said giving a shudder. “I mean how do you get A’s on the essays?”
“It’s quite simple really.”
“Stop with the bull! It comes so easy for you,” Cadence said shaking her head. “Stop rubbing it in my face.”
“Here let me see your last essay. I’ll try to see if I can help.”
“You never helped before,” Cadence spat at him.
“Well, you never really asked, now did you?”
Cadence glared at him but handed the essay over to him in spite of herself. Gus showed no emotions reading through the essay and it just killed her waiting for feedback.
“I think I can see what the problem is,” Gus said.
“What?”
“This is way too straightforward. You’re just summarizing what happened. The points you’re trying to make are way too vague and the summary takes up way too much space.”
“I don’t know how to avoid that!” Cadence shouted louder than she had intended to. Embarrassed she lowered her voice and said, “This is so hard!”
“Do you dream?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Cadence asked incredulously.
“Just answer the question.”
“Yes, of course.”
“And when you dream,” Gus paused milking the moment, “do you dream in color?”
“Of course, doesn’t everybody?”
“Don’t dream in color. Dream in black and white. That way your dreams, or in this case the points you’re trying to make, will be that much more attainable, that much more defined.”
Cadence shook her head. “You’re so full of it.”
Gus laughed making Cadence more uncomfortable than ever. “Whatever, it works for me.”
A minute passed in silence. Cadence didn’t even look over at him while she waited for him to say something else. Frustrated to the point that she felt she would burst, she said, “Can’t you be any more specific than dream in black and white?” She continued saying how much he sucked for not being willing to help her out.
“You’re not very nice, are you?”
Cadence was taken aback. How dare he accuse her of not being nice! He barely knew her. The more she thought about it though, she recognized that the fact that she was upset by the accusation meant that she thought there was some truth to it. “Yeah, well, nice friends are fake friends.”
“That’s one way to look at it.”
Cadence sighed. Gus was right. She had been a total bitch to him this entire time. While he was closed off and distant, she hadn’t really taken the hint to butt out, or even attempted to start any sort of friendship with him. She didn’t know anything about him. Her heart sank. “I’m sorry,” she said genuinely. “I’m just…stressed is all.”
“Don’t worry about me,” he said smiling at her. “I’m not one to hold grudges.”
“Listen,” she began. She asked him if he would be willing to tutor her. “I mean, it’s obvious that I’m missing something. So what do you say? You and I?”
Gus took a deep breath. “Let me think about it.”
The bell rang signifying the start of lunch. Kerass leapt out of his seat beyond thrilled to be out of fifth period Algebra II. Math was his worst subject and it showed. He was barely pulling a C average. He was on the verge of being cut from the team. He was one percentage point away from a D. Even though his C had remained stagnant, he still was nervous every time he stepped into the classroom. He just didn’t get the material no matter how hard he tried to comprehend it.
Julia rushed to his side right on schedule. She gripped his arm so tightly he was afraid it would bruise. She had the biggest smile on her face.
“You seem extra peppy this afternoon,” he commented. He continued asking her what was the occasion that brought the happiness on.
She bit her lip before she said, “I’ve got a surprise for you…”
Kerass didn’t like the sound of that. Whenever Julia attempted to please him beyond making out it was a total bust. Unless it was an impromptu make-out session, he didn’t think he wanted to hear about it. He had too much on his mind, especially considering how his grades were slipping and not just in math. Every subject he had a letter grade below what his average was for freshmen year. Sophomore year was kicking his butt. The initial excitement of high school quickly faded once he realized it was just school.
Julia cleared her throat. “Are you even listening to me?” she asked.
“Yes, of course I am,” he lied. He hated lying, but lying to protect his girlfriend always beat telling the truth.
“So what’s your answer?”
Kerass stammered before asking her what her question was. She groaned frustrated, he could tell that making out was no longer a legitimate option.
“I promised my parents that we would have dinner tonight,” she said with glee. “I knew it would cheer you up.”
Kerass felt like his eyes lit with fire and his ears began fuming at the proposition. She had gone behind his back and made a promise that he bluntly said no to. He no longer cared how good the kissing was. She had manipulated him and that was disgusting.
“We’re done,” he said under his breath.
“What?” Julia asked her voice barely audible.
“You lied to me. That’s just unforgiveable…” he said trailing off. He murmured his final words, “I’m breaking up with you.”
Jay knew he was going to get into severe trouble with his dad for skipping classes, but he felt his quest to find out something about his birth mother was a worthy cause. He had found out a lot in the few hours he had searched. Her name was Dianne Lesley. She had him at the age of 16 and put him up for adoption. She had then married and relocated. Her new last name was Todd. Jay was amazed at how much information he had found out about her and how easily he found it. She was still alive. He would do anything in his power to meet her. The final line of text he read put him in a state of shock. Dianne Todd was working at Oak Stream High as a guidance counselor.
No comments:
Post a Comment