Chapter 1

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I looked up from my textbook to look into the eyes of the person who asked me that question. My girlfriend, Nicole Baker. Her face, normally punctuated with a sarcastic smile, sported an unusually serious look. Her blue eyes were filled with curiosity and concern. Her jet-black hair, which used to run all the way down to her butt, now stopped at her shoulders, and framed her concerned face perfectly, as if she was a painting or a shot in a movie or something.

“Huh?” I managed to ask feebly. “Why?”

Her trademark smile returned. “Roll with the question, squirt. You got your nose in a book when you could be playing with your big-boobed girlfriend. Clearly you got some weird fuckin’ priorities, Adam.”

I smiled. Something about how she used my name filled me with joy. I used to hate the name Adam Watson, but now I loved hearing it as long as it came from her. Thinking about matching her energy, I shrugged. “If I’m lucky, a nobody.”

She rolled her eyes and shot her arms out. “Ugggh, look at me, I’m so edgy,” she mocked me while shaking her body. “What a twerp answer. Gimme something better than a twerp answer.”

“I dunno, I guess I just want to pass. I’m representing the school, aren’t I? Student Council Vice President. I need to be a good role model.” I shifted in my seat. “Besides, Sleeping Dogs is a one-player game, isn’t it?”

“I offered Mario Party and some lame-o said no,” she countered. “It’s not like the MCAS is next week.” She put her hand on her chest as if she was some graceful authority figure. “As the President, it’s my duty to be reckless and irresponsible, and represent the student body accurately,” she finished in a mock-professional voice.

I snickered. “Well, I guess I like being prepared. Don’t we have midterms in late October? That shit will sneak up on you.”

Nicole rolled her eyes again, paused her game, and flopped over onto my lap, knocking my textbook off in the process. “Oops,” she giggled. “Guess you gotta study me now.”

“How am I more mature than you?” I teased.

She pouted. “Because you’re growing up too fast, that’s why,” she answered annoyedly, reaching up and playing with my brown hair.

“I would’ve thought you’d like me more when I’m mature,” I replied, still smiling.

“I would’ve thought so too, but nope, it sucks,” she said matter-of-factly. “Good news, you’re still an immature sack of shit most of the time.” She winked at me.

“Takes one to know one,” I teased back, leaning down and kissing her.

I was the luckiest guy in the world. To this day I had no clue why the most popular and attractive senior in the whole school wanted me, some sophomore nobody that only had a clue about the world thanks to her and a lot of the hard life lessons she put me through last year. Plus, one look at Nicole, and her perfectly sculpted face, or her full-of-life expressions, and you’d be hooked on her. I was so plain-looking, by comparison, that I sometimes cringed when I saw my reflection. My face was-

“Stop that,” Nicole ordered, pouting again.

“What?!” I asked exasperatedly.

“You’re thinking about yourself in a negative light again,” she replied, poking me in the nose. “I told you to stop doing that.”

“I was not,” I lied.

“Okay then, smart guy, what were you thinking about?” she challenged me. “I know your facial expressions by now. I could catalog them if I wanted to.”

“And they say romance is dead,” I quipped. “I was thinking about how the freshman and sophomore elections are coming up soon. Don’t we need to prepare?”

“Nah, who do you think you’re dealing with?” she asked, getting up off my lap. “I already talked to Scott about my plan and my speech. He almost gave the speech to you. For some stupid reason, he thinks I’m gonna go off-script or something.”

I grinned. Mr. Scott was our school’s principal, and while he was actually kind of cool and friendly with the students, he was not Nicole’s biggest fan.

“Luckily, he let me go forward with it. I just told him you’d piss yourself or something if you gave a speech,” she continued, looking over some papers she had in a binder nearby.

“Hey!” I interjected.

“Oh, go ahead,” she challenged with a smug smile. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

“I’m gonna smack the shit out of you,” I warned her, picking up my textbook again.

“You can try, but I’d win,” she replied, turning away from me to put the binder away. I threw my textbook at her in annoyance. Looking completely away from me, she moved her head away in perfect timing to dodge the textbook. “Careful. That textbook is heavy. If I was human that could have really hurt me.”

“If I managed to get you in the head I could maybe find your alien skull and sell it to a collector,” I attempted to fire back.

She turned back to me and gave me an incredulous smile. “Yeah, good one, dude,” she laughed. “Really got me good with that one. Zero recovery, burned, scorched.”

“Hey, not everyone can be as perfect as you with everything,” I replied, getting up and moving over to her. I put my hand around her waist as we sat down together on her bed, eventually moving to lying down with each other.

“Hmm, yeah, perfect,” she mused. “I guess I was perfectly lucky to get you, wasn’t I, hotshot?” She gave me a quick peck on the nose. I couldn’t help but smile and look into her eyes before pouncing on top of her, giving her quick kisses in rapid succession. Before either of us knew it, our tongues were battling for dominance in each other’s mouths as I softly ground against her, feeling my hardening cock beginning to strain my pants.

“I mean, you definitely have me hooked on you now,” I replied, even though it had been minutes since she spoke. “Now I want you and only you.”

She lowered an eyebrow. “You trying to insinuate something there, squirt?” she asked me playfully. “You know I’m a more complex human than that.”

“Yeah, I know,” I replied bitterly. I looked away from her, despite being on top of her, and huffed.

“Oh, come on, you baby,” Nicole playfully yet gently told me. “Hey,” she added, grabbing my hand and placing it on her boob. “I still want you, you know that. Do we need to have a talk?”

“No, I’m still just...” I trailed off. I wanted her to answer, but Nicole just stared back at me, her hand still holding mine in place. I sighed. “Just still adjusting, I guess.”

“Yeah, well, adjust harder,” she jokingly ordered. Even though we’d go back to kissing, I remained silent. I wanted to be a good boyfriend for her, I really did. And I was willing to work with almost anything Nicole threw at me. It was just hard sometimes. Just as Nicole was never going to not be Nicole, I couldn’t just pretend I wasn’t Adam.

I didn’t know what the heck I wanted to be when I grew up. I was kind of too busy living in the now, and even then, I felt bad knowing how much my new life in Student Council was taking me away from my friends, but I’d figure all that out in time.

I thought homeroom was going to be worse than it was this year. It may have been math, a subject I didn’t really care that much about, but at least the teacher was nice, even if he had his ... quirks.

“You see where you went wrong here, right?” Mr. Sikorsky asked the guy next to me as we did our work.

I smirked to myself. Three, two, one...

“Yeah, I let you into my personal bubble,” the snappy voice of Carson Carter fired back. “I’m still trying to figure out this shi- stuff, I need time to think.”

Mr. Sikorsky and Carson were a match made in Hell, and maybe I was the only one in the whole class that found it fun to watch. Mr. Sikorsky cared about results a lot, and even though he was more forgiving than my math teacher last year...

Mr. Graves. A chill ran up my spine.

... He still wasn’t great about the concept of personal space.

“At least you’re not swearing as much,” Mr. Sikorsky dryly noted as he walked away. “That’s an improvement.”

“I got a few improvements right fuckin’ here for ya...” Carson grumbled under his breath, just quiet enough for Sikorsky not to hear him. As soon as he saw my attention was not on my work, Carson looked right at me. “Can you believe this fuckin’ guy?”

“You think every math teacher in the world is an asshole,” I asserted, whispering back.

“Because they are,” he hissed. “Wake up, idiot, what does everyone think of when they think of math teachers?”

“I think Sikorsky is fine,” I whispered back. “He hasn’t given me any trouble.”

Carson cracked a smile. “Yeah, must be nice being every teacher’s pet. Don’t you ever get tired of having your head up so many asses?”

I rolled my eyes and returned to my work, only to have Carson reel me back in with a repetition of “hey”s. I turned to him and he eyed me seriously. “We still on for lunch today, or do you need to do more Council shit?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’m good today,” I told him gently.

“Finally, jeez,” he replied, shaking his head and going back to his work. I went back to mine, but my smile didn’t wane.

Mr. Kovacs spoke with a dry, echoey, Eastern European voice. His accent was probably the only reason why he got the job of teaching World History, because he seemed hell-bent on teaching it in the most boring way possible. Last year I had a teacher who was unconventional and went off-script too much, but at least he cared. Grade Ten was definitely the year of comparing teachers, and Kovacs was not faring well.

“These are only ... some of the ways ... Ancient Egypt ... gave us much of the modern world,” Mr. Kovacs finished. “Now, there are some questions on page ... ninety-four of your textbook. Your homework ... is to do questions 1, 2, 4, 5a, 5c, and 7.”

Why did school textbooks bother writing all those questions if we were only going to do half of them? I rolled my eyes and opened the textbook, noting the girl next to me wasn’t doing the same.

Megan Schneider got up out of her seat, her blonde hair practically bouncing with the rest of her schoolgirl joviality. She nearly skipped to Mr. Kovacs’ desk, holding out a piece of paper in front of her, whispering some things I couldn’t hear.

“Ah, of course,” Mr. Kovacs said in delight. “You are a very good student, Meg-han. A very good student.”

I smiled to myself. I knew it was just his accent, but I knew his mispronunciation got under her skin a lot.

“You were also in Student Council last year, were you not?” he continued, handing the paper back to her. “Very good. I hope you win.”

She quietly thanked him and started walking back to her seat, flashing me a polite smile as she took her seat. The both of us went back to getting our homework out of the way, and twenty minutes later, the bell rang. ‘Senior lunch’ for the grade elevens and twelves wasn’t for another period, but lunch for the freshmen and sophomores, ‘junior lunch,’ had just begun.

Megan turned to me and smiled again. “Carson texted me you’re good for lunch today,” she said. “Are you actually or were you just afraid of him?”

“I lied to him once,” I complained. “Yeah, I’m good, I just was busy with Council stuff for a while.”

“‘Council stuff,’” Megan repeated, making air-quotes. “So, Nicole.”

“Well, look who’s jealous,” I teased. We got our things and took off as quick as we could out of the classroom, into the busy hallway. “Besides, that’ll be your business soon too,” I added.

“If I get in,” Megan replied uneasily.

“You were the Grade Nine rep last year,” I argued. “No one who was Grade Nine rep didn’t make it back the next year.”

“Oh great, I can set a record,” she joked with a nervous chuckle.

I smiled at her. Megan was the type of girl who needed to believe in herself more. It didn’t help much that she made a reputation for herself last year that she now kind of regretted, but hey, she was an involved, and frankly, pretty girl. She wore the shy girl-next-door look well with her blonde hair, glasses, innocent brown eyes, and conservative clothing. And, she couldn’t deny, despite her shy look, she was pretty popular.

It was crazy how Carson was her best friend, seeing as he looked like an unpopular guy’s idea of what a popular guy looked like. Ripped blue jeans and a t-shirt with short brown hair and an intense look permanently on his face, even when he smiled. It was just enough to distinguish him in a crowd, but only just. At least his personality helped – as soon as Megan and I were in the school cafeteria, he spotted us and waved us over.

I couldn’t help but look puzzled. It was always us three, and yet, next to Carson sat two people I didn’t recognize, a boy and a girl. The boy looked kind of like a guy that Carson would befriend knowing Carson would wear the pants between the two – also kind of geeky and kind of trendy, but a little more ... timid-looking. The girl looked, in contrast, like she oozed confidence. She had short auburn hair and tight clothing, and even sitting down, it was clear she had curves like no tomorrow.

I felt something poke me in the ribs and turned to see Megan looking at me blankly, with no expression. “What?” I asked.

“You were staring,” she whispered, trying not to move her mouth.

“I don’t even know who these people are, do you?” I asked. It wasn’t like Carson to just let strangers sit with him.

Megan just walked towards the table in response, leaving me to catch up and approach the table. “Uh, hey Carson,” I awkwardly started.

“Yo,” he replied casually.

I looked from side to side. “Uh...”

“Oh hey,” Megan interrupted as if she realized something, sitting down at the table. “I don’t think Adam has met you two yet, has he?”

I sat down. “I ... guess not,” I replied slowly, then outstretched my hand towards the boy. “I’m Adam Watson.”

“Hey!” the boy cheerfully replied. “My name’s Jason, and this is my girlfriend, Athena.” He shook my hand, and I shot Carson a quick blank look.

“Nice to meet you,” Athena said to me. “Carson’s talked a lot about you.”

“Yeah, I met these two in music class,” Carson piped up, addressing me. “They seemed to fit the vibe of our group, so I figured, why not?”

“Oh, cool!” I replied flatly. Internally, I was kind of bothered. I guess it was dumb of me to feel like I was the leader of our friend group, but I thought that was the way things were. In just, like, a day, things had changed this much?

“Yeah, it’s been nice,” Jason continued. “Not gonna lie, me and Athena don’t really have a group, so until like last week, we just sort of ate lunch in the hallway.”

I was about to take a bite of my sandwich, then stopped. “Last week?”

“Yeah, Monday to be specific,” Megan added, looking at me. So, a full week ago. “We’ve kinda been waiting for you to have the free time.”

I looked back and forth between Megan and Carson. “I guess I’ve been busier than I thought lately, huh?” I said slowly.

“Nah man, it’s cool,” Carson waved me off. “You’re a busy guy. You got Council shit to do, and a President to keep pleased.”

Megan looked annoyedly at him as Jason’s eyes widened in remembrance. “Oh, right! You’re the VP of Student Council!” he declared.

“The youngest VP in Council history,” Athena added with a smile.

Carson continued in classic Carson style. “Yeah, the President has just been on him for weeks. She’s really been riding him day in and day out.”

“Carson, shut up,” Megan quietly admonished him.

Carson sat back with a big dumb grin on his face, and Jason just looked back and forth between the three of us. “I don’t get it.”

“Nicole’s my, um, girlfriend,” I replied, feeling myself blush.

Carson cut in again. “She’s also the school s-” He stopped suddenly and winced in pain as Megan very clearly adjusted her legs under the table. “The, uh, President. Yeah.”

Jason looked at me with a big ol’ grin on your face. “No shit! You’re with an older girl?!”

“Um, yeah,” I mumbled, taking a bite of my sandwich.

“That’s so cool. I feel like I get looks for being with an older girl too,” he added, taking Athena’s hand and squeezing it.

My look turned to puzzled. “So you’re not in grade ten?”

It was Jason’s turn to blush. “Oh, I am ... I just...”

Athena smiled assuredly at him and turned to me. “I failed a grade,” she explained gently. “I should be a junior.”

“Oh,” I said plainly. “I’m, uh, sorry.” I chewed my food. “I guess at least the stigma must be, like, less there if you’re in the same grade.”

“It’s still there, but I guess,” Jason replied. “It’s so cool how you’re with a girl in grade twelve though. I be there’s a lot of stigma there too.”

Carson shot me a knowing look, and in that moment, I wanted Megan to kick him under the table again. “I mean, she’s really cool,” I said slowly.

“She is so cool,” Megan added, almost dreamily. “Like, every girl in this school wants to be Nicole. She’s just ... ugh! She’s so cool. She always knows what to say, what to do...”

Carson snickered. “Megan’s got the huuuugest crush on her. She’ll deny it, but...”

“Oh, if I was into girls, totally,” Megan replied without a second thought. “But I’m not. And I don’t think Nicole is into girls either, so, who cares?”

“What?” Carson was now into this. “C’mon, Nicole has to be into girls. When a girl’s got her legs as open as Nicole does, there’s no way she hasn’t wanted to bat for the other team at least once.”

The silence at the table was deafening. Megan adopted the plainest, least expressive look in the world and just stared at Carson, and Jason and Athena looked between the three of us, not knowing what to say. Jason awkwardly coughed and said, “Well, uh, clearly she settled down with, uh, Adam here.”

I slowly breathed in and out, wanting to move on but accepting what was said. “Actually, Carson, there was a time last year when a girl tried putting the moves on Nicole and she actually did refuse her, saying pretty explicitly that she was straight.”

“What, and you were there for that?” Carson challenged me.

“Uh, yeah. This was at Phil’s party, and-” I held my tongue, realizing that as soon as I mentioned the party, I clearly activated some bad memories for Megan, who stopped looking at Carson and looked straight down into her lap, starting to blush. “ ... You know what? The memory is kinda foggy. Forget it.”

“Oh shit, I remember that party!” Jason replied enthusiastically. “Like, I wasn’t there of course, but that was when that whole May Stevens thing happened, right?”

Like the third domino in a line, Carson froze when May’s name was brought up, then slowly turned pink. “Uh ... whatever, yeah,” he said dismissively, diving into his food.

Jason and Athena looked back and forth between the three of us, who were now scarfing down our food to ignore any conversation. “Should ... should I, like, not bring up her name, or...” Jason awkwardly started.

I cleared my throat. “Hey, weird question. What do you wanna be when you grow up?”

Carson and Megan looked up from their food in sync. “Huh?” Megan asked.

“Like, after high school. I don’t think we ever actually talked about that before,” I embellished. “Jason and Athena, you too, feel free to jump in.”

The entire table paused. “Buddy, who gives a shit?” Carson eventually cut in with a weirded-out. “That’s such a weird question.”

“Why?” I asked.

He gestured around the table. “Look at us, look at how much time we have,” he answered. “If we want me to tell you what I’m doing in ten years, the only answer I can give you is ‘I don’t know.’ You’re doing too much business stuff and living in the world of what your future is. Me? I’m living in the now.” He grinned. “And, I mean, we missed you last week.”

My brow furrowed. “Yeah, I guess I’ve been busier than I thought,” I admitted. I turned to Jason and Athena. “I’m sorry I missed meeting you two for a whole week.”

“You had Council and things, we understand,” Athena simply answered with a wave of her hand.

“She’s being polite,” Carson interrupted with his trademark smile. “Wanna hang out this weekend? Halo or some shit? Megan, you’re not invited. I want to win for once.”

“You wish I wasn’t going to be there,” Megan replied with a slight smile.

Carson had an abrasive style of friendship, but above all else, it was loyal. “I’ll try,” I replied earnestly.

It turned out I had Spanish class with Jason, which provided a good opportunity to actually get to know him. I mean, if Carson decided he was in the social group, then I guess he was, and plus, Jason seemed like a cool guy. I just barely knew him was all.

It was about three full minutes into class before Mrs. Luciano burst into the classroom. “Siento!” she called out, then launched immediately into a flustered lesson about different ways to say ‘sorry,’ ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’ Jason seemed almost frightened by her, but I could only smile – I’d been here before.

As became my habit with my other classes, my eyes started to wander around the room, until I noticed something weird. Whenever I looked in the direction of one particular student, she was always looking back at me.

She was a pretty if bewildered-looking girl. She kind of reminded me of a lost doe. She had long platinum blonde hair, scared-looking blue eyes, and every time they met with mine, they’d hurriedly look away like looking at me was a sin. I could have taken it as a compliment, but at this point, I knew what the ‘oh wow, a boy I like’ look was – this wasn’t it. After that she’d bury her face in whatever reading material she had in front of her, clearly internally praying I’d look away.

Then why was she looking at me...?

English class was easy enough to find. It helped that it was the exact same class and teacher I had last year, and it helped even more that Jason had that class next too and was enough of a diligent student to pre-emptively know where his classrooms were.

“Oh!” I declared when we arrived. “I know this room. I had it last year.”

Jason nodded. “Yeah, I think we were in the same class.”

I turned to him, trying to not make it obvious I was now studying his face. I thought I had a knack for remembering people, but maybe I had too many people to keep track of.

Still, it felt bad to admit that, especially when he remembered me, so I just blinked twice and feigned realization. “Oh my God, I think you’re right! Shit!” I replied earnestly. “Sorry, that class was like a blur for me, you know?”

“Um, hey, excuse me?”

A girl’s voice broke us out of our conversation (not that I was complaining that it was interrupted). I turned to see the same blonde girl from last class looking at me, her cheeks burning. She was pretty short and pretty thin, and just ... pretty. Even though her frame was pretty wiry, she still managed to make herself look smaller with her presence. “A-are you Adam Watson?”

“I am, yeah,” I said, shooting Jason a look of awkwardness. “What do you need, is this Council-related?” I was used to people from various clubs approaching me and asking if something could get brought up at the Council. I guess too many people were too intimidated to approach Nicole.

“I just needed to ask you something,” she replied in a quiet voice, then looked at Jason. “A-and it’s kind of private.”

“Oh. Yeah, okay,” Jason awkwardly replied. “I’ll ... see you inside, Adam.” With that, he walked inside.

I watched him leave then turned back to the girl. “You were the one looking at me in Spanish class, right?” I asked.

“Um, yeah...” she admitted. “So, I just h-have a question for you.”

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“ ... What?” she nervously asked.

I remained unmoved. “ ... Have you got one?”

“ ... Have I got a name?” she asked timidly.

I sighed. Nicole’s sense of humor didn’t work with everyone. “You seem to know my name, so I’d like to know yours. If that’s okay.”

“Um, yeah...” she trailed off. “My n-name is Sabrina Saigeon. S-so, um ... You’re dating Nicole Baker, right?”

I stared at her, my face darkening. “Yeah...”

The closed her eyes and pretty clearly counted to three in her head. “I th-think it’s only fair you know, before school I saw her and another guy, um ... kissing.” She braced herself after telling me, and bit down hard. I could see her teeth had braces and were almost chattering.

It was my turn to close my eyes, in annoyance, as she continued. “I j-just know that if it were me, I’d w-want to know.”

“Okay. Um...” I trailed off, wondering how I should put this. I looked around me before figuring I should just go for broke. “I think you did the right thing by telling me, but ... it’s fine. Me and Nicole and in an open relationship.”

“What?” she asked kind of ditzily.

I played with my hands. “Me and Nicole have this kind of thing where she’s allowed to kiss other guys even though we’re dating.”

Sabrina’s eyes went wide. “Really?”

“Yup.”

“But...” she trailed off. “I think it was more than just kissi-”

I held up a hand. “Yup, yeah, that’s alright too,” I replied quickly.

“You don’t seem really happy about it.”

I stared at the girl for a long time. We were basically the only ones left in the hallway at this point. “I should probably get to class soon, I’ll be late if I don’t go.”

“Yeah, me too.” Neither one of us moved.

I stared into her deep blue eyes for a while. “How do you know Nicole?”

“I’m in the y-yearbook team,” she diligently replied. “I see her a lot. I mean, she seems cool, but I just presumed that ... I’m sorry.”

She looked actually pretty sad. I huffed and cleared my throat. “Don’t be,” I flatly replied. “Yeah, you’re right, I’m not exactly happy about it.”

Her eyes returned to mine and went wide with wonder. “So she’s cheating on you but you ... let it happen?”

“No, she’s just not good with being with one guy and we both really wanted to be in a relationship. This was the best compromise we could find.”

She gave the slightest hint of a smile of understanding. It was honestly kind of cute. “Wow, so both of you can just do anything with anyone you want?”

I chuckled. “Well, only she does stuff with other people.”

“But, like ... you can if you want to as well, right?” she asked curiously.

I stared at her for a second. There was nothing conspicuous on her face. No ulterior motives, nothing conniving or driving, just pure curiosity. “Adam,” the voice of Mrs. Jackson broke me out of my trance. I turned to see her head poking out of the classroom doorway. “The bell rang a minute ago. Can you finish up your conversation and come in please?”

It was nice of her to remember my name, at least. “Uh, yeah, I just need thirty seconds,” I replied. “Sorry, this was more important than I was expecting.”

That was good enough for Jackson. Wordlessly, her head disappeared back into the English classroom and she almost fully closed the door. Turning back to Sabrina, I mumbled, “Give me your phone.”

“What? Why?” she asked, almost fearful.

“Because you were right to tell me that I wasn’t fully okay with my situation, and even my closest friends haven’t asked me or cared about it,” I honestly answered. “If you were curious, and it seems like you are, let me give you my phone number. If you don’t want to talk to me any more though, you can say no and go to class.”

Without saying another word, she reached into her pocket and produced her phone. I quickly added myself as a contact and handed my phone back to her. “Here you go. And...” I scratched the back of my head. “That was really cool what you did. Not many people would have the guts to actually tell someone’s boyfriend if they saw that. You’re, uh ... you’re cool.”

She flashed me a quick nervous smile. “Thanks,” she quickly said, before outright bolting away. I couldn’t help but smile as I watched her go, then turned to get to my English class.

Even after sitting down, I realized what had been bothering me for a long time. Yeah, my friend group hadn’t seen a lot of me lately because I was too busy, but even before I was, why did they suddenly know me so little that they couldn’t see how upset I was? Maybe it was okay that I was spending less time with them. Maybe I was outgrowing them or something.

“There will be no homework tonight, but remember, when we start our book unit, make sure you keep up,” Mrs. Jackson warned us. “You will be expected to read a certain amount every night, and there will be no substitute for not knowing the book. It’s very easy to fail English if you don’t read.” She smiled at us. “Put the work in and so will I. You’re dismissed!”

“Wow,” Jason mumbled as he got up. “Her smile puts a chill down my spine.”

“Seems fair to me,” I commented. “Do the reading, and you’ll know what’s going on in class. Don’t do the reading, and, well, you won’t.”

“Yeah, but you’re kind of, like, part of the school,” Jason argued. “Bye, Mrs. Jackson!”

I gave him a puzzled look as we walked down the hallways in the same direction. “Part of the school?” I asked him quizzically. “By the way, I’m going to my lockers. I don’t know where you’re going.”