Chapter 27: Thursday Brings Surprises

I woke up and had to think to figure when and where I was. I had been having some nightmares that people were coming to take me away and then joyful dreams of making passionate love.

Wait—those weren’t dreams; that stuff happened yesterday! And this is Thursday. Shit, am I ever screwed up!

I went through my morning routines almost mechanically and then realized that I had forgotten to check my emails from yesterday. I looked and there was one from Dan Hollander in Jakarta that had come in overnight and one from Bob from late afternoon yesterday. Dan’s email had a secure attachment and he had used the same passkey, my overseas aunt, for it.

I unlocked the file and printed it and then printed out Bob’s email too. No time to read them now; I’ll do that later.

After a quick breakfast, I left to get Denise. Today the weather was foul. The wind was blowing and the rain lashed the windshield as I drove. Denise dashed to the car wearing a light plastic raincoat. Despite the nasty weather, she was really happy this morning and greeted me with a huge hug and kiss.

“‘Mornin’ darling,” she cooed, “I guess we can be considered to be an official ‘item’ now, right?”

I looked at her blankly.

“Oh, you know, sex? When high school kids are just dating, they’re simply friends, but if they hook up, then they’re an ‘item.’ In terms of our having sex, we went ‘all-the-way,’ right?” she laughed.

“Yeah. Right.” Who am I to question American high-school customs? “I see. That’s not one of the customs we have on Mars, you know,” I joked.

“Ohmygod. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with you, I’m afraid.”

“That’s funny. Fletcher said the same thing about me. I guess I gotta start all over again somewhere else. I’m being rejected everywhere.”

She really laughed now. “Seriously. Any chance today will be a normal day?”

“Normal? In a school running the Program? Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?”

“Well said. How about, um, random calls to the office, random teachers demanding random illegal acts, random bullies doing gropes...”

“Oops. Thanks for reminding me. I gotta run home for a sec.”

“Why?”

“Today I forgot to bring my most important tool: my crystal ball.”

“Maybe I need to trade you in for this year’s model, Kevin. You’re the old model, a broken down comedian.”

I guess we really are an “item” now. Denise and I are talking much the same way Mom and Dad would crack their private jokes together. God, do I ever miss them so much!

We pulled into the parking lot and wriggled out of our outer clothes in the car, locked them in the trunk, and dashed for the school. When we reached the doors we were soaked, but with what we were wearing, it didn’t matter much since we would air-dry quickly. But it was a cold rain and we were chilled. Sarah and Andrew then ran in through the doors, wet and naked.

“Hi, guys,” Andrew said, “took your advice and left the clothes in our cars.”

“Cool.” I responded. “Speaking of that, you look cold. What do they do for the Program when it’s winter here, anyway? I grew up in semitropical countries; I wouldn’t be able to walk around naked if it’s cold.”

Sarah replied, “Good question. Glad it’s not us.”

Then the other two couples arrived, wearing raincoats, and other students were coming through the doors looking wet and uncomfortable. The freshmen and sophomore pairs whispered to us, “Follow us,” and walked swiftly down the D wing and stopped at some lockers.

“These are our lockers,” Nelson said, opening his. He took off his raincoat. He was naked under it. “Jimmy’s idea. He figured we could sneak in and strip and avoid the gawkers today.”

“Cool move, Jimmy,” Andrew said as the others came over, now also naked.

“Yeah. We have our outer clothes in plastic bags in our lockers now.”

“See y’all at lunch,” Barbara said as she left with Nelson, her butt cheeks twinkling at me as she walked away.

Cute ass, but Denise’s is way better, I reflected.

As we went our respective ways to home room, I realized that this was how a high school day should begin. Calmly walking off to class. No stripping theatrics, no sexual exhibitions, no random groping. Oh well, it’s a new world with the Program running the schools.

No one stopped us for a Request; everyone we passed was looking wet and uncomfortable. A thought flashed through my mind and I snorted a laugh.

Denise looked at me. “What?”

“Ha. Had a funny thought, instant cure for groping. Use a fire hose to soak everyone between classes. Look at them; they’re too uncomfortable to bother with Requests.”

She laughed. “Funny. Yeah, you’re right. Clever thinking, honey.”

We got to home room and went to our desks. I took out Bob’s email to start reading it when our teacher came in and came to my desk.

“I have a note from Mrs Raymond. She wants to speak to you now. You can go to her office and take your backpack.”

Denise looked at me. “Mrs Raymond—the counselor,” I whispered. She nodded.

I assumed that Raymond just wanted to talk about my graduation credits, but just to be careful, I got out the voice recorder and slipped it in my tights unobtrusively.

I found her office, wow, that first Monday seemed so long ago now. And that’s when I had first met Denise and really had a chance to talk with her. What a sweet kid she is. Again I thought about how lucky I am.

When I walked into Mrs Raymond’s office she looked at me in surprise.

“You’re on the Program. Why are you wearing those?” pointing to my lower body.

I sighed. Nobody ever talks to each other here, do they? I dug my sheet out of my bag and wordlessly handed it to her. She read it and looked up.

“We discussed this last week when you were here. I can’t pass you for the Program if you’re not participating.”

“You’re the person who determines that? I thought it was Abover or Fletcher.”

“No. Me. I’m the Program teacher for the school. Mr Abover can override my decision but only if I pass the student.” She looked at her screen and hit some keys. “I also see that you never turned in the Program participation forms.”

“No, and I don’t intend to. My attorney said that I mustn’t sign them because they’ll cancel my legal rights.”

“Then you won’t be allowed to graduate.”

“Listen, ma’am. I have a document that is signed by the school’s principal and three federal Program officials that states specifically that my participation, and Miss Roberts’ too, by the way, is sanctioned and approved by them for this week. If you think you can withhold a ‘Program completed’ endorsement on my record, or on Denise’s, either, then you will be subjecting the school and yourself to lawsuits in both civil and federal courts and I will sue you personally for violating my rights, not under the Constitution, which you think gives you Program protections, but under another federal law which takes precedence over the Program. If you don’t believe that, I strongly suggest you speak to Mr Overland, the school’s lawyer. He knows just how badly the school would lose if he had to defend the school at trial. And so does the school board president. You could lose your job too, you know.”

“You’re incredibly impertinent, young man! You have no right to talk to me like that!”

“Mrs Raymond. Listen to me. If I were, say, in college, or older, and I were speaking to you in that way, would you call me impertinent? I happen to be in high school but I also happen to be a legal adult, and I will not allow anyone to treat me as if I were a child. Now I’m going to ignore what you just said and pretend that I just entered this office. I’m to see you for the purpose for which you called me. Please, what is it?”

She shrugged. “Ok, then. I’ve looked at your prior schooling records and the classes you’re taking this term and intend to take for the three following terms. If you keep that schedule, you’ll meet all the requirements for graduation plus have earned twelve credits in A-P participation. That would place you at an upper freshman or lower sophomore level at most colleges in the country, depending on your placement test scores. You are academically highly qualified and should be proud of your achievement.”

“Thank you ma’am, I am. Much of that achievement is a result of my parents’ support, I assure you. They instilled in me the values of hard work. Is there anything more?”

“Yes, I have the lists of the placement testing dates and handouts on college fair dates, test prep classes, and college representative visits to give you. The school also has a college prep section on the website and I urge you to read that; it has all sorts of advice on the college application process.”