Chapter 84: Post-Test Munchies

Three hours later I was sitting at my assigned desk watching as Letty walked up with the last answer sheet. The test had been made up of six parts. Each one was supposed to last for ninety minutes or more, but Flanagan gave us thirty minutes for each and would grade them the instant we turned them in.

It cheered up my heart to see his astonishment after each section of the test was completed and everyone scored in the high nineties. Ashley, Letty, and Matti perplexed him the most. He watched them carefully during the test and then ran their answer sheets multiple times before accepting the results.

Mrs. Villefort just shook her head at his antics. She accepted the sheet from Letty and recorded the receipt in some testing log she was keeping. Flanagan almost ran over to claim it from her and run it through the machine.

"Mommy, I'm hungry," Angelique complained as the answer sheet disappeared into the scanner.

"We'll be done soon and then we can look into getting lunch," Lenore said. "The man just started grading the last test."

"I didn't get to test," Angelique complained.

"It's hard," Erica said.

"Says the girl who beat me on the history and math sections," Milli said with a laugh. "I knew you studied hard, but that was amazing."

"All I could do was read or watch television back when I was in the hospital, and I decided I hate television," Erica said. "I barely passed the English sections."

"But you passed every section," Becky said. "You can be proud of that. I expect you'll have a great CAP score in a few years."

"You could to if you retested," Kathy said.

"No," Becky said. "I want to stay home and be a mother to our child. In a month I'll have my first baby, and it will be brought up with love. I won't risk being a warrior."

"You could retest instead," I offered Kathy.

"Yuck. I want to be Jessica's. All this time she's watched out for me. She protects others and helps them grow. I never would have been brave enough to try things on my own, but knowing she was watching out for me, I could try anything," Kathy said.

"And if we didn't like it, we never did it again," Milli said. "I'm just glad she found Maurice."

"And I'm stunned I passed," Maurice said. "I also agree with the little Angel. Food!"

"Happy meal!" Angelique cried.

Ashley sucked in a huge breath. I expected her to shout, but she let it out with a long sigh. "Actually let's do that. I don't care for fast food, but after all the restaurant food and the healthy vegetable snacks we have been having, one wild meal can't hurt."

"In that case," I said. "As soon as Flanagan tells us that..."

"You all passed," Flanagan said disbelievingly. "Even the nine-year-old managed to pass every section despite the short time limit I gave you. I can't believe it, but I watched. You had no time to prepare any cheat sheets, and none of you spoke to anyone else while you were taking the test."

"Just make sure that we get acceptance letters from State soon. We still have to sign up for classes and at this late date I expect most will be full," I said.

"I will," Flanagan said. "Heck I think all of you would be considered freshmen. I'll see if they want to invite every one of you."

I nodded. "Meanwhile, we are hungry. If you are done with us," I said.

"Go!" Flanagan ordered trying to take control for one last time. "Get off my campus and never return."

"Why would we want to?" Jessica asked. "Your leadership will turn this place into a charnel house. You'll ignore the real problems because the students committing the crimes are favorites, and you'll manage to push away the few who want to help."

Flanagan stood at the head of the class. His mouth opened and closed like he was a fish out of water. I just ignored him as I returned the pencils I have been given to Mrs. Villefort and left the room. The rest of the group followed me as we walked down the hall towards the parking lot.

"Dude!" Jason said. "Did we really just drop out of high school? Why did we do that?"

"Were we going to get much out of the next three years? If we stay on Earth that long?" I asked.

"But what can we do?" Jason asked.

"Apparently we'll be accepted into State," I replied. "So we can start taking college level classes. That would be more interesting than another year of teachers like the ones we just had."

"Happy meal!" Angelique cried as she ran into me from behind. "Take me to get a Happy Meal!"

"Has she had many Happy meals?" I asked Lenore. "I thought they stopped advertising them."

"I've never purchased one for her before, but she did spend that one day with the play preschool while we were in Florida. I guess a couple of the children there have been raised on them and brought several toys," Lenore said.

"Parents," Morgan said with a snort. "They should be licensed before they can breed."

"Would we have ever gotten a license?" Becky asked innocently as we left the building and headed for the vans.

Becky's comment had everyone laughing as we reached the vans. We were still laughing five minutes later as the vans turned into the parking lot of the fast food place Angelique wanted to try.

Jason was looking at the mostly full parking lot. "They did finally recover," he noted.

"They are the last place in town that hasn't seen a pickup," Jessica said. "Or at least the last low end restaurant. They haven't had the staff turnover other places have so the quality here has been steady."

"Quality food from this place?" I asked as Angelique raced for the doors. Erica was right behind her.

"I hear that the taco and chicken places both failed health inspections after pickups. And it wasn't the day after. The health authority gave them three weeks to clean up, and they still failed badly. They shut the taco place down," Jessica said.

"Something I didn't know," I admitted. "Morgan, do we want to break up into smaller groups? If we place one order for all eighteen of us it will take forever to prepare."

"How would you break up the groups?" Morgan asked.

"I'll take Angelique, Erica and Tatyana," I said. "Lenore can order for Ashley and Miki. Jessica probably should break her group into two; you and Jason would each other for three people. Oh, and I know its early, but we should practice bringing in all the bags we prepared."

Morgan laughed. "You did that entirely too quickly. Were you thinking about it all the way here?"

"No, but it made sense. Angelique and Erica need an adult to order for them and Tatyana has been with me the least. She deserves some individual attention. And don't forget the bags. We should get into the habit of having them with us always," I replied.

"I'd love some attention like she got this morning," Miki chirped. "But I'll just sit on your lap later."

"Sit on my face, and tell me that you love me," Jason started singing.

Angelique was opening the door as everyone else stopped and looked at Jason. He just stood and glared at Letty. "What? It's a classic."

"You're weird," Matti said. "Jessica, can I get a milkshake? I haven't had one in ages."

"I'd better order first," I said as I ran to the door to help Angelique get it open. The child was bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Happy meal!" Angelique screamed as she ran into the restaurant. Erica ducked past me and managed to catch her before she went too far. I cringed expecting Angelique to protest, but the girl giggled.

Jason caught the door. "Go," he said. "I can hold the door."

I nodded and headed inside. There were two people waiting in line to order. I got behind them and looked over at Erica. "Do you have a preference?"

"How about another happy meal? Only make mine a cheeseburger one," Erica said.

Tatyana walked up and grabbed my arm. "Can I just get a salad?"