Chapter 17

Thursday was much the same, except I got a text from Captain warning me that Geometry had lots of homework, and I wrote back to tell him Physics did too. I had a feeling, that was proven right, that the homework freebie of the first day was the only one we were going to get.

I joined Mike and Captain for lunch again, building much the same pile from the buffet as Wednesday. Mike and I discussed our Journalism class, and the homework assignment. We both wondered what event we would write an article for. The teacher had left it up to us, and we could pick any event in history to report on. She mainly wanted to get a grasp of our writing styles, and if we could conform to the style guide for the school newspaper.

At Economics the stunning Elizabeth Gershon sat next to me again, and I worked up the courage for an introduction that never materialized. Geometry was just a homework assignment, followed by an explanation on how to solve the problems. I did it in class while Mr North helped the slower students figure it out.

Photography was the same, but different. I arrived early, and a couple students wanted to know about my toilet pic. They had searched the internet but couldn’t find it anywhere. I simply explained that I was not allowed to say where I got it from.

Rebecca plopped down next to me, and reached out her hand, “Thanks for the tech help yesterday,” she said as we shook awkwardly.

“Your welcome, I’m Sam Atwood.”

“Rebecca Bernstein, but you can call me Beck, all my friends do.”

“I’m happy to know we are friends!” I said with a smile.

“We can be much more than that!” she said with a saucy wink, followed by laughter at my blush.

“We can be partners!” she continued enthusiastically, “Parcels will pair everybody up for our projects, and assign them as a team for the final at the end of the semester. This is my third time taking photography, they only let you take it once a year which sucks, but I want you as my partner this year.”

“Sure,” I agreed, my blush coming back under control. “When do we make it official?”

“He’ll probably mention it tomorrow, and randomly assign anyone who hasn’t paired up on their own when we come back from the long weekend.”

“So we will let him know tomorrow then?”

“Yes, I will. Did you get your Instagram account set up?”

“I did, I even liked your newest post so you can easily follow me back.”

“You found my account?” she asked, surprised.

“Easy to do, once I knew how we had to hashtag our school assignments.”

“See, I need to know how to do this stuff. I searched all over the internet for that picture you showed yesterday, and couldn’t find it.”

“You won’t find it on the internet,” I told her.

“Oh, are you on the dark web? You must be scary smart to do that,” she concluded.

I started to shake my head no, when the bell rang and Mr Parcels started class. He simply handed out our next assignment, while he collected our homework. He did connect his laptop to one of the TV’s as he brought up our Instagram posts, and we all chuckled as we saw each other’s homework.

Beck had a very funny picture, but the best funny face selfie was from a guy named Tom, who had used clear packing tape to discover his inner disfigurement. Mine involved using two sharpened baby carrots as pointy teeth. I had labeled it ‘Vampetarian.’

My phone buzzed with a post in response, ‘+++++’ from a ParcelsPosts. Mr Parcels stood, “Excellent work. You’ll see that you have a grade from me. Because you now have access to my account, you can follow me, and where you will find a copy of today’s homework assignment. Should you happen to miss a class, there will be no excuse for missing a homework assignment.

“Most assignments will receive five pluses. You will lose pluses for turning in work late, not following instructions, etc. Homework is a huge part of your grade, if you get five pluses on every assignment, you will have a B- in my class. Getting an A will require completing the first quarter project, and the final semester end project, each worth ten percent of your grade.

“Both of those projects will require a partner, so try to decide who your partner is by next Tuesday, or I’ll decide for you. Now who adjusted lighting before taking their selfie?” he asked, then continued to discuss lighting for the rest of the class, as our homework assignment involved shadows.

Rebecca let Mr Parcels know about our partnership at the end of class. I followed her out, and headed for my locker. During lunch somebody had suggested we get digital versions of our school books. At my locker I collected all my books, and walked out to the parking lot. The number of little electrics were impressive to see. Students were driving everything from Arcimoto’s to Zen Zero’s.

I might be driving a combustion vehicle, but I still had partial green cred because it was a Prius. I nodded at a few of my new acquaintances, but was surprised to find Captain standing by my car with Mike.

“Can you give us a ride home?” he asked.

“Sure, hop in,” I replied.

Mike gave me directions from the front seat to Captain’s house first, and he invited us in, but Mike said he needed to do chores before homework. At Mike’s he offered me a drink if I was thirsty. I looked at the time, and decided to accept.