"Hey..Will...WILL..." "What?" "Did you do your math homework.?" "Yeah." "Can I copy?" "No man do it yourself...last time you copied my homework you copied it exactly mistakes and all." " I got in trouble when I got home." "I was grounded for a week." "Come on man...please." "No...do it yourself." "Okay class...settle down...SETTLE DOWN..." "Okay now." "Now I want you to all pass in your homework." "William...would you please collect them for me and put them on my desk?" "Thank you." Will walks by his friend that was hounding him about wanting to copy. He gives him the math homework. It was only 5 problems. "Here T do it fast...I will pick yours up last...fast." "Thanks man..I owe ya." "Yeah you owe me a lot." Will collects the homeworks. He gets to T and he isn't done yet. Will deliberately drops all the papers so he has to pick them up as a stall. "Oh crap." Will says. "William...watch your language." "Yes Mr Weathers." "Sorry." His friend finally finishes and gives it to Will. Will then walks to the front of the class and put them on the teachers desk. "Okay class...please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. " Will hurries back to his desk. They complete it and class begins. "I want you all to open your history books to page 122." "William I want you to read the first paragraph." Will is just about to start when the door opens.
Principle Van Buren comes walking in with a new kid. "Oh Principal Van Buren." "Hello Mr Weathers." "I have brought you a new student, his name is Jackson Kiriakis." "Just transferred in from Chicago." "Well welcome Mr Kiriakis." Will is staring at him and he feels sort of weird. "Class I would like you all to welcome Jackson Kiriakis to our class. The whole class says in unison "Hello Jackson Kiriakis." Of course some say the last name wrong but the intent was there. "Well Mr Weathers I will leave Jackson in your capable hands." "Thank you Principal Van Buren." "Well Jackson...where to put you." "Mr Weathers looks around the classroom. There are only two empty chair...but he wants Jackson near someone who can help him and make him feel welcome. He looks at Will who hasn't taken his eyes off of Jackson since he came in. "William, I would like Jackson to sit next to you." "Show him around introduce him to people." "Julia could you please move to the seat behind you and Jackson you take her seat." Jackson walks down between the desk to the seat he was directed to sit at. When he gets to Will Will puts his hand out. "Hi am Will." "He calls me William but prefer Will." "I am Jackson..but everyone calls me Sonny." "Okay Sonny." "Well I will show you around when we have recess and I will introduce you to my friends." "Thanks man." "Hey you got a pencil? mine fell out of my backpack somewhere." "Oh yeah." Will reaches into his back pack and pulls out two pencil." "Here take these...one for now..and you can keep the other in your pack should you lose this one." "Thanks man."
"Okay class back to our lesson." " William I believe it was you ...please read the first paragraph on page 122." Will begins to read. He has done this a million times before but for some reason he is nervous now. He start fumbling the words at first ..but once he calms down a bit he reads like he normally does. "Seem to have a bumpy start there William...but you recovered." Some of the kid laugh a little. "Okay Tad you read the next paragraph." This goes on for about 45 minutes. Each student reading a paragraph. Then the teacher discusses what they just read to make sure everyone understands it. "Okay class...we are going to move on to science." Sonny looks around sort of embarrassed. He has to raise his hand. Yes Jackson...what is it?" "They didn't have any science books left for me." "They said they would have one tomorrow." "That's fine..just share with William." Will scoots his desk..with chair attached over to Sonny's desk. When their desk are touching Will opens the book between them." And follow the teacher's instruction. Will is uncomfortable being that close to Sonny..but he is not sure why. So he tries not to lean over to read what is being read. "Okay Jackson..you read the next paragraph." Will is relieved that Sonny has to move the book over so that it is in front of him to read. This puts more distance between him and Sonny. Sonny reads his paragraph and it was a long one. When he finishes he whisper to Will..."I hate reading out loud in class I always sound like a dope." Will looks at him but doesn't realize how close he is to Sonny and pulls his head back. "No you did great." "Wait until you hear some of these other kids." "You're way better than them." Sonny gets a smile on his face.
The bell ring for lunch. "Okay class..when we come back we will start on math." T turns around and looks at Will and smiles. Will looks at him...you owe me man. Sonny takes out his math book. "What are you doing?" "It is lunch." Will tells him. "I forgot mine at home." "So you can have half of mine...my mom packs way to much..I can't eat it all ..I wind up eating the rest of it on the way home." "You sure?" "Yeah man..come on." "Hope you like tuna fish." "Yeah I do." "Cool...besides I have to show you around the school." "So come on let's go." Sonny gets up and follows Will out of the classroom. "We'll eat lunch first then I will show you around." "Now if it is a nice day like today we eat out on the picnic tables." "If it is raining or winter we eat down stairs. In the cafeteria." But it is not really a cafeteria...it is just a room full of table." "So we can eat outside today." Sonny follows Will out of the school and over to a table with a bunch of kids at it."
"Hey guys...this is the new guy." "His name is Jackson but he likes to be call Sonny." "Sonny this is Chad...T...Gaby...and my cousin Abby." Sonny and Abby start to laugh. "What's so funny." "Will, Sonny is my cousin too." Abby says. "Get out of here...really? "Yeah his mom and my dad are brother and sister." "Wow so we are almost related to each other Sonny." "That's cool." Everyone welcomes Sonny in. Sonny discovers quickly that they are the people to hang out with. Everyone says hi to them. A few girls make a point of coming over to Will to say. Will is nice but feels awkward. Sonny pokes him in the ribs with his elbow. "She likes you." "No she doesn't...she is just being nice." "Oh come on Will "..Chad says. "She would make out with you a second if you asked." Will now feeling very uncomfortable stands up and tells Sonny that they only have a few minutes left so he better show him around now. Sonny grabs the empty plastic bag his sandwich was in to throw it away. He asks Will if he can take a sip of his bottle of water and Will tells him that he can have the rest..he is finish. Will watches as Sonny just drinks from the bottle without even wiping off the top. Will doesn't know what to make of him yet.