Jake and Liam have been friends for years. They grew up together, their parents have been friends since they were born, they always went to the same school.
But not this year.
This year, Jake was moving into Johnson Boarding School for boys.
"WHAT?!" He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Boarding school?! Why not just kill me now?"
"Oh, just you're over exaggerating." Jake's mom said with an eye roll. Jake's mom always thought he was exaggerating. "I wont be able to take care of you while I'm gone and your father is still in Europe."
Let's back up a bit, shall we?
Jake's been back and forth between his parents. Jake's mom was too social. Jake's father was too antisocial. So they split.
Jake's mother is now in the commercial industry and she's just been given a promotion and now must travel to New York 2 weeks each month.
Jake's father moved to Europe and remarried a woman named Elizabeth, but Jake calls her Liz or Lizzy when Jake gets annoyed with her. Jake's father was supposed to back to California when Jake's mother told him the news of her promotion, but Liz is now pregnant and he can't leave her. His mother pleaded with him to the point of letting Liz come too, which is a big thing because Jake's mom hates liz, but Liz has a fear of planes and by the time they came over anyway, Liz would have delivered.
So now here we are.
"So let me stay with Liam!"
"You know darn well why I can't do that." Last summer Liam's parents drove off while he stayed with them for a month without an indication of how long they'd be gone. Only a note that said, "There's some food in the fridge. Order pizza if you run out!" on the bottom of the page was Liam's mom's credit card number.
"They came back a week later! I have her number planted in my cellphone now. Plus, they didn't leave us thinking they'd been kidnapped."
Jake knew it was a lost cause the minute his mom told him he was going to boarding school, but he wasn't going down without a fight.
"Jake, you're going to Johnson's whether you like it or not and that's final."
Jake walked up the steps to Johnson's Boarding School for boys to the administration office alone. He'd told his mom that if he had to go, then he was going to do all the paperwork and boarding and packing all by himself. At least his mom let him keep the car.
When he got to the top of the steps, there stood a man with a sign that said 'Jacoby Joshwoldon Eastman-Adams.' Jake walked up to him and said, "Hello, I'm Jake Eastman. I'm here for the Junior term."
"Yeah, Yeah. That's nice to know, kid," was his reply. "I gotta look out for this Jacoby kid though, so why don't you-"
"I'm Jacoby. I go by Jake, though. And I legally changed my middle and last names to 'Josh' and 'Eastman,' sir."
"Oh," he replied. "Right this way, Master Eastman." He started to lead him to the double door entrance.
"Thanks." Jake looked at him as he passed. "But call me Jake."