Chapter 1
"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!" The alarm clock buzzed.
"Uhm." A sleepy Wheels groaned as he rolled over in his bed to shut it off. He leaned over to the nightstand, picked up his glasses and put them on so he could see what time it was. It was 6 AM. He momentarily lied back down.
"C'mon, ya gotta get up!" He groggily said. "Gotta be to work by 9, and you know the rush hour traffic will be horrible!"
He forced himself out of bed and made his way to the bathroom across the hall. He turned on the shower and got in, letting the lukewarm water run down his face and over the rest of his body. It felt good.
After a quick shower, he shaved and got dressed, picking out a slightly worn Rolling Stones t-shirt and his favorite pair of jeans, then proceeded to the kitchen.
"Meow." Sheba, his grey and black tabby cat meowed when she saw him enter the room. She was waiting next to her food dish, which was empty. He walked to a cabinet and pulled out a bag of cat food. "Eat up!" He said as he poured some of the food in her bowl and gave her some fresh water.
He turned and went back to the counter and turned on the radio.
". . .News, traffic and weather is on all the time online!" The voice on the radio said, then a jingle of music came on. "Updating you on your commute to work, we have no accidents to report but there is one small tie-up downtown between York and Adelaide Streets. There has been a water main break and crews are trying to get that fixed as soon as possible. Front and Yonge Streets remain closed until the end of next month for repair. I'm Sara Ream in the Traffic Center."
"Dy-na-mite!" He sarcastically retorted to the radio as he poured himself a bowl of cereal and a glass of orange juice. He knew full well that that water main break would mean taking the alternative, longer way to get to work and there probably wouldn't be any water in certain parts of the building once he did get to work.
He finished his cereal and juice, put the dirty dishes in the sink and went back into the bathroom to brush his teeth. He let Sheba outside before leaving for work. She always stayed outside while he was at work, spending most of her time lying out on his apartment's patio or using the fire escape as a way of getting down to the the apartment complex's yard and lying around down there.
The water main break forced him to take the long way to work, and one of the buildings he had to drive by every time he took that route was his old high school, Degrassi High. The building had long since been abandoned, and was in need of lots of repairs or possibly even demolition. His class, the class of 1991, was one of the last classes to graduate from the school. A new junior high school and high school had been built, and the Degrassi Schools had gone through a ton of changes. For one, even after the new high school had been built, it was closed down about ten years later, and the entire Degrassi High student body had been moved back to the junior high building at the beginning of the last school year. The new schools were much nicer and more modern, though. Wheels wished they had been that way when he was in school. He still had ties to Degrassi, though; his best friend Snake was now a teacher there, and Snake's stepdaughter, Emma, went to school there. Joey, his other best friend from school's stepson Craig also went to school there. Wheels had also developed close friendships with Emma and Craig.
Driving by that old, dilapidated building always brought back tons of memories for Wheels, some of them not so good. Wheels had had a bit of a falling out with his friends in grade 12 because, well, he had pretty much been an ass to them and did a lot of dumb stuff that got him into trouble. His parents died when he was only 14 because they'd been hit by a drunk driver one night when they were going out to see a movie, and he had an extremely hard time dealing with their deaths. He had gotten a postcard from Mike, his biological father, shortly after they died when he was living with his grandparents. He couldn't stand living with them, so he got the bright idea to run away to be with his dad. He'd thought his dad would want him, but, as it turned out, he didn't. Now Wheels realized that it was stupid thinking his dad would want him. Mike didn't even know him, so why would he care about him? He went back to live with his grandparents for awhile and still couldn't handle living with them, so he went to live with Joey after his grandmother kicked him out. He started stealing money from Joey's mom, and he got into a fight with Joey and Joey kicked him out. From there, he went to Snake's, where Snake let him sleep on the porch until they too got into a fight. He barely graduated from high school, and the biggest mistake he made came after graduation; he started drinking, and one day he went to a party hosted by his friend Lucy and her boyfriend Bronco at Bronco's house and he got drunk. He made the mistake of thinking he could drive while intoxicated and drove Lucy to the store to get more chips for her party after he had a fight with Snake. To make a long story short, he hit a car and killed a two year old little boy and blinded and crippled Lucy. As a result, he was sentenced to ten years in prison. He had a lot of time to himself to think during those ten years. He thought he finally had everything under control once he'd been released, but he was wrong. Once he was out, he started drinking again. Strangely enough, he was drunk at his ten year high school reunion where he had reunited with his old friends, and among them was Lucy. She had finally gotten most of her eyesight back but had to wear special glasses to be able to see, and she could walk with a cane. It was at his high school reunion where he realized he needed more help because he didn't want to live his life that way anymore, and Lucy urged him to get it by joining Alcoholics Anonymous. She told him she'd forgiven him for what he did years ago, which was something he really needed to hear. He joined A.A. and completed the program with flying colors. He had now been sober for two years, and it was the best thing he'd ever done for himself. He found himself a decent apartment in his old hometown that he could actually afford and landed an excellent job that he absolutely loved going to every day. Most importantly, though, he got his old friends back, and that meant a lot to him considering he had no family.
He pulled into the parking lot of St. Michael's Hospital and went inside. He took the elevator up to the third floor and once he got off the elevator he stopped at a nurse's station.
"Katie!" He said excitedly when a younger nurse turned around to see him. "How was B.C.?"
"Wheels, hi! It was GREAT!" Katie said as she took a seat. "Todd and I LOVED it there!"
"So I take it the honeymoon was, um. . .let's see, how can I put this without sounding dirty. . .'Romantic'?"
Katie laughed. "Yes, very! So how have you been?"
"I'm doin'!"
"Good! So there's still no 'Mrs. Wheeler' yet, huh?"
Wheels shrugged his shoulders. His dating life, or lack thereof, depressed him. He would love more than anything to fall in love with a beautiful woman, but his track record wasn't that great. If he was graded on dating and romance, he'd have at least a D.
"No, not yet. Not even a candidate for the position at this point in time."
"Don't worry," Katie replied. "You'll find her, I know you will. And when you do she'll be very lucky to have you!"
"Thanks." He said, his cheeks blushing. "Hey, you got my stuff for me?"
"Right here!" She said as she handed him a think manilla envelope full of papers. "I think you're in room 312 this time."
"Great!" He said. "That's the best one! Well, I'm gonna get out of here so I can go set up, so I'll see ya!"
"Later!"
Wheels turned and walked down the hall. He had met Katie when he first started working at the hospital. She was just finishing up nursing school. The two had become friends, and they even tried dating for awhile but that was disastrous. Soon after they broke up, she met Todd, who was also a nurse, and the two of them married that summer. He was over Katie by now. As cute and sweet as she was, he realized it never would have worked out between them.
He walked down the hospital corridor to the Substance Abuse wing, went through the double doors and walked to room 312. Once he was in the room, he took out a sheet of paper. "Thirteen". He said to himself. He needed to get thirteen chairs and set them up.
Upon his completion of Alcoholics Anonymous, Wheels was offered a job at the hospital mentoring and somewhat counseling recovering teen alcoholics. He had been referred to the job by Jeff, his A.A. counselor. Jeff had thought that given his experiences as a teenager and young adult and the fact that he overcame his own addiction, Wheels would be a perfect candidate for the job. The hospital administration did, too, and they gave him the job. He was one of three mentors for teenagers there and was often the most sought after. He loved the kids he worked with and instead of trying to be an authority figure to them he tried to be more of a friend to them, since most of the kids he dealt with just needed a friend to talk to that could help them and would just listen to them. He shared his experiences and knowledge with them and helped them work through their recoveries. He was still required to check up on them, though, and any time something was wrong he was required to report it to their counselors. He'd helped lots of kids, some of which had come back to help him with other groups once they'd completed their own recoveries.
There were only six chairs in the room, so Wheels headed to the hospital basement to see if he could find more. He loaded eight chairs on to a cart and took them back upstairs. He set the chairs up in a circle. He'd found that by setting the chairs up like this, it forced everyone to be a part of the conversation as everyone could be seen.
After setting the chairs up, he headed back outside to his Pontiac Sunfire to carry in some posters he always brought with him on the first day he met with his group. The posters contained information on drinking, alcoholism, death statistics, and newspaper articles about drunk driving. He also carried in a small boom box and a book of CDs to be used for his own pleasure while he was setting everything up and waiting for the kids to arrive.
It was now 9:30 AM and Wheels had everything set up and ready for the kids. He was now filling out some paperwork and waiting for them to start arriving. At 9:45, the first two showed up. A girl who looked to be about 16 poked her head around the door.
Wheels looked up.
"Hi!" He said, putting away his paperwork. Are you here for the Teen Outreach and Recovery Program?" He asked the girl.
"Uh huh." She shyly responded.
"Come on in and have a seat!"
"This is it!" She said to someone else behind her. A boy walked in with her.
"Just go ahead and pick a chair, guys. It doesn't make any difference which one."
The rest of the group filed in shortly before 10 AM. The last one to show up was a tall, medium built, boisterous African American girl who looked and sounded a little tough and carried a chip on her shoulders. She reminded Wheels of a girl named Tabi that he went to high school with. Tabi was a bully and hung around with other bullies. Her and her friends lived to cause problems for other kids.
"OK." Wheels said as he shut door. "We've got a lot of ground to cover today, so let's get started! First off, my name is Derek Wheeler, but most of my friends call me Wheels. You can call me whichever name you choose, but please DON'T call me 'Mr. Wheeler!' My dad was Mr. Wheeler, and I really don't like being that formal, anyway. We'll start off by taking attendance and then we'll get to know each other a little more."
He grabbed his attendance sheet.
"Angela Baker?"
"Here." Angela was the shy girl he'd met earlier. She didn't seem real interested in talking to anyone.
"Zackery Best?"
"Yo! I go by Zack!"
"OK then, Zack." Zack was a tall, lanky guy with really dark, almost black hair. He looked a little like Joey's stepson Craig, except Zack was taller.
"Hector Bustamante?"
"Yeah, I'm here." Hector was tall, heavy set, and Hispanic. He was the kind of guy who looked like he could really hurt you if you made him mad enough.
"Ariella Clark?"
"What?" Ariella answered. Everyone else laughed.
"OK, 'here'." Wheels said as he checked her name off on the list.
"ChristaLynne Cranson?"
ChristaLynne raised her had. "Here." She quietly said.
"How 'bout Cameron Downer?"
"Here." Cameron was tall and built like a football player. Wheels guessed that he probably was.
"Dynah Dustin?"
"Here."
"Jayci Kinderson?"
"Here!" Jayci muttered as she rolled her eyes. Jayci was the tough black girl.
"Kristin LaRock?"
"Right here." Kristin seemed like she was a nice kid who had just gotten herself into a lot of trouble and fallen in with a bad crowd of kids. Wheels talked to her for a few minutes just before they started.
"Benjamin Roscoe?"
"I go by Benji, sir." Benji was short with curly blond hair. He was also a little shy.
"Travis Teegarden?
"Here." Travis said as he raised his hand.
"Melanie Van?"
"That's me!" A girl with light brown hair replied.
"And last but not least, Cody Zarchinski?"
Nobody answered.
"Cody?" He asked again.
Still no answer.
"OK, no Cody! Well, let's begin! As I said before, my name is Derek Wheeler, but you can call me Wheels. I'll tell you some more about myself in a bit, but first I want to cover a few ground rules and get to know a little more about you guys. I think we're gonna have a lot of fun and learn a lot of stuff. We'll laugh, we'll cry. It'll be the best of times and it'll be the worst of times. I just want you guys to know that I'm not here to preach at you, I know how much you guys hate that because I hate it, too!"
A few of the kids laughed.
"What I really want is for all of us to become friends. I don't want to be an authority figure, I want to be friends with you guys. I want you guys to feel like you can talk to me about whatever is going on in your lives without feeling threatened. Everything we talk about, be it between just you and me or us as a whole group, will not leave this room. I'm not gonna go home and tell all of my friends that Cameron likes to dress up like Shirley Temple on the weekends, for instance."
The group erupted in laughter.
"I don't want you guys doing that kind of stuff, either." Wheels continued. "By the way, I was just using you as an example, Cameron. You don't actually do that, do you?"
"Why yes, how did you know?" Cameron joked. "No, I don't, seriously!"
"That's good because if you did you'd need more help that ANYONE in this hospital can give you!" Wheels replied, laughing. "See? I'm hoping we can have more candid conversations like that! But, and this is a very strong BUT, if I see any of you guys doing something or even hear of you doing something that could be detrimental to your recovery I have to report it to your counselors, OK? I really don't want to have to do that and I don't want to hurt you guys, but part of my job is making sure you guys get extra help if you need it, OK? Oh, and I guess most of you know by now that we'll be meeting three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Oh, and for those of you that actually stick around long enough to complete the whole course of the program, I have a special surprise for you guys at the end, but it's a secret and I'm not telling you what it is! Now I want to hear about you guys!"
They went around the circle, and each one of the kids took turns talking about themselves and their experiences with alcohol. Most of the kids suffered from depression or had come from alcoholic families. Some said they drank just to fit in with their friends, and others did it for other reasons. Some of them, such as Jayci and Angela refused to talk. Wheels was OK with that; they'd talk when they were ready to talk.
"So what about you?" Hector asked.
"Well, I'm 32 years old and I live here in Toronto in an apartment on Gerrard Street. I grew up here and graduated from Degrassi High School in 1991. I'm single and don't have any kids of my own, just a cat named Sheba. And I, too, have experiences with alcohol. My parents died when I was 14 in a wreck caused by a drunk driver. I had a really difficult time dealing with that for a long time. When they were killed I lived with my grandparents for awhile. I ran away from them once to go live with my biological father-I was adopted as a baby-and when I found him I realized he didn't want me, so I went back to my grandparents. I ended up getting myself into a lot of trouble because I lied to my grandma a lot and refused to help her around the house, so she kicked me out. I lived with my best friend Joey for a month, until he kicked me out of his house for stealing money from his mom and for just being a jerk. My other best friend, Snake, let me sleep on his porch for awhile until we got into a fight, but after that I was on my own. I fought with Snake and Joey a lot after that. It seemed a whole friendship was ruined because of me. I will never forget the summer after I graduated from high school. That was the worst summer of my life. I'd just gotten a new car-OK, it was basically a piece of scrap metal, nothing like I drive now-and I spent most of the summer drinking beer and working on my car. Another friend of mine had a party one day, and I went. I started drinking while I was there and got into another big fight with Snake. We got a little physical, and some friends tried to calm us down by getting us away from each other. One of them asked me to take her to the store to get some chips in my 'great' car, which I agreed to do. Of course, I took my beer with me." Wheels paused for a moment. "Getting in that car to take her to the store was the stupidest thing I've ever done. On our way to the store I ended up hitting a car and killing a two year old little boy, and I also crippled and partially blinded my friend. I went to jail and was charged for criminal negligence causing injury times two, death, and drunk driving. I pleaded guilty to all charges and spent the next 10 years in prison. While I was incarcerated I had a lot of time to think. I thought about how I should've taken responsibility for my life, how I should've never gotten into that car drunk, how badly I'd hurt my friend, and I felt terrible for what I did to the little boy and his family. I myself wanted to die. Then I realized that I had to keep fighting. Things would get better, and with a little work I could make them better. I'd come to realize that my friends were right when they said I blamed my parents' deaths on everything instead of blaming myself when things didn't work out. Joey and I became friends again, but Snake and I just recently reconciled. Three summers ago I was let out, I guess they let me out 'for good behavior'." Wheels said, in an attempt to make a joke. "I was able to attend my 10 year high school reunion. Snake was less than thrilled to hear that I'd been let out, and no matter how much I tried to convince him he just wouldn't forgive me. He didn't understand how I could drink like that when my own parents died because of a drunk driver. We finally reconciled last year after Snake was diagnosed with Leukemia and he'd been having thoughts of suicide. We bonded again because we'd both had thoughts of wanting to die. We picked up right where we left off, and are back to being best friends again. As for my other friend, I saw her at my reunion, too. She now has her vision back and can walk again, and said she'd forgiven me for what I'd done to her a long time ago, which is something I'm not sure I'd ever be able to do if I was her. I had started drinking again after I was released, and at our reunion she urged me to get help by joining Alcoholics Anonymous. I completed the A.A. program and was offered a job here at the hospital doing this, and now here I am, trying to help you guys so you won't up like I did."
Wheels got up from his chair. "Look around this room." He said. "Everyone that is in here is here because of a problem with alcohol. Do you realize that at least 75 percent of Canadian teenagers drink? If you don't do something now, some of you that are in this room right now will die from alcohol, and while the rest of you probably won't, there are still serious problems for you. For the ladies that are in here, do you realize that if you were to become pregnant and drank during the pregnancy your baby could be born with serious birth defects and mental problems due to Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and in some cases might not even be able to survive? And if that baby did survive and could live a fairly normal life he or she has a 50 percent chance of becoming an alcoholic? If your parents are also alcoholics, the baby's chances for becoming an alcoholic are 80 percent. The same goes for you, guys. "
Kristin spoke up.
"I started drinking when I was 15. I drank because I was depressed. I was living in Calgary at the time, and my best friend died in a house fire. I'd known him since we were babies. We grew up together. When he died, I felt horrible. I shut everyone out of my life, and I felt terrible about myself. I also felt like dying. I just didn't care anymore. I didn't care about my other friends, I didn't care about my family, and I didn't care about myself. So I started drinking to feel better. When I was drunk it was like there was nothing wrong, and I lived for that next drink. When I moved here to Toronto with my mom, I made new friends at school who also drank. We would go out three or four nights in a row to their houses and just drink until we were so drunk we didn't even know where we were. My mom didn't know what we were doing, and one night she had to work and asked me to stay home and babysit my little brother who is only five years old. I was so upset that I couldn't go out with my friends that as soon as she was gone I got the keys out to her liquor cabinet and downed a whole bottle of Vodka that night. My little brother asked me to color with him. I was so angry that I had to stay home instead of going out with my friends and so drunk that I remember just going after him when he asked me that. I threw him to the ground and just started beating him up. . ." Kristin stopped so she could wipe the tears from her eyes. "I told him it was all his fault. If he wasn't here I would've been able to go to my friend's house. He was all black and blue and his nose was bleeding. He kept saying 'Krissy, stop! You're hurting me!', and he was crying. I finally got up and let him go, and then I started feeling really horrible for what I did to him. I really love my little brother and if I was in my right state of mind I never would've hurt him. Right after I let him go I remember thinking to myself, 'What happened to you?' I was this horrible, mean person and not a lot of people liked me anymore. I picked Caleb-that's my brother-up from the floor and apologized to him and I told him I was going to call a cab and take him to the hospital because I'd hurt him so bad. We got to the hospital, and while he was in with the doctor I called my mom and told her everything. She came straight to the hospital and we talked for a really long time. We both started crying and I asked her if she could ever forgive me. I remember her telling me 'Krissy, you're going to make a lot of mistakes in your life, and I'll always love you and forgive you'. When the doctor came out and told me I'd broken one of Caleb's arms, one of his legs and his nose, I decided to check myself into rehab that night. I didn't want to be that way anymore. I'd been drinking for two years and I didn't like the person I'd become. All of this just happened recently, last month to be exact. I'm now going on one month sober, and you know what? I learned that my 'friends' weren't really 'friends'. Once I told them I was giving up drinking, they stopped talking to me and I don't even see them anymore. That's OK, though. I don't need friends like that. My counselor is helping me deal with my friend's death, and she was the one that recommended that I join this program because she thinks I could make some other, better friends here."
Wheels smiled at Kristin. "I'm really glad you realized you had a problem and wanted to fix it." He said. "I only wish I'd been able to do that myself."
They spent the next hour just talking about why they even started drinking in the first place and when they realized they needed help. Some of the kids, such as Jayci, Ariella, Zack, and Hector had gotten into so much trouble with the law that they were mandated to be in the program, whether they realized they had a problem or not, and Wheels had to submit weekly reports to the Toronto Police for their probation officers just to show that they showed up for all their sessions. If they missed a day, he was required to report that, too, and the offender usually got into trouble.
"OK, let's wrap it up!" Wheels said, clapping his hands together. "When we meet again on Wednesday I have something special planned, so please be here! I'll see you all on Wednesday!"
Once everyone got up and left, Wheels stacked up all of the chairs except for one, which he kept out for himself. Some of the kids stayed to talk to him, while the rest of them left.
Wheels' favorite part of his job was the kids. He loved working with them, and for the most part they all got along and had fun together. He also felt that talking to these kids helped him, too, since he could so easily identify with them. Lots of them seemed apprehensive of talking to him at first, and then once he mentioned that he too had struggled with an alcohol addiction as teenager, he could almost see them instantly relax. When he talked about his own problems, it was like he was saying "It's OK, I know just exactly what you're going through, and I won't judge you or make you feel bad."
After the last one left, Wheels decided it was time for lunch. He had a craving for Chicken Salad and crackers, so he locked up the room and went to the cafeteria to buy some food.
Hospital food has always had a bad reputation, but Wheels honestly didn't think the food at St. Michael's was that bad. He was sure he'd get tired of eating it if he ever had to be in the hospital for an extended period of time, but it was good for lunch. They always had Chicken and Tuna salads, sandwiches, soups, and several different appetizers and deserts. The cafeteria itself wasn't exactly a five-star restaurant, but the food wasn't bad.
He ordered his food and took it back to his room. He usually worked until four thirty or five o'clock on the days he had group at the hospital, and the rest of the time he worked at home. There was always paperwork to be done and things to be planned. For the next group meeting he'd carefully organized to have some very special speakers come and talk to the kids about having alcoholic parents and alcoholic friends. Snake and Lucy were going to come and talk about what it was like to have Wheels as a friend when he was a teenager, and Lucy was going to tell the kids what effect the accident they were involved in had on her life. Emma's friend Sean also agreed to come and talk about what it was like living with alcoholic parents, as was Ellie Nash, another student from Degrassi. He was thinking that the kids would mostly relate to Sean and Ellie because of their ages.
At four thirty Wheels was ready to call it a day. He handed in some papers to the same nurse's station where he checked in, and headed home. He was going to be busy when he got home, too. He had a few loads of laundry to be washed and dried. Parts of Toronto were still having problems with the water main break, so he hoped there was water at home.
"Junk, junk, bill, junk, junk, bill." He said while going through his mail after picking it up at the mailbox by the landlord's office. Then he came across a white sheet of paper folded in thirds. "Great!" He said as he read the piece of paper. It was a note from his landlord, telling everyone that the main break was worse than suspected, and it would be at least a couple of days before the water was back on. So that meant no laundry. He couldn't just sit there and wait for it to get fixed, either. He was wearing his last clean pair of underwear. So, on his way back to his apartment he got his phone out of his pocket and dialed the Nelson-Simpson residence.
"Hello?" Emma said as she answered the phone while trying to balance baby Jack on her hip.
"Egah!" Jack screeched in delight as he grabbed a fistful of her hair.
"Emma? Hi, it's Wheels."
"Oh, hey!" She said "Ouch, let go of my hair!" She said to Jack as he she pried his fingers off of her hair. "What's goin' on?"
"I was wondering if you guys had water over there."
"Yeah, finally! After it was off most of the day!"
"Ya think I might be able to come over and do some laundry? There's no water at my apartment right now."
"Sure, come on over! It's just me and Jack tonight and I could so use some adult conversation!"
"Great, thanks Em! I gotta load everything up in the car, but I'll be there in about 15 minutes!"
"OK, see you then!"
"Bye, Em!"
Wheels went up to his apartment and let Sheba in, who was waiting at the patio door for him. He then loaded two laundry baskets full of laundry, detergent, fabric softener and bleach, and took them out to the car, stashing them in the trunk.
It only took him about five minutes to get to Snake's house, which was four blocks away from his apartment. He could easily walk there, but not with two baskets full of laundry!
Upon arriving at the Nelson-Simpson house, he was greeted by Emma, who was holding a sleeping Jack.
"I'm gonna go put him down upstairs and then I'll be back." She whispered. "He hasn't had a nap since this morning!"
Wheels nodded.
Emma took Jack upstairs and put him in his crib, then came back down to the living room and turned on the baby monitor so she could hear him if he needed her. Wheels finished carrying in his laundry, taking it down to the basement and starting up the first load in the washer, then came back up to the living room where Emma was, holding a twenty dollar bill and the phone.
"Mom left money for pizza." She said. "You hungry?"
"Yeah, some pizza actually sounds good!" Wheels replied, taking a seat on the couch.
"Pineapple and mushroom OK?"
Wheels made a face. "No pineapple." He said "I can't understand why anyone would want to put pineapple on their pizza!"
"It's good!" Emma said. "How 'bout a half and half? I'll get my half with what I want on it, and you can get your half with what you want on it?"
"OK. Pepperoni, sausage and bacon, then."
Emma called and ordered the pizza. It would be there within the next half hour.
"So how's school?" Wheels asked as she took a seat on the couch next to him.
Emma rolled her eyes. "It's a nightmare!" She said. "Only three weeks into grade nine and just today I had three tests. One in English, one in Science and one in Algebra!"
Wheels clenched his eyes shut. "Oooo, OUCH!" He said. "Sorry about that, especially Algebra! That was always my worst subject in school and I wasn't really good in school at all! '23x+49 equals 206. Solve for X and simplify your answer.'" He said, quoting an algebraic equation. "Thanks for bringing back memories of high school Algebra, Em!" He laughed.
"Well at least my teachers were nice enough to not give any homework tonight. I've been studying for the last four nights!"
"Hey, is Sean still coming on Wednesday?" Wheels asked.
"Ugh, Sean!" Emma said, rolling her eyes. "I think so. We don't really talk that much anymore since we broke up over the summer, but I think so."
"Great!"
"So who else is going to be there?" Emma asked. "I mean, I know Sean and Snake are going to be there, but who else did you get?"
"Lucy and Ellie Nash. Lucy wants to make a 'dramatic' appearance, though. She's bringing her old wheelchair, cane and glasses. When she comes into the room she'll be in the wheelchair wearing the glasses, then she's going to take her cane and get up out of the wheelchair and walk around the room with the cane, then she's going to throw the cane down and take off her glasses. She really wants to show the kids how badly she was screwed up in the accident and how she did recover but it was a long and difficult recovery. Snake wants to talk about forgiveness, and Sean and Ellie are going to talk about what it was like growing up with alcoholic parents. You should really see if you can come and listen to them, Em."
"I don't know," Emma said. "I really would like to, but I just don't know if I should or not. I'd be weird being there with Sean being there."
Wheels stared at her. "C'mon, Em!" He said. "You're in school with Sean all day, how much more different could it be? You have classes with him, don't you?"
"Yeah, but. . ."
He was still staring at her.
"OK! I'll think about it!" She said.
Wheels shook his head and laughed at her.
"Hey, you wanna watch a movie tonight while you're waiting for your laundry to get done?" She asked, trying to get the subject off of Sean. "I just rented Bruce Almighty. It's supposed to be really funny!"
"Why not? If I have to stay here to do laundry I might as well, I've got nothin' else to do!"
The pizza came and the two of them watched them watched the movie, with Wheels having to leave it a couple of times to put clothes in the washer and dryer and Emma having to leave for Jack. The movie finished up just before 10, right around the time that Snake and Spike arrived home from their date.
The end credits were rolling just as Snake and Spike came in the front door. Wheels turned around to see them from the couch.
"Oh hey, guys!" He greeted them. "Hope you don't mind me being here! The water is still off at my apartment and I needed to do some laundry, so I called Emma and asked her if I could come over and use the washer and dryer. Besides, I think we both needed the extra company. We are the 'Dateless Duo' right now, ya know!"
"Oh that's OK!" Spike reassured him as she took off her shoes. "We're always glad to have you!"
"So whatcha guys been watchin'?" Snake asked.
"Bruce Almighty." Emma answered as she got up and took the DVD out of the DVD player and put it back in the case.
"I heard that's supposed to be really funny!" Snake said.
"It was HILARIOUS!" Wheels replied. "But we won't ruin it for you guys! You HAVE to see it, though!"
Weels stood up and walked to the door.
"Well I should probably be going home now, it's getting late!" He said. "But I'll see you guys later? Like Wednesday?" He asked Snake and Emma.
"Yeah, I'll be there on Wednesday." Snake said. "I've already got a sub lined up."
"MAYBE!" Emma said.
"OK, MAYBE!" He said, smiling at Emma. "I'll see you guys later!" He said to Snake and Spike.
With that, he waved and left to go home.