Authors Note: To the reader who are not from America or don't know what AP classes are, they are Advanced Placement college classes that you take in high school to get college credit and are very hard and some students take one or two in their senior year.
This story is going to cover the life stories of the team in a very AU way. Enjoy! R&R :)
Teresa Lisbon sighed as she looked at her new schedule for the term. English and science, her two hardest subjects were first. She looked down her list and saw, happily, that she had made Honors Advanced Math. This class was usually reserved for exceptional seniors but here she was, a sophomore who had skipped a grade in the most advance math class CBI offered.
Teresa attended College-prep Boarding Institute, or CBI as it was referred. It was a boarding school offered a wide range of classes for all types of students. It was mainly for high school, but it also had a small program for sixth through eighth grade students. It was unique because it had many gifted students in art classes, music classes, academics and sports as well as other students of all capabilities. Teresa fit in the category of academically talented. She did run track decently fast, she played the violin decently and her art skills could have been worse but she was extraordinarily sharp and clever. The rest of her schedule included AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, Advanced Orchestra, Honors Physics and Honors Junior Year English.
She folded her schedule in half and stuffed it into the book she was carrying. She had been sitting on the steps outside the Main Building, reading the Great Gatsby and drinking a soda when Mr. Wainwright, her English teacher from freshman year exit the building.
"Hello, Teresa!" he said pleasantly from behind a large cardboard package in his arms. Teresa had been one of his favorite students because of her diligence and knowledge.
"What book do you have there?" He inquired. She held up the book cover for him to see. "Ah, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Excellent, excellent. Well, I'd love to chat but I'm on my way to the dormitories to distribute next term's schedules." He glanced around then said, "Tell you what. There's going to be long lines. How about I give you your's right now?"
"Thanks, Mr. Wainwright!" said Teresa.
"No problem for my favorite student!" He called over his shoulder as started the walk to the dormitories on the other side of the campus.
The doors opened again and Teresa´s younger brother, Tommy, came out.
¨I´m hungry.¨ Tommy sat down next to his sister on the steps.
Across the road from where Tommy and Teresa was sitting was the middle school campus, a small circle of dormitory houses surrounding a playground. Teresa watched as a white van unloaded the new middle school students and their families to tour the school. Teresa had many mixed emotions as she watched the kids interacting with their parents. She'd had had it tough when it came to families.
Teresa Lisbon had been though a lot. Her mother had died in a drunk driving accident when she was 11. After her mother's death, her father had fallen into a deep depression and turned to alcohol to relieve his grief. His drinking caused him to spiral out of control and go after Teresa and her brothers in drunken rages. Eleven and a half year old Teresa often took the brunt of his wrath to protect her younger brother from their father's fists. She hid her bruises well enough until two years later, when a teacher called child services.
The four Lisbon kids were put into the same foster home. Their new home was far from perfect. It was in one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. Their foster family already had two biological children and a foster child by the time the Lisbons arrived. Her foster father, Henry, was violent towards the boys but never the girls. Even when Teresa stood in front of her ten-year-old brother Tommy or her four-year-old twin brothers Peter and Danny, Henry wouldn't hit her. Diane, one of the other foster kids, however told a different story.
"He comes in our room at night. The older girl, Lucy, used to have me sleep against the wall to protect me when he came. But shes a big girl now, she moved out. She's coming to get me soon." Diane was eight when she first came to the foster home. Her father killed her mother when she had tried to file for divorce. She was also eight when she lost her virginity to Henry. Teresa was luckier. She was twelve and a half.
It only took three weeks for Child Services to be called when little Danny came to school with a black eye that he got from "tripping over his toys". This time, Teresa was prepared. She presented information to the social workers about different boarding schools. The twins were sent to a boarding school for younger children. Tommy was sent to a group home. Teresa took a placement test. It was then that her remarkable intelligence was noticed. She had tested not only out of eighth grade, but she had nearly passed out of ninth as well, despite being barely 13 and having had a very sporadic education over the past two years. She was given a full scholarship to CBI and immediately entered into the Honors Program, where she flourished.
She called her brothers often encouraging them, especially Tommy, to work hard in school to get a scholarship to the middle school program at CBI. She had spent her most recent two week break between terms to visit her brothers at their various homes. It took her two days to get to Peter and Danny's school. She had taken various city buses to get to the edge of Norseville, the city where CBI was. Then she bought a bus ticket to Hamilton, where Peter and Danny lived. She arrived in Hamilton at 3:00 AM, got a bed at a cheap inn and fell asleep before her head landed on the pillow in the musty room.
She had been satisfied with Peter and Danny's school. They were now six and in kindergarten. She felt bad that they had no family or parent to visit them. Most of the kids were taken home every weekend or so and visited at least once a week.
"Tony's mommy takes him out every Sunday." said Danny. Teresa and Danny were sitting on the floor in his bedroom. It was cosy, with three sets of bunk beds and brightly colored sheets. The door was covered in drawings and A+ worksheets. Each child had a small shelf on the headboard of their beds. Teresa noticed that all of the kids had several framed photos of family on their shelves. Danny only had a box of crayons and an action figure.
"Tony's mom is nice. She took me with Tony last week and we got french fries and played at a park. Everyone's parents come and take their kid home during the weekend. Does that happen at your school?"
"No." said Teresa. "I go to a big kid school. We get two weeks off at the end of a term and three days half way through."
"Well, maybe could you come and visit us sometime?"
"I'll try, kiddo." She said, ruffling his hair as she stood up to see Peter's room. Peter was eager to show her his goldfish in a jar that he kept by his bed.
"I named him Eric." he said quietly.
"Why?" Eric was the name of their father.
"Because he is nice and he never says bad things or hits or throws or drinks beer. And he's always here. He doesn't leave me alone to go to his own school." Peter ran out of the room.
Teresa's visit to Tommy in the group home had been more disheartening. The group home was run on public funds so it was rather run down. The uniform was issued navy blue cotton T-shirt and shorts. They looked like Teresa's old uniform from the gym class that she so often skipped to avoid questions about bruises. Teresa was saddened when she saw Tommy with the group of other troubled kids in the uniforms looking like prisoners. Unlike the twins's home, the group home was all foster kids, traumatized and hurt children, many who where orphans.
"How are you doing in school?" She asked, anxiously. Tommy's face lit up.
"Great!" He answered, excitedly. "I made first honors for all of my classes and my math teacher is skipping me up to the seventh-grade algebra 1 class. Mike says that I'm the first kid from the Home to be in that advanced in math!"
"So you spend a lot of time on your studies?" She asked, happily.
"Ron drives the Home kids to the school bus stop and I spend the whole ride studying."
"So, like I said on the phone last week, I'm taking you with me back tomorrow to my school to take the entrance exam at CBI. If you pass, you'll get to be in the middle school program." Tommy nodded.
"Anything to get me out of this dump."
"I heard that they're making you go to counseling at your school." Tommy's face darkened.
"I hate it." said Tommy. "They think they're so smart, always asking me questions, trying to get me to talk. I know what they are doing. They're trying to figure out what type of social disorder I have. Trying to see if I'm bipolar or if I have anxiety disorder or some other kind of shit because of dad. I wish they'd leave me alone."
"Me too, bud." She said quietly. "I'd like a little bit of that, too.
