My eye lids felt like they each weighed at lease pounds. They were weighing
down my whole face. My eyes were drifting...closed...
"Lucas!"
My eyes shot open. "What?!"
"Earth to Lucas. Tune in to channel M-A-T-H."
I smiled, hoping that would get me off the hook for sleeping in class.
"We have just nominated you for homecoming king nominee. Do you have any problems with that?"
I didn't answer.
"We can discuss it after school in detention if you have any questions."
"No, that's fine. Sure I'll be the nominee."
"Great, now stay awake, or we'll talk in detention anyway."
I nodded and opened his book, pretending like I knew exactly what they were studying.
"Derivatives, Lucas, page 129," Jake whispered from the seat behind me.
"Thanks," I whispered back.
I managed to stay awake the rest of the class period. I tried to escape quickly with the rest of the class, but the gods of luck were not with me.
"Lucas!" Mr. Collins called.
"Good luck, man," Jake patted my back and left with the class. Mr. Collins was known by his inability to take pity on students. Or lack of heart, either one.
"The homecoming king is always a senior, you know that right?"
"Yeah, so do I really have to go to these meetings?"
"Yes, basically they're going to make you do all the dirty work and you have a chance of being king when you are a senior."
"Terrific."
"Anyway, I thought you should be warned. Meetings start at 7am tomorrow morningg."
"Thanks," Lucas stood at his desk waiting for the right for words to come to me. Nothing. In all the books I read people always say the right thing. If I were in a book, I would not have been standing in front of Mr. Collins's desk with sweat starting to bead on my forehead. "I'm sorry," I finally blurted out. Not exactly the quality apology I was going for. "For falling asleep. I'm sorry."
Mr. Collins's face contorted unrecognizably. Oh, wait, he was smiling.
"I you fall asleep in my class again I'm calling your mom," he was still smiling. Did he find some kind of sadistic pleasure in seeing the reaction of students when he threatened to call their parents? I gave him no reaction, keeping my face still. He stopped smiling.
"I'm done, go to class, Mr. Scott," he said and went back to grading papers.
"Thank you, Mr. Collins."
He waved me off with his red pen without looking up.
Homecoming nominee? What a joke. I didn't have time to think too hard about it, because I was already running late to Chemistry. Two hard teachers in a row. Someone in the counselors office was sadistic.
"You're late, Mr. Scott," Mr. Davis said the second I walked into class.
"I'm sorry, I was talking to another teacher." He did not look convinced. "I can bring you a note." I offered.
"Too late. Sit, you're interrupting my class."
Brooke's dad was the exact opposite of Brooke. Where she was sweet and gentle, he was harsh and demanding. The only time he wasn't a complete bastard when he was with Brooke. He still saw her as a three year old in pigtails. I was a threat to his baby.
I took a seat in the front so I didn't have to cross in front of Mr. Davis.
Falling asleep in Chemistry would have been detrimental not only to my grade, but also my physical health. If Mr. Davis killed me, I would no longer be a threat to his little girl. I doodled on my paper to keep awake. I tried to write down what he was talking about, but organic chemistry makes little to no sense when one is running off three and a half hours of sleep.
I got my much needed distraction when Brooke came into the chemistry lab.
"Daddy, can I borrow Lucas for a minute?" she asked sweetly. Mr. Davis's eyes were visibly melting.
"Of course, sweetie," he turned and glared at me, "make it quick."
Nathan made kissing noises. I turned and glared at him. He looked pleased with himself. Bastard. Justice finally came my way when Mr. Davis said, "Detention, Nathan." I smiled. "Get out of here, Lucas, or you'll be joining him."
I followed Brooke out of the room quickly. Once I shut the door, she pinned me to the wall and started kissing me.
"Wait, why did you pull me out of class?"
"Cause I missed you," she went back to kissing me.
Eh? Oh well, no chemistry, yes making out, sounded good to me.
The bell rang and students started flooding into the hallway. "Oh, shit!" I exclaimed, "I missed the last half hour of class."
"It's okay, Luke. Daddy will understand."
"No he won't. The guy hates me."
"Come on." She led me back into the class, as we passed Nathan who glared at me. "Ignore him," she warned. "Get your stuff and leave. Quickly."
Brooke went to talk to her father, the hardass chem teacher, while I gathered my stuff and slinked out the door. It worked! Free! I didn't want to think about what would happen the next day in class. Oh well, that was 23 hours away, I had to deal with more pressing issues, such as how to hide the tattoo from Keith.
I asked Brooke for advice.
"He won't like the tattoo?" she asked.
"Let's put it this way, if he finds the tattoo, they will never, ever find my body...ever."
"Alright, I get it. Jeez, Luke, you're so dramatic," she kissed me.
"How do I get him to not go to the game?"
"I'll take care of it. Where is he?"
"At the shop... Why what are you going to do?"
"Just leave it to me. If I take make him not go to the game, will you loosen up?"
"Yes, but what-"
She put her finger over my lips to silence me. "Shhh... Trust me."
When I got to the shop after school, I threw my backpack in Keith's office and picked up some tools to start working.
"Can you help Mr. Brown, Luke. He's next in line," Keith motioned to the tall, husky man waiting with his car.
The carburetor needed to be repaired. Good lord, this was going to be while.
Keith and I were both under the hood of cars that were next to each other.
"How was your day, Luke?" He asked.
"Eh. It was school."
"So descriptive you are."
"How was your day?"
"Eh. It was work." We both laughed.
"Listen, Luke, I'm really sorry, but I'm not going to be able to make it to your game tonight."
I couldn't help but ask, "Why?"
"Actually your girl told me that Deb hadn't seen Nathan play yet, so I'm going to keep the diner open while she goes to the game."
I smiled.
"She seems nice."
"She is," I smiled.
"I would like her a lot more if I didn't suspect it was her you got drunk with last night."
"What makes you think that?"
"I was 16 once, too, Lucas."
"Want to do it again? I'll trade you places."
"No way. I spent my entire 16th year grounded."
I laughed. "Now that I do not believe."
"No, seriously, I would finish one sentence and screw up again. Your grandpa was not my friend that year." Keith looked into the distance and laughed. "God, I was a mess," he pointed at me, "Don't you ever, ever be like I was."
"What did you do?" Now I was curious.
"I think it started when I discovered alcohol. That was when Danny was a basketball star and I was the screw-up kid. The only attention I got was when Dad would pick me up from the police station and yell at me." He looked at me, "Oh, God, now I'm giving you ideas. If I'm ever not paying enough attention to you, you have my permission to slap me."
"Sure thing, Keith."
So game one was taken care of. As long as no one mentioned the tattoo to Keith, which was unlikely, I was off the hook. At least until next game.
We won the game, which meant that Whitey would lay off our asses for the next...13 hours. Nathan and I managed not to get in a fight the whole game and that included halftime. My guess was Nathan was trying to impress his mom. It would have been sweet if he wasn't such a jackass.
I called Keith after the game to see if I could go to a party with Brooke. I knew if I didn't go, Nathan would think he won. But then if I came home drunk twice in a row, Keith would have my ass until Mom got back.
"So can I go?"
"No, Lucas! You're grounded."
"Remember how we talked about being 16 once? This is my turn. Please, Keith."
"Why do you want to go anyway?"
"To prove Nathan wrong."
"What?"
"Nevermind. Please?"
"Argh, Lucas, why are you doing this to me?"
"Because you're my favorite uncle."
"Fine, go, but be home before curfew."
"Which is when?"
"I don't know, when is your usual curfew?"
"I didn't have one," I answered honestly.
"Okay, be home by midnight, you have school tomorrow."
"That's in two hours!"
"Don't push it," he warned.
"Fine. Thanks, Keith."
"Don't even think about drinking, Luke. You blew that one already."
I agreed and hung up the phone.
Brooke was looking curiously at me.
"Let's go."
Nathan looked surprised to see me standing with Brooke in the doorway of his beach house. "What are you doing here, bro?" he emphasized the bro like it was an insult. It was an insult to be related to him.
"Party for the team, right? I'm on the team."
"I meant the team that matters."
"If I'm not mistaken, Nate, I scored double the points that you did, and I have your previous position. I don't think it gets any more important than that."
"Fine. Stay. You're up." He handed me a ping pong ball.
"What are we doing?"
Brooke came up close to me and whispered in my ear, "Beer pong, I'll help you."
The game was to throw the ping pong ball in one of the cups at the other end of the table. If it made it in, the other person had to drink the beer in the cup.
I was good at beer pong. The problem was, so was Nathan. I learned quickly that playing beer pong with basketball players was not a great idea. As we kept playing, we were getting worse and worse. Eventually I was seeing 10 cups instead of 5.
Brooke took the next cup I was supposed to drink away. "I think you've had enough, Lucas."
"What? Give that back!"
Nathan was plastered. His balls weren't even landing on the table anymore.
"You won, Lucas, now let's go."
I was tired. My eyes were not staying awake. Brooke led me to a couch. "Here, Luke, lay down." She combed my hair with her hands and I slept on her lap.
"Lucas!"
My eyes shot open. "What?!"
"Earth to Lucas. Tune in to channel M-A-T-H."
I smiled, hoping that would get me off the hook for sleeping in class.
"We have just nominated you for homecoming king nominee. Do you have any problems with that?"
I didn't answer.
"We can discuss it after school in detention if you have any questions."
"No, that's fine. Sure I'll be the nominee."
"Great, now stay awake, or we'll talk in detention anyway."
I nodded and opened his book, pretending like I knew exactly what they were studying.
"Derivatives, Lucas, page 129," Jake whispered from the seat behind me.
"Thanks," I whispered back.
I managed to stay awake the rest of the class period. I tried to escape quickly with the rest of the class, but the gods of luck were not with me.
"Lucas!" Mr. Collins called.
"Good luck, man," Jake patted my back and left with the class. Mr. Collins was known by his inability to take pity on students. Or lack of heart, either one.
"The homecoming king is always a senior, you know that right?"
"Yeah, so do I really have to go to these meetings?"
"Yes, basically they're going to make you do all the dirty work and you have a chance of being king when you are a senior."
"Terrific."
"Anyway, I thought you should be warned. Meetings start at 7am tomorrow morningg."
"Thanks," Lucas stood at his desk waiting for the right for words to come to me. Nothing. In all the books I read people always say the right thing. If I were in a book, I would not have been standing in front of Mr. Collins's desk with sweat starting to bead on my forehead. "I'm sorry," I finally blurted out. Not exactly the quality apology I was going for. "For falling asleep. I'm sorry."
Mr. Collins's face contorted unrecognizably. Oh, wait, he was smiling.
"I you fall asleep in my class again I'm calling your mom," he was still smiling. Did he find some kind of sadistic pleasure in seeing the reaction of students when he threatened to call their parents? I gave him no reaction, keeping my face still. He stopped smiling.
"I'm done, go to class, Mr. Scott," he said and went back to grading papers.
"Thank you, Mr. Collins."
He waved me off with his red pen without looking up.
Homecoming nominee? What a joke. I didn't have time to think too hard about it, because I was already running late to Chemistry. Two hard teachers in a row. Someone in the counselors office was sadistic.
"You're late, Mr. Scott," Mr. Davis said the second I walked into class.
"I'm sorry, I was talking to another teacher." He did not look convinced. "I can bring you a note." I offered.
"Too late. Sit, you're interrupting my class."
Brooke's dad was the exact opposite of Brooke. Where she was sweet and gentle, he was harsh and demanding. The only time he wasn't a complete bastard when he was with Brooke. He still saw her as a three year old in pigtails. I was a threat to his baby.
I took a seat in the front so I didn't have to cross in front of Mr. Davis.
Falling asleep in Chemistry would have been detrimental not only to my grade, but also my physical health. If Mr. Davis killed me, I would no longer be a threat to his little girl. I doodled on my paper to keep awake. I tried to write down what he was talking about, but organic chemistry makes little to no sense when one is running off three and a half hours of sleep.
I got my much needed distraction when Brooke came into the chemistry lab.
"Daddy, can I borrow Lucas for a minute?" she asked sweetly. Mr. Davis's eyes were visibly melting.
"Of course, sweetie," he turned and glared at me, "make it quick."
Nathan made kissing noises. I turned and glared at him. He looked pleased with himself. Bastard. Justice finally came my way when Mr. Davis said, "Detention, Nathan." I smiled. "Get out of here, Lucas, or you'll be joining him."
I followed Brooke out of the room quickly. Once I shut the door, she pinned me to the wall and started kissing me.
"Wait, why did you pull me out of class?"
"Cause I missed you," she went back to kissing me.
Eh? Oh well, no chemistry, yes making out, sounded good to me.
The bell rang and students started flooding into the hallway. "Oh, shit!" I exclaimed, "I missed the last half hour of class."
"It's okay, Luke. Daddy will understand."
"No he won't. The guy hates me."
"Come on." She led me back into the class, as we passed Nathan who glared at me. "Ignore him," she warned. "Get your stuff and leave. Quickly."
Brooke went to talk to her father, the hardass chem teacher, while I gathered my stuff and slinked out the door. It worked! Free! I didn't want to think about what would happen the next day in class. Oh well, that was 23 hours away, I had to deal with more pressing issues, such as how to hide the tattoo from Keith.
I asked Brooke for advice.
"He won't like the tattoo?" she asked.
"Let's put it this way, if he finds the tattoo, they will never, ever find my body...ever."
"Alright, I get it. Jeez, Luke, you're so dramatic," she kissed me.
"How do I get him to not go to the game?"
"I'll take care of it. Where is he?"
"At the shop... Why what are you going to do?"
"Just leave it to me. If I take make him not go to the game, will you loosen up?"
"Yes, but what-"
She put her finger over my lips to silence me. "Shhh... Trust me."
When I got to the shop after school, I threw my backpack in Keith's office and picked up some tools to start working.
"Can you help Mr. Brown, Luke. He's next in line," Keith motioned to the tall, husky man waiting with his car.
The carburetor needed to be repaired. Good lord, this was going to be while.
Keith and I were both under the hood of cars that were next to each other.
"How was your day, Luke?" He asked.
"Eh. It was school."
"So descriptive you are."
"How was your day?"
"Eh. It was work." We both laughed.
"Listen, Luke, I'm really sorry, but I'm not going to be able to make it to your game tonight."
I couldn't help but ask, "Why?"
"Actually your girl told me that Deb hadn't seen Nathan play yet, so I'm going to keep the diner open while she goes to the game."
I smiled.
"She seems nice."
"She is," I smiled.
"I would like her a lot more if I didn't suspect it was her you got drunk with last night."
"What makes you think that?"
"I was 16 once, too, Lucas."
"Want to do it again? I'll trade you places."
"No way. I spent my entire 16th year grounded."
I laughed. "Now that I do not believe."
"No, seriously, I would finish one sentence and screw up again. Your grandpa was not my friend that year." Keith looked into the distance and laughed. "God, I was a mess," he pointed at me, "Don't you ever, ever be like I was."
"What did you do?" Now I was curious.
"I think it started when I discovered alcohol. That was when Danny was a basketball star and I was the screw-up kid. The only attention I got was when Dad would pick me up from the police station and yell at me." He looked at me, "Oh, God, now I'm giving you ideas. If I'm ever not paying enough attention to you, you have my permission to slap me."
"Sure thing, Keith."
So game one was taken care of. As long as no one mentioned the tattoo to Keith, which was unlikely, I was off the hook. At least until next game.
We won the game, which meant that Whitey would lay off our asses for the next...13 hours. Nathan and I managed not to get in a fight the whole game and that included halftime. My guess was Nathan was trying to impress his mom. It would have been sweet if he wasn't such a jackass.
I called Keith after the game to see if I could go to a party with Brooke. I knew if I didn't go, Nathan would think he won. But then if I came home drunk twice in a row, Keith would have my ass until Mom got back.
"So can I go?"
"No, Lucas! You're grounded."
"Remember how we talked about being 16 once? This is my turn. Please, Keith."
"Why do you want to go anyway?"
"To prove Nathan wrong."
"What?"
"Nevermind. Please?"
"Argh, Lucas, why are you doing this to me?"
"Because you're my favorite uncle."
"Fine, go, but be home before curfew."
"Which is when?"
"I don't know, when is your usual curfew?"
"I didn't have one," I answered honestly.
"Okay, be home by midnight, you have school tomorrow."
"That's in two hours!"
"Don't push it," he warned.
"Fine. Thanks, Keith."
"Don't even think about drinking, Luke. You blew that one already."
I agreed and hung up the phone.
Brooke was looking curiously at me.
"Let's go."
Nathan looked surprised to see me standing with Brooke in the doorway of his beach house. "What are you doing here, bro?" he emphasized the bro like it was an insult. It was an insult to be related to him.
"Party for the team, right? I'm on the team."
"I meant the team that matters."
"If I'm not mistaken, Nate, I scored double the points that you did, and I have your previous position. I don't think it gets any more important than that."
"Fine. Stay. You're up." He handed me a ping pong ball.
"What are we doing?"
Brooke came up close to me and whispered in my ear, "Beer pong, I'll help you."
The game was to throw the ping pong ball in one of the cups at the other end of the table. If it made it in, the other person had to drink the beer in the cup.
I was good at beer pong. The problem was, so was Nathan. I learned quickly that playing beer pong with basketball players was not a great idea. As we kept playing, we were getting worse and worse. Eventually I was seeing 10 cups instead of 5.
Brooke took the next cup I was supposed to drink away. "I think you've had enough, Lucas."
"What? Give that back!"
Nathan was plastered. His balls weren't even landing on the table anymore.
"You won, Lucas, now let's go."
I was tired. My eyes were not staying awake. Brooke led me to a couch. "Here, Luke, lay down." She combed my hair with her hands and I slept on her lap.