ABOVE THE INFLUENCE
9:09 A.M.
"Glance around you. Feel the icy air come in contact with your skin."
"Yep. I feel it." Everyone cracks up as Anthony walks around our tiny group.
"Put your shirt back on Stevens, unless you really want to freeze." Knowles commands, putting a hand up to his forehead. "If you continue to goof off, this is where you'll live. On the streets of Queens begging for shelter, and provisions. This is where you all will be, if you never get a proper education."
Those words sink into my mind as I glimpse around the tiny park we are in. Through a group of trees I catch sight of an old man walking around with a shopping cart full of cans, going around the corner of a coffee shop. Hopefully nobody I know will become like that. Weak, tired, old, from living off the streets.
"Pare up with someone and feel free to mess around. Just don't leave." Knowles sits down on a park bench. "I mean it." He rubs his hands together. "I'll give you twenty minutes, and if ya'll get cold, we'll go in the restaurant across the street behind me."
"Come on." I grab Stephanie's arm, and head toward the fountain in the middle of the park.
"What ya want to do?"
"Well. This is suppose to be a learning experience, so we should at least get something out of this."
"Right. Who knows if Knowles might give us an assignment over this." Sitting down on the cracked fountain, Stephanie swishes the muddy water around inside. "You think people drink this?"
"No. I think they use the bathroom in it." She pulls her hand out, and wipes it on her jacket.
"Where do you think these people live?"
"Over there." I point toward the coffee shop corner, where the old man went down. "There's probably boxes over there. This area is convenient, 'cause there's a soup kitchen, and a free clinic over there." I point to the two buildings to my right.
"Got ya."
"So. You tell him yet?" I nod toward Lester, who was messing with a piece of cardboard a few feet away.
"Tell Lester what?"
"Y'know what."
"Oh. No not yet."
"Fine, but your losing time." She looks down at her feet. However I can tell she is smiling. I skim the park for something to look at, when I noticed Lynn. She has her headphones on, oblivious to the world. She appears to be paler then ever, and is clutching her stomach. "What do you think is wrong with Lynn?"
"She's probably taken' drugs, like everyone else."
"Hmm." I begin to twirl my ponytail around my finger. For the rest of the seventeen minutes, I think about the things I said to Trevor. During the snow fight we had, I tell myself I need to say I'm sorry. Although how can I cross that bridge? I don't even know where he lives now.
"Is anyone frozen yet?" Knowles yells, as he surrenders from the snowballs coming toward him. We all nod our heads, as we wrap our coats around us. "Kay. Let's go." We shuffle behind him, as we make our way to the little restaurant. Inside, we gather around the little fireplace, letting the warmth reach all the way to our toes.