Chapter Three- Family Thoughts
It was dark by the time Calvin finally came home. Walking in the door he looked up to see his mother, looking at him, arms crossed.
"And where were WE today Calvin?" She asked sternly.
"School." He replied flatly.
"Oh? Then WHY your counselor call saying you ran out? And that your teachers said you skipped classes?" Calvin looked at her, but remained silent. "Calvin, ANSWER me!"
"I skipped, alright? I didn't want to put up with her bullshit, not again!" he snapped.
"Calvin! You have a counselor to help you! You can't just skip classes when you're upset! You're going to fail, do you want that? Do you WANT to fail? You can't just keep skipping-"
"I don't fucking care!" he suddenly yelled.
"DON'T you take that tone with me mister!" she snapped back, patience wearing thin.
"I don't care alright?! I just don't care, leave me alone!" he turned and stormed up to his room, slamming the door.
His mother sighed sadly. She worried for her son; she worried for her whole family. Times were hard, Calvin's father had been fired recently, because he simply couldn't keep up his work anymore. She herself had no success in getting a job, and Calvin was failing his courses at school. She knew he was a very intelligent young man, even a genius, if he would only put his mind into his work. She slowly walked into the study room, and sat down at the desk. She saw various pictures Calvin had drawn, what an artist he was! But every image had one thing in common; they were all about tigers. As a matter of fact, almost everything the boy did was related to tigers in some way. She had noticed early on that when he put his mind into it, he would pull A's almost constantly, if the subject was on tigers or something else his mind created. But when forced the boy shrugged the work off, refused to do it. She worried for him, she knew the accident and losing that stuffed tiger hurt him badly, she only wished he could move on and get over it.
Meanwhile, Calvin sat down on his bed, irritated. He opened his packsack and sifted through it. Homework and more homework. He snorted, having no want to do any of it. He sat and thought for a long time. He knew how hard things were for his family right now, and he wasn't helping any of it. He started to think about possibly dropping school altogether, and getting a job. At least then he could be some use to his family. But his mother wanted so much for him to graduate, to be a success in life. He sighed and looked at the homework again.
Instead he simply tossed it aside, and went to sleep.