18. Sweet Science

"Did you do that extra credit for bio?" Duane asked Carl.

"Of course. You know my mom always makes me do my work." Carl replied. He hadn't planned on calling Michonne mom, It just kind of popped out during the wedding and he'd been calling her mom ever since. He loved his own mother with all of his heart, but mom was a title, and it was one that Michonne deserved.

"I did mines because I was so damn bored." Duane said. He grabbed a chocolate doughnut from the box he brought over with him, and shoved it in his mouth.

"I know right? Who'd of thought this place would be even more boring than the Q.U.A.D. He sat next to Duane at the kitchen table and grabbed the last doughnut from the box.

"We coming back here after school?"

"Yeah." Carl said. Because the emergency preparedness meetings were at his house it had become the go to place to hangout after school. He and his friends usually hung out in his living room until one of his parents came home from work and kicked everyone out into the backyard.

Duane threw away the doughnut box. "We better go for we miss the bus."

Carl grabbed his backpack off the kitchen counter and slung it across his shoulders. In the mornings Duane always came over to Carl's house before school and they waited for the bus together. Both of his parents were already at work, his dad had gotten his job of police officer back, and his mom ran the daycare in Shetland. It was up to him to lock up the house before he left for school. He always made sure that he did because the last thing he needed was a lecture from his dad.

As Carl walked down his driveway to the bus stop he noticed that his next door neighbors stood on their front lawn with signs that read "Reverse segregation is white genocide." He groaned and closed his eyes. It had not gone unnoticed to the white residents of Shetland that since the merge with the Detroit evacuees they were now in the minority. A few had been vocal about their anger over the situation to an embarrassing degree. They demanded to be transferred somewhere else. He could admit that it felt strange to be one of the few white kids in the neighborhood because he never had before, but he didn't want to transfer.

Duane stopped in the middle of the driveway and stared Carl's neighbors dead in their eyes.

"Why don't you mind your own business, boy." The man next door said.

Duane walked to the edge of Carl's yard and stared at the neighbors harder.

The man with the sign came to the edge of his property and stared back.

It was the bravest and scariest thing Carl had ever seen. He joined Duane's side, and stared too. He couldn't leave him hanging.

Their stand off lasted until this neighbor cowered into his house behind his wife. A few minutes later the bus came.

Carl sat with Duane in their usual seat. The more he found out how much he didn't know about his loved ones struggles the smaller he felt. He was so naive.

He didn't know what to say when Duane, Keisha, and Tamekia told him about having to hear racist remarks all their lives. It made him see that he'd been living with a kind of freedom they had not. He was seeing a whole other side of his friends lives. A side that he would never understand, but he would try the best he could because that's what friends did. He just hoped that his friends would always be his friends. Sometimes he worried that they would get sick of hanging with him. Losing them terrified him. In his mind it was worst than having no friends, if you didn't have any friends you didn't know what you were missing, but to have great friends and then have them taken away, that would be unbearable. Duane was his best friend and the brother he'd always wanted.

"Hey, Carl man you OK?" Duane asked. "I've been calling your name for like a minute now."

"Sorry. I was just thinking."

"About what, you look like you was on some deep shit."

"I'm sorry about my asshole neighbors." He said. "They're idiots."

"Man, fuck em. They don't like it here they can get the steel toed boot." Duane said.

Carl grinned a little. "Yeah, put them outside the walls and let them fend for themselves." Carl said.

The bus pulled up in front of the school. Shetland high school was a three story brown brick building. All of his classes were on the first floor. The juniors were on the second floor and the seniors were on the top floor. He had lucked out and had one or more of his friends in each of his classes. All freshman ate lunch at the same time so he didn't have to worry about eating lunch by himself either.

As they entered the school Carl and Duane parted ways. They wouldn't see each other again until third and forth period when they had the same classes.

His first class was Chemistry. For the last four days their teacher Dr. Du Bois had been teaching them about distillation. He had the class make distillation apparatuses to purify salt water.

Dr. Du Bois was the best kind of science teacher there was in Carl's opinion. An over enthusiastic science teacher. He talked too loud, walked too fast, and got more excited than anyone he'd ever seen when he showed the class a science experiment. He let them work in teams and each team got to pick out there names.

"We're team ATL." Tamika told Carl and he didn't argue.

The only part that Carl didn't like about chemistry was the fact that Jeremy Tramer was in his class. If having him in his class wasn't bad enough he was seated directly behind Carl, so that he had to hear his stupid remarks all class long. Jeremy had become a much bigger asshole than he had back in Shetland. Now that he was in Calbert he had a group of friends pathetic just as he was.

Carl and Tamika were among the first in their class to complete their distillation apparatus. Now they had to wait for Dr. Du Bois to check it before they began the distillation process.

After Dr. Du Bois thoroughly checked their work was done correctly he gave them a thumbs up. "Good job team ATL."

"I love science!" Tamika shouted.

"Science loves you back!" Dr. Du Bois shouted.

"What a fucking loser." Jeremy said and his lab partner Frank laughed. Frank laughed at whatever he said whether it was funny or not.

"Those of you that I have given an OK to may now line up for your salt water solution." Dr. Du Bois called.

"I'll get it. Carl said. He got up from their table and got the solution from the central supply cabinet at the back of the class room.

"Jenny want to come over here and work on my apparatus?" Carl heard Jeremy ask Jenny Pitcher as he got back to their table.

Jenny had been Jeremy's first lab partner, but when he wouldn't do any of the work she'd asked for a new lab partner, and he'd had it out for her ever since.

It was no surprise to Carl. Jeremy never did any class work. He was to busy hiding in the boys bathroom and snorting pills off of the backs of toilets. Carl could see the remnants of some pill caked up in the corner of his nose.

"Please, get over yourself." Tamika said.

"Shut up!" Jenny snapped.

"Come on Jen my apparatus is really hard. I needs your special touch." He was speaking low enough so not to be heard by Dr. Du Bois who was at his desk.

"She said shut up." Carl said as he stood up and turned around.

"Forget it Carl. He's not worth it." Tamika pulled on his sleeve to get him to sit down.

Carl chewed the inside of his lip and sat down though he really wanted to hit Jeremy. Instead he began to boil their salt water solution.

Frank and Jeremy's team,Immortal death, was the last team to complete their project. Jeremy got up to grab the salt water solution. It was the most work he'd done since the class started. As he came back he crossed by Jenny's table.

Carl should have known he was up to something, but he was too busy taking notes to pay him much attention.

Jenny screamed out loud interrupting the quiet of the classroom.

Carl's pen jumped across his paper and everyone in class turned to see what made Jenny scream.

Jeremy. He had dumped his entire container of salt water solution on her. She jumped up from her seat and ran out of the class room before her white shirt became see-through. Tamika got out of her seat and ran after her.

The room was quiet as a funeral. Mr. Du Bois sat behind his desk for a moment shocked beyond movement.

"It was an accident." Jeremy said with a smirk.

"Yeah right." Carl replied. He stood up and kicked his chair away from him. "Then why'd you remove the cap from the bottle before you even sat down?" He got right into Jeremy's face and stared him down. The incident he and Duane had with his neighbors had changed things. He wasn't going to be bullied anymore and he wasn't going to let Jeremy bully anyone else.

"I'm sick of you always getting in my face!" Jeremy shouted and swung on Carl. His fist caught Carl on the jaw. For a moment he was stunned by the blow.

Students began pulling out their cell phones to record the fight.

The second punch came almost as fast as the first one and caught Carl on the mouth. Jeremy threw a third punch, but he was able to dodge it and it caught his ear instead of his eye.

"Kick his ass Carl!" someone yelled.

"Mess him up!" another student yelled.

Their voices woke Carl up. Suddenly everything Shane had taught him about fighting came back to him. He stepped to the side, out of the path of Jeremy's fist, and rounded on him with a shovel hook to his liver. It was a beautiful shot. His stance was solid and he put all of his weight into that hook. Carl wished that Shane could have been there to see it.

Dr. Du Bois was getting up from his desk to come and break the fight up.

Carl was hardly aware of this. His brain was in fight mode. Jeremy had been knocked on his ass and the momentum of the fight was his. He drew back and punched Jeremy in the nose and watched as blood spurted forth. He drew back again and smashed his fist into Jeremy's mouth again and again. His anger made him feel like someone else. Someone not in control. He was scared by his rage but consumed by it too. He wanted to hurt Jermey. Really hurt him. He grabbed his collar and landed another punch. He had never disliked someone so much in his life.

"ENOUGH!" Dr. Du Bois shouted. He pulled Carl away from Jeremy and restrained him. "Grimes! Tramer! Office now!"

Now that the fight was over Carl came crashing back down to Earth. He felt the pain from the blows Jeremy landed and his lip was bleeding. He felt like he was being lead to the gallows as Dr. Du Bois marched him down the hallway to the principal's office. The few students that were in the hallway gawked at him and he glared back. It didn't matter what they thought. His parents were going to kill him when they got to the school.

Principal Hilltonia did not look happy to see Carl in his office. He made Carl and Jeremy sit in seats on opposite sides of each other. The school's security guard stood between them. All the fight had gone out of Carl anyway. Now he was just filled with anxiety. He hadn't even made it through a week of school without getting into a fight. He was going to be in the most trouble he'd ever been in.

The whole process of reporting his fight seem to take forever. The trio was taken into the principal's office separately to give their account of the fight. Then when his parents got to the school he'd have to go over the whole thing again and be handed down his punishment. He didn't understand why he had to wait, why not just tell him now?

When Carl saw his mom's face as she walked into the office he knew at once that she was furious with him. Still he was glad it was his mom who came to the meeting and not his dad. His dad was going to lose his shit once he found out. She might be furious at him, but she was a teacher she would stay calm and handel things.

"Where's Jude?" He asked and joined her at the front desk.

"Amy is taking over for me at the daycare, she's the assistant."

"Oh."

"May I help you?" The woman behind the desk asked.

"Yes, I'm Michonne Grimes, Carl's mother, and I was called down here because he got into a fight."

The woman paused for a moment. She stared at Michonne and then at Carl, and finally she spoke. "Well Mr. Hilltonia is still in there with young Mr. Tramer so just have a seat, and I'll come get you when they're done."

Carl slinked back to his seat.

"Does dad know?"

"Not yet, but I'm going to have to tell him."

"I know." Carl said sullenly.

"I want to hear your side." Michonne said.

Carl told her everything. "I don't even know how Jenny is doing." Carl confessed.

"Don't worry, we'll find out."

The longer he had to wait the more agitated Carl felt. He chewed on his nails. He swung his legs back and forth. He sighed several times in a row, but nothing could relieve him of the restless feeling he had.

"Mr. Hilltonia will see you now."

Carl's stomach started to do cartwheels as he walked back to the principal's office. What was the worst they could do, expel him?

"Have a seat Mrs. Grimes, Carl." Principal Hilltonia said. "I'm sorry we have to be meeting like this."

Carl didn't say anything.

"Please before we start, could you tell my son and I how his friend Jenny Pitcher is doing?" Michonne asked.

"She's doing OK, though she chose to go home early."

If he wasn't grounded Carl was going to make sure to stop over Jenny's house. He wanted to make sure that she was OK. He had been worried about her ever since she'd run out of the room crying. He wasn't sorry for getting in a fight. Jeremy had deserved everything he got.

"Well I've heard all sides of the story, including Ms. Pitcher's." Principal Hilltonia said. "I do understand that you were standing up for Jenny, but we simply do not tolerate fighting in our school."

"Fighting? I was defending myself." Carl explained.

"There comes a time when what your doing goes beyond self-defense." Principal Hilltonia told him. "Let me show you something." He placed a picture on his desk.

Both he and Michonne leaned in to get a clearer look.

It was a picture of Jeremy's face taken after the fight. Seeing it did not make Carl feel proud, it actually made him feel a little sick. Especially when he heard the shocked noise his mom made.

"Jeremy's nose is broken and he's going to need stitches for his mouth. I think maybe you started off defending yourself, but then your anger got the best of you and you were looking for payback."

Carl didn't speak. He had enjoyed hitting Jeremy. He'd deliberately hit him in the nose. It wasn't just Jeremy he'd been hitting. It was Nick, his racist neighbors, and everyone back in Possum Holler who'd ever talked about his mother before she died. His anger had gotten the better of him.

"You've been suspended from School for two weeks. That means for those two weeks you are not allowed in or on the school grounds. You may not participate in any extra-curricular activities, and you'll not be permitted into any school-sponsored events. You have to attend an adolescent anger management course down at the community center, and you'll have to complete that course before you can come back to school."

Carl let out a shaky sigh.

There was paper work to go over, and then the Principal wanted to talk to Michonne alone.

He went back into the main office and sat down. What were they talking about in there? Principal Hilltonia was probably telling his mom that her son fit the profile of a serial killer or something.

Finally his mom came out of the office. "Go to your locker and get your books, and I'll get your class work from your teachers." She said in her quiet scary voice.

Carl practically ran to his locker.

After getting all of his books and class work the school's security guard escorted Carl off of the school property. It was embarrassing because it was during the junior's lunch period and they were all staring at him. By now everyone in the school probably knew that he'd been suspended.

Neither of them spoke the whole shuttle ride home. Carl tried to gauge how mad his mom really was at him, but it was impossible to tell from her poker face.

"Are you hungry?" She asked when they got home.

Carl nodded. "Are you mad at me?"

"I'm worried about you."

"Oh." Carl said. That was some how worse.

"You really hurt that boy."

"I know, but he's a lowlife. He stole Sara's mom's bracelet. He makes all these racist comments." His excuses sounded pathetic to his own ears. He wanted to explain how he really felt, but his words got lost in his emotions. He sighed and tried again telling her about the neighbors.

"It was really brave of you to stand by Duane's side."

Carl hung his head and his cheeks flushed. "Yeah, but I never really had to think about racism before, but I should have. I should've before my dad married you and Duane became my friend."

"Well it's too late to be worrying about what you should have done, the important thing is that you're aware now."

"Do you think I need anger management?" He asked. He didn't know why but he was in the mood to be cut open and dissected. He needed someone to look at him on the inside and tell him that he was still good.

"I do. I think the class will help you refocus your anger in a more constructive way."

"So, you think I'm like criminally insane or something?"

Michonne laughed and cupped his cheek. "No, I don't think that, but I do partly blame myself." She admitted.

"Why?" Carl asked. "You didn't make me get into a fight."

Michonne set the lunch she made for Carl on the table, and then sat down herself. "Remember that day back in Possum Holler when your dad didn't pick you up, and I had to drive you home?"

"Yeah, that was the first time you met dad."

"You told me then you got angry a lot. I told your dad that I thought the two of you should talk to a psychiatrist, but neither of us got around to doing that."

"Well that's kind of not your fault. A lot of stuff has happened since we first met."

"True, we've all been through a lot and not had a lot of time to deal with it." Michonne sighed and stood up from the table. "All right hand over your phone, and when you've cleaned up your dishes, go to your room and stay there until your father gets home."

Carl reached into his pocket and handed her his phone. He started up the steps towards his room, but then stopped halfway there."I still write things down. It helps, but I guess not enough."

"You're a good kid Carl if you weren't none of this would upset you."

Carl wanted to tell her that he didn't feel like a good kid at all. He wanted to tell her he felt like a monster, but he couldn't make the words leave his mouth.