The weather slowly got a little better each day. And Lucas was the picture of the perfect student. He had to sprint outright a few times and hope he didn't get caught running to get to class in good time but he was successful. Lucas quickly put all of his organizing and time management skills to make sure that all of his homework and projects were handed in on time. Abby noticed her son's increased studiousness. But quickly wrote it off that he was heading into the last months of eighth grade and would soon be in high school. The increase in Lucas' conscientiousness lined up with the high school tours and course selection. Abby decided to keep an eye on Luc just in case he started to display any behaviours that may suggest he was anxious. He had at times of transition got himself so worked up that he ended up ill.
As Lucas' conduct became exemplary Sam's took a nose dive. Throughout the year Sam had accumulated several demerits for forgetting homework, talking back, and hiding in the library when he should have been in gym class. But as each term changed, the slate was wiped clean and his demerit count was back to zero. This system worked very well for most children in that it gave them many chances to modify their behavior. However Sam was not every child, when there weren't direct consequences he didn't learn to change his ways.
By the time Lucas had racked up nine demerits, Sam was at five. Sam's demerits were accumulated through minor misdemeanors. Once again issues like being saucy with the lunch lady, not returning his books on time, being late in from recess. Nothing that was way out of line or so terrible that Miss Carmichael contacted either Tim or Abby, she would remind Sam each time he collected a new demerit about what was expected and the ultimate consequences if he received a full 10 points.
On a few occasions Miss Carmichael let Lucas know what had occurred. Not to put a load on the young teen's shoulder but wanted another person to speak to the little fellow about straightening himself out.
Spring brought out giddy and rowdy behavior in all sorts and it was no different for Sam. Although Sam was having a much better academic year he was still Sam. And keeping himself in line for 8 months with no 'extra-curricular activities' meant he was going stir crazy. After spring break Sam started collecting sticky tack. He would take a bit off of posters in the hallway, some off of postings in the classroom. He would add his new bits to the growing ball in his desk. It took about a week before he had enough to actually do something with it. When it was the classes turn in the library Sam headed to the encyclopedia section, as he did many times, but this time instead of reading he used his sticky tack to adhere all the covers and pages together. Well not all of them, he ran out of both time and sticky tack.
When Mrs. Coleman, the librarian, found the affected encyclopedia's she went through the roof. Like all librarians she was very attached to her books in her library. Sticky was designed to come off paper without damaging it, however Sam couldn't predict that the spring sunshine filtering through the large library windows would warm up the sticky substance enough for it to melt into each of the pages. Although Mrs. Coleman didn't know for sure that the culprit was little Sam, she was pretty sure. Miss Carmichael's class was the only one that had been visiting, and the encyclopedia aisle was rarely visited by anyone in the grade 1 / 2 class. Mrs. Coleman approached her teaching colleague with the evidence and angrily demanded that Sam come to the library for her to speak with him. Miss Carmichael had a soft spot for the misfit little guy and wasn't sure he would respond the librarian's anger appropriately so she offered to deal with the situation herself. Asking Sam to stay after school was easy as his brother was a few minutes late to pick up, once again. It only took a moment for her to get Sam to admit what he'd done. As she expected Sam didn't know the damage that his little prank would create. He was remorseful and seemed truly upset with the turnout. After a thorough tongue lashing Miss Carmichael handed out 2 demerits and detention every recess and lunch play time until the books were clean of all added detailing. Sam was picked up by Lucas with dry eyes but the tear streaks still visible along both cheeks.
Sam wouldn't tell Luc what had happened and was atypically quiet on the walk home. Luc played the 'good' big brother, ignoring the sadness and stopping at the park for a short time to play. Therefore by the time the boys got home both were happy and smiling.