Turquoise: friendship, tranquility, relaxation, cheerful, balance, calm.
"…symbolizes friendship…" Mr. Williams told the class.
Jon sat on his desk. "Friendship is being caring and considerate of self and others."
"A kind person shows concern for the feelings of others and is helpful and generous."
They read unenthusiastically off the poster stuck to the chalkboard.
Feeny's new curriculum required everyone to embody a new word each month.
Character education.
Or something.
Shawn couldn't understand why it took two people to give a ten-minute presentation.
Putting his head on his desk, he placed an open folder over his face. Fluorescent light through the folder created a tranquil marine glow.
Someone must have lost a bet.
Cory was alone at his lunch table.
Shawn was with Miss Andrews.
No one would sit with him.
He defended the new kid everyone decided to hate.
Why?
He confused Feeny's office with the boys' bathroom.
A mistake every single student had made.
Even the new kid wouldn't sit with him now.
Cory pushed his tray away, putting his head on the table.
Metal dragged across the floor.
A tray dropped onto the table.
He looked up.
Topanga tucked her blue-green skirt under her as she sat down.
She grinned at him and began to eat.
Cory relaxed and pulled his tray close.
Peace settled over him as they began to talk.
Chet called.
He knew it as soon as he walked into the bedroom.
Shawn lay on the floor.
An arm behind his head.
A leg up on the bed.
A brow pinched together in anger.
Blue eyes fixed on the ceiling, in no mood to talk.
Cory took the pillows from the bed.
"Said he just drove over the bridge to the Bahamas."
A pillow the color of the waters off the Eleuthera Islands went beneath their heads.
"How stupid does he think I am?"
Shawn was in no mood to talk.
He just wanted to shout into space.
Cory lay next to him, arm behind his head, leg on the bed, staring at the ceiling until it was time to go.
Listening.
A simple gesture brought Shawn's world back into balance.
Students without concern.
Internal school politics.
Teacher lounge gossip.
Chet upsetting Shawn.
Feeny disapproving.
Kat interfering.
Repeatedly.
Hiding the family they'd built…
She greeted him with a kiss.
He complained.
She undid his sea-green tie and wrapped it around her hips.
"Have you talked to Eli?"
"No. Other than the school stuff, he doesn't understand. He doesn't do family."
She unbuttoned the top four buttons of his shirt and untucked it.
"Come. Sit."
He sat.
Fingers in his hair, she listened.
And for the first time in months, he relaxed.
Melancholy haze.
The curtains hid the rain, her tears.
She was homesick.
Always.
She never complained.
Jon and Shawn noticed.
She wouldn't talk about it.
She was fine.
Happy.
Very homesick.
Late one night, an engine roared outside her door.
A blue green Chevy.
Shawn.
Jon.
Homeward bound.
New York City.
Just the three of them.
Just for one day.
