• • • • •
The final bell rings. I am free! As I leave class, papers seem to fall from the sky, filling the hallway with assignments and homework—both graded and never-turned-in. Seth catches up to me as I kick papers out of my way, heading to my locker. I hate students who throw all their schoolwork at the final bell. It seems like a slap in the face to teachers who try to do some good in their students’ lives. Plus, as lame as it sounds, I can’t bring myself to litter like that. I can be so pathetic sometimes.
“It’s chaos,” Seth, coming toward me, yells over the screams and shouts.
“Did this happen at your old school?” I realize that I don’t know anything about Seth’s history.
Then it feels like a brick hits the side of my face. It stings. Slightly stunned, I hear laughing as papers flutter to the ground. I adjust my glasses.
Joey and Matt stand there. “Have a good summer, nerd,” says Joey. “I hope you get some good writing done.” He throws another smaller stack of paper at me. He laughs, and Matt follows.
I’m walking away, thinking about how much I hate Joey and how I’m almost out of this damn building for three months, when I notice that Seth isn’t next to me.
Oh shit.
He is right in Joey’s face. “What’s your problem? Your penis too small so you have to pick on people to make yourself feel bigger?”
“Listen, new kid, you better back off before you create a problem you don’t want to have,” says Joey, straightening up and puffing out his chest.
“Oh yeah? I’m not afraid of you or your loser friend.” Seth scoops up some of the papers from the floor and chucks them at Joey’s face.
Joey charges at Seth but halts when a deep voice booms from down the hall. “You two. Over here. Now.” The principal, a demanding man who always wears a dark blue button-up shirt and khaki pants, points to his side.
Both Seth and Joey walk down the hall to the principal. I try to hang around for as long as possible, staring at the stupid sports trophy case like it interests me. I’m craning my neck, trying to hear what the principal is saying. But shortly afterward they head to the principal’s office, and it gets too obvious that I’m loitering. So I walk outside. To loiter some more. The grass is so green, the sky so blue. I am ready to start summer, but I can’t leave the school until I know Seth is okay.
I find myself sitting on the grass as the parking lot empties. I am twisting grass blades in my hands until they tear.
The world seems surprisingly empty at this moment. Few cars. Light traffic. No people. No birds. Or insect sounds. Just the occasional flutter of leaves.
Finally the door opens, and out walks Seth. His forehead is creased and his lips pursed. I stand up immediately. “What happened?”
“Tha!t dick Joey. He outright lied.”
“Figures. He’s a wuss.”
“I have detention.” Seth looks at me.
“But school’s over.” I don’t understand how that works. Is there such a thing as summer detention?
“I know.” He strides past me. I grab my backpack and catch up with him. “I start next year with a week of detention.”
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Seth stops and turns to me. He seems so serious that I’m not sure if it’s the same Seth. “I will not let anyone pick on you. Or do anything to you. I swear, Charlie. I will kick that kid’s ass. He’s lucky the principal stopped things when he did.”
I’m speechless, and I don’t think a “thanks” would cover it. So, like an idiot, I keep quiet.
Seth walks to the parking lot, and loses all the seriousness he just had. “Let’s go walk a dog,” he says. Then laughs. “A dog with the worst name in the history of dogs.”