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Zoe
Zoe walked into first period English about ten minutes late. She handed her late slip to the teacher and then looked for an empty desk. The only one was right up front, and this was really bad news. She hated sitting up front and knew it would allow everyone to stare at her. Still, she had no choice, so she folded herself up and slid into the desk. Her belly rubbed against the top of the desk and her knees hit the bottom.
Awesome.
The teacher introduced her, and there was the requisite snickering.
“Where are you from?”
She knew the teacher was trying to be nice, but he was really bad at it. “Missouri,” she said and though she hadn’t meant for it to happen, the word dripped with a southern accent.
More snickering.
“Missouri? I’ve never been to Missouri!”
No kidding.
“Well, welcome to Carver Harbor.” He walked to a bookshelf, pulled out a worn paperback, and returned to her. He handed it to her. Gatsby. Awesome. She’d read this when she was a freshman. He read her mind. “Have you read it?”
She shook her head.
“Great. We’re on chapter four. You’ve got some catching up to do!” He said this as if it were an exciting prospect.
There was more murmuring behind her. She couldn’t make out the words, but clear as day, she heard Jason say, “That’s enough!”
She endured the discussion of the fourth chapter of the great American novel. The list of party attendees reminded Zoe of those Old Testament genealogies, and she couldn’t believe that anything had reminded her of any part of the Bible. Sure, she’d spent a great deal of her childhood in Sunday school and junior church, and she’d memorized her fair share of Bible verses so she could get the stickers, but that had all been a very long time ago. She certainly couldn’t remember any of them now.
Finally, mercifully, the bell rang, and she turned her body to extricate herself from the desk. Before she could do that, Jason was in front of her. He picked her schedule up off her desk and studied it. Alita hung nearby, obviously displeased.
“This is great. You have the same exact schedule as me.”
Alita’s face grew red. Obviously, she didn’t have the same exact schedule as Jason.
He handed Zoe the schedule. “So it’ll be easy. You can follow me around.”
Zoe nodded, not sure what to say. It appeared he had forgiven her for her earlier offense, and she didn’t want to offend him again.
They stood there awkwardly. She was willing to follow him, but was he going to move?
“Aren’t you going to walk me to math?”
Jason sighed. “Yeah.” He looked at Zoe. “Small detour. Let’s go.”
Zoe grudgingly followed Jason and Alita to her math class, turned away uncomfortably as Jason kissed her goodbye, and then followed him down the hall.
“Is she a junior too?”
He nodded. “Yeah. But she’s in the dumb math.”
Zoe suppressed a snicker.
They entered a starkly appointed, white-walled room. An ashen-faced man in a short-sleeved white dress shirt stood and headed toward the front of the room. Blank marker boards hung on every wall. The English classroom had sported a smart board. This guy was old school.
Thanks to the Alita detour, they were late, and again Zoe found herself in the front row. But at least this time, she had Jason beside her.
The girl behind Jason leaned forward. “Are you going to the Cove tonight?” she whispered. “Jameson got a keg. There’s going to be a lot of people there.”
Jason gave an almost imperceptible nod. “Maybe.” He looked at Zoe out of the corner of his eye.
“What’s the Cove?”
“It’s a little beach on the backside of the peninsula, kind of away from everything. Kids hang out there a lot.”
“People in Carver Harbor get drunk on a Monday?”
He shrugged. “It’s a full moon.”
She laughed. “Are you going to go?”
He looked discouraged. “Probably. Probably Alita will make me.”
