Page 29 of That Boy (That Boy 1)
Suddenly, Ricky Leeman stands up behind me and says, "I'll do it. Let's see, on Friday we had a track meet...."
"Mr. Um....," the substitute says, consulting the chart again, "....Leeman. Sit down."
But Ricky doesn't sit down. He leans up from behind me and says quietly, "JJ, you don't have to do this. Just leave. Come on, I'll go with you."
Ricky surprises me. He's being so kind, but risking getting into serious trouble. The sub is furious at him.
The class is murmuring a bit, they know he's about to blow.
I mean this man is supposed to have an education of some kind, you would think he'd have a clue that something is up.
But no. He's too puffed up on power to take a look around him.
"That will be enough. You all had plenty of chances to volunteer, and I'm in charge of this class. I will not tolerate such a blatant lack of respect. Mr. Leeman, if you do not sit down and stop the interruptions, you will go to the principal's office."
"Can I go to the Principal's office?" Part of me wants to run away, but now, because my insides are boiling mad, part of me kind of wants to tell this idiot all about my slice.
Just for shock value.
"Absolutely not. You will stay here. Please begin. Now, Miss Reynolds."
"Fine."
The grief inside me is suddenly gone and all that's left is anger.
"Where should I begin? Well, like I said, this weekend was so not typical," I roll my eyes. "Thank God. I don't think I could live through another one."
"Teen angst," the sub interrupts, "I like it so far."
Smart ass. Well we'll see if you say that when I'm done.
"Well, lets see, I go to a party where I get dumped by my boyfriend. Needless to say, that upset me and I was going to leave, but then a guy friend of mine shows up, told me not to leave and, well, kissed me." I can't help but smile a little smile about that. It was the one bright spot of the whole damned weekend. "Okay. So ex-boyfriend sees me kissing said friend and tries to humiliate me in front of everyone. When that doesn't work, he starts a fight. Another friend drags me out of the party and back to town. We stop to get gas and his cell phone rings. It's his dad who, believe it or not, has been looking for me. It seems that my parents were in a car accident." I swallow hard. "We speed through town and get pulled over by the police. Luckily, it's a nice Westown officer, who drives us to the med center."
I glare straight into the evil substitute's eyes and smile an obviously fake smile as I continue, "When we get there, I find out that my mom is dead. Oh, and my dad dies a few hours later."
I can feel the tears wanting to come, but I push them back.
Just stay mad, I tell myself.
"That is not very funny, Miss Reyn..." he starts to say.
I look at him and smirk. Told you!
I interrupt the idiot and say, "You're very right. It is so not funny. But it's the truth."
"And that," I say with a curtsey to the class, "is a slice of MY LIFE."
I grab my books and storm out the door.
I can hear the teacher ask the class if it was true.
I hear him mutter, "FU-" before the door closes.
I stomp in an angry daze out to the empty commons area, sit down, and let out a big sigh. Ricky Leeman is on my tail. He sits down, puts his arm around my shoulder and says, "God, what an asshole. You okay?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. So do ya think the sub liked my slice of life?"
"Well he dropped the f-bomb in front of the class, so I'm guessing not. I don't think we have to worry about him coming back."
"You know I appreciate what you tried to do in there and well, no offense, but how come you're being so nice to me?"
"Um, well, I feel really bad about what happened to your parents and, well, I'm kinda in charge of you this period."
"In charge of me?"
I don't like the sound of that.
"Well, yeah, I mean I am the only guy from the team in AP English, but I would've volunteered anyway."
"What in the world are you talking about?"
"Uh, um....I take it you didn't hear about the meeting?" He grimaces.
"Evidently not. Enlighten me, please."
"Um, well, maybe I wasn't exactly supposed to tell you that," he says, suddenly nervous. "You know what? I think I'm gonna go get Phillip. That's what I'll do. You stay here."
He gets up, but sees Phillip heading down the hall toward us.
Phillip rushes over, "Shelby came and got me out of study hall. What are you doing here? Are you okay? Do you want me to take you home?"
Being mad is much easier than feeling sad, so I say in a perturbed voice, "No, Phillip, what I want is to know what's going on around here."
Ricky touches my arm. "Hey, I'm gonna go. Sorry about your parents, JJ."
Chicken.
"Uh, thanks, Ricky, I really appreciate what you did."
I turn to Phillip. "Phillip? I asked you a question."
"Oh, it's not a big deal or a big secret or anything. We were just kind of keeping it quiet because Danny knew you'd react like this because you're stubborn and hard headed."
"Danny?" I shake my head, trying to understand. "What does Danny have to do with this?"
"Well, he sort of met with the football team."
"The football team? Why?"
"Well, not everyone, mostly just the seniors and a few juniors, and well, Coach and Mazer too."
This is mind-boggling.
"Why?"
"Well, Danny knew he'd have to go back to Lincoln right after the funeral. He felt like he was abandoning you
and worried about how you'd do when you came back to school. He just wanted to make sure you'd be okay and that someone was around if you needed anything."
Most of me wants to throw a fit and scream, I can take care of myself, but the other part of me feels grateful and loved. Because, awwww, that was really, really sweet of Danny. That's how my life has been this week. An emotional roller coaster. Two stupid sides to every feeling I have. I think I liked myself better when I just thought my side was always right.
"You know what, Phillip? I do think I wanna get out of here. I'll see you at home later. I shouldn't have come here today. And I've been lucky, I haven't run into Jake."
"Uh, yeah. Danny might of had something to do with that too."
I arch an eyebrow at him.
"Fine." He rolls his eyes at me. "He invited Jake to the meeting and told him, under no uncertain terms, to leave you alone. That's the other thing the guys are supposed to make sure of."
I sigh. I need to get out of here.
"I'm gonna sign out."
I almost get out of school without being seen by the faculty, but when I round the corner, I run smack dab into Principal Mazer.
Crap. I suppose I'm going to get in trouble for my insubordination to a substitute teacher.
But Mazer surprises me by giving me a hug. "JJ, I'm surprised to see you here. We didn't expect you until Monday. Everything going alright so far?"
"Um, uh, there was a little incident in AP English. I want to apologize in advance and when you hear about it, um, just know he pushed me."
Principal Mazer looks confused by my statement, but I don't elaborate. I just say, "If it's alright, I think I am going to leave now."
"Sure honey, feel free to come and go as you please for a while, and if there is anything you need, let us know. All of us around here care about you."
"Thanks, that means a lot to me." My standard funeral response, but I can't seem to come up with anything better.
Phillip tells Mazer that he's leaving with me.
"Follow me," Phillip bosses me, as I get in my car.
I follow Phillip's car in a daze. Pretty soon we are at the Westown Park. We park and get out of our cars. Phillip grabs my hand and leads me to the swings.
I sit down on a swing and am pleasantly surprised when Phillip starts pushing me.
I close my eyes and enjoy swinging. I love how swinging makes my stomach feel all fluttery. Then I remember once when I was little, telling my mom that I'd been swinging so high I thought my feet had touched heaven.
