Chapter 4

Mom was stuck working late, as seemed to happen a lot, which meant my normal night of feeding myself, reading, playing a little guitar, and getting to bed. The only new thing in this schedule was homework. I struggled somewhat with my math, still unsure of how to work all of the problems. Most kids my age would have, at some point, retreated to the internet to look up the answers. Unfortunately for me, while we had a computer, albeit a very old one, we didn’t have the internet.

The library was an option, but it was also on the opposite side of main street, which was itself a mile or so away unless I cut cross country. Since I didn’t know the area beyond our neighborhood very well, that wasn’t an option either, not that it mattered. By the time I got home from the Blue Ridge, it was late enough that the library would have been closed by the time I walked there, no matter what path I took.

That left me struggling through on my own, which was a problem. I did the best I could and attempted to answer everything, but I was nearly positive many of the answers were wrong.

Eventually, I just gave up and went to bed.

The next morning, at least, went better. I set my alarm clock for a little earlier and made it to Hanna’s before she got out of her house. She gave me a smirk when she saw me leaning on her bumper, acknowledging my effort to not hold her up again, but otherwise didn’t comment. We didn’t really talk on the drive to school, but I didn’t feel that she was actively annoyed with me, which was a big step up from the day before. I just prayed that the change in her response to me starting yesterday at the Blue Ridge would hold. Her, Aaron, and Rhonda were basically the only people my age I’d met since moving here, and I preferred to have at least two out of the three not actively hate me.

The one upshot of the early start was that it gave me more time to navigate the creek. I opted for the same maneuver as the day before, an unbalanced stretch, and then the use of crutches to keep me from tumbling over backward into the water. As strategies go, this wasn’t the best option and would certainly lead to me getting dunked one morning, but since I was only going to be on these things for a month or two at the most, I decided to just take my chances.

Mr. Bryant was just as much of a pain in the ass as the day before. I tried to keep my head down, but he managed to call me out several times, picking apart the smallest error in my answers. Thankfully, we were still grouped up in English, meaning I was paired with Rhonda again. We were all business, focused on getting the work done, but it was still a nice reprieve after dealing with Mr. Bryant.

At lunch, I found the place where I’d eaten at the day before occupied by some kids by the time I got my food from the lunch line. I wasn’t sure if they were just kids who hadn’t been here the day before or if they had broken off temporarily from their normal group, but it meant I didn’t have a place to eat today and possibly anymore if they decided to take that spot for themselves. I looked around at the small areas with someone eating solo and tried to work out who I could bother and see if they’d let me sit with them when I was startled by a voice behind me.

“Lost?”

I turned around and saw Hanna standing behind me.

“I’m trying to figure out where to sit.”

“You can come sit with us.”

“Really?”

“Sure.”

She turned around and started walking towards the far end of the cafeteria, leaving me no option but to chase after her, which wasn’t particularly fast considering the school books, crutches and lunch made it awkward to move quickly.

“ ... s Charlie. He’s the guy I mentioned that helped my cousin get away from Aaron and his douche-nozzle friends the other day.”

“Looks like you got your ass kicked,” an Asian girl said, looking at me.

“Ohh, he did. They broke his foot and pounded on his face. Are you going to sit down or just stand there?”

She turned and directed her last sentence at me. I moved to sit in one of the open seats catty-corner from Hanna as she said, “I saw Aaron this morning in Spanish. How the hell did they not get arrested, or at least expelled?”

“The cops said since I threw the first punch, I was lucky they didn’t press charges on me, and the guidance counselor said since it happened off of school property they couldn’t do anything.”

“Those assholes get away with everything,” Hanna said. “Anyways, that’s Jordan, Joseph, Laura, Peyton, Kyndal, Fatima, Megan, and Andrew. Jordan, Laura, and Andrew are seniors. Megan and Fatima are juniors. Peyton, Joseph, and Andrew are sophomores, like you.”

I tried to take in the dizzying list of names. Fatima was the girl in the hijab. Kyndal was the girl who thought I looked like I got my ass kicked. The girl named Megan reminded me of some of the girls who I had seen playing in bars with my dad. Her hair was chin-length and brown, except for an inch around the edge, which was dyed a dark purple.

“Welcome to the losers table,” Kyndal said.

“The losers table?” I asked.

“Charlie has never attended public school before. I don’t think he knows about the lunchroom social hierarchy.”

“I was watching all the groups separated out yesterday. Seems like everyone has their own clique.”

“Were you in a private school or something?” Peyton asked.

“Homeschooled.”

“You’re not one of those hardcore religious types, are you?” Joseph asked.

“No. My dad was a musician, and we followed him around while he played gigs. This summer is the first time we’ve actually lived anywhere longer than a few weeks since I can remember.”

“Your dad’s a musician?”

“Yeah. He used to be in bands, but he went solo when I was nine.”

“Is he any good?” Megan asked. “Would we have heard of him?”

“I doubt it. He was in a few groups that got record contracts in the eighties, but they never went anywhere. He mostly played in bars and clubs.”

“I took Charlie up to the Blue Ridge yesterday to see about getting a job. While we were there Willie had Charlie play something to see how good he was, and holy crap it was spectacular. Don’t let him fool you, he’s freaking amazing.”

“I’m only okay. I know the songs I knew, but I’m not a professional.”

“Do you want to be?” Megan asked.

“I guess, maybe. I mean, yeah, I’d love to play for a living, but I think it might kill my mom. She had enough of that with my dad. She wants me to get a degree and some kind of boring office job.”

“I don’t know; Hanna’s a judgmental bitch. If she says you’re good, then you must be really good. Would suck to let that kind of thing go to waste so you can be an accountant or something.”

“Bite me,” Hanna said to Megan, although the smile on her face suggested they went at each other like this often. “Megan works up at the Blue Ridge too.”

“Really? Do you like working there?”

“The work? Not really, but I like the people we work with.”

I was not sure what to say to that.

“How do you like Carr so far?” Joseph asked.

“It’s okay, I guess, except for my history class. The teacher hated me the second I walked through the door. We got assigned partners for a class project and, even though there are groups that weren’t full, he said I needed to do the entire project by myself since I missed the day before.”

“Who’s the teacher?”

“Mr. Bryant.”

“He hates you because he’s one of the football coaches, and Aaron’s his golden boy,” Hanna said.

“Why? Nothing even happened to Aaron. Why would he have a hate out for me?”

“While Coach Bryant hasn’t ever needed a reason to be an asshole, Aaron probably spun a story that made you come off as the bad guy. Aaron’s as big a liar as he is a jerk.”

“Should I go to the office about him?”

“If he does something extreme, maybe, but the administration usually tends to side with teachers no matter how screwed up they are.”

“I’m basically screwed?”

“Pretty much. How were your other classes?”

“English wasn’t bad. I got partnered up with a girl named Rhonda and we hit it off.”

“Rhonda, what?” Jordan asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said and pointed over to where I noticed her eating yesterday. “That’s her over there.”

Hanna burst out laughing.

“What?”

“That’s my sister,” Jordan said.

Now that she had pointed their relation out, I could see the resemblance. She had the same facial features as Rhonda, including the chipmunk cheeks, although hers were a little less pronounced.

“Ohh.”

“You think my sister’s cute, huh?”

“I ... uhhh...”

“Don’t let her give you a hard time,” Hanna said. “They aren’t that close.”

“Damn, I was hoping you’d put in a good word for me,” I said.

I knew better than to let them think they had gotten to me.

“I don’t think you want me to do that. Any recommendation from me would be counterproductive. She was quite the social climber in junior high, and she’s spent the last year trying to pick up on that here.”