Last Chance (12 page)

The secretary continued to explain the layout of the school, correcting herself more than once. She didn’t notice that the boys were not paying any attention to her. April punched Matthew in the arm. “What?”

April whispered, “That’s her, that’s Amanda.” The girl was talking to another secretary in the office about seeing Principal Baxter later in the day. She was about to leave the office when April cried out, “Wait!”

The girl turned around with curious eyes. “Yeah, can I help you with somethin’?”

April didn’t know what to say and looked to her boys. They were both incapable of speech, so April said, “My boys here are new to the school and starting classes today. It looks like you have been here for a while.”

The girl responded, “Yeah, this is my second year, so I kinda know my way around.” The boys were drawn in by the girl’s country twang. It was quirky, but hypnotizing.

The secretary looked up from her map and said, “That’s a wonderful idea, Ms. Chance. I’m sure that Amanda can show your boys to their first class.”

April asked, “Your name is Amanda?”

“Yes, ma’am, Amanda Curry.”

April exclaimed, “That’s great! You can show the boys to their first class.”

Amanda didn’t look thrilled to get stuck with two new guys, so she tried to make up an excuse to get out of it. “Well, actually I’m
really
late for English with Mrs. Greir, so I’m not sure if I’ve got time to show these fellas around.”

Matthew reviewed his schedule and saw that he and Connor also had English with Mrs. Greir for first period. “That’s perfect! We have English with Mrs. Greir first this morning, too.”

Amanda shook her head and said, “I guess it makes sense for me to walk with you to class then. Grab your stuff and let’s go.”

Connor looked to April. “See you this afternoon.”

The boys followed Amanda out the door, and April thanked the secretary for her help. She watched the boys disappear down the hall and said a quick prayer to herself. “Please, god, help them.”

“So, you guys are both sophomores?” Matthew started to answer Amanda, but a sudden wave of fear engulfed him. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Maybe he just didn’t want to sound stupid.

Connor stepped in. “Yeah, we’re both sixteen, so we’re sophomores.”

Amanda looked at both of them as they started to round the library and said, “You look sixteen, but I’m not so sure about your brother.” She looked at Matthew and said, “You don’t look much bigger than my little brother.”

Matthew replied, “Well, I’m just as old as my brother here and a whole lot smarter.”

“Where are you guys from?”

Matthew replied, “Georgia—we’re from Georgia.”

Amanda squinted her eyes and said, “Really? You don’t sound like you’re from Georgia. Where’s your accent?”

Matthew explained that Georgia was full of many different accents. Their accent was just muted compared to a Tennessee accent.

She replied, “I’ve never heard that before, but if you say so.”

Amanda stopped at a locker. “I need to grab a book out of here; did you get locker numbers when you registered?”

Connor rummaged through some papers and asked, “Is this it, 102B?”

Amanda looked at his sheet and said, “Well, that’s right here next to mine.”

Connor smiled. “Well, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other then.”

“You better get a lock before you put anything in there. The guys around here will take anything that isn’t locked down.”

Matthew found the number on his sheets and said, “My number is 509B.”

Amanda took the sheet from Matthew and said, “That’s on the other side of the building. You can go find it after class.”

Connor finished up a little happy dance by his locker, as it seemed that he would have the most access to Amanda going forward.

Amanda glanced at Matthew’s schedule and said, “This is really weird. You guys have all of the same classes that I have.”

Matthew took the schedule back and replied, “Wow, that
is
weird. I guess we’ll just have to become good friends taking all these classes together.”

Amanda pursed her lips and said, “Kind of jumping the gun there, aren’t you? Besides, who says that either one of you is even worth my time.” She walked into a classroom and motioned for the boys. As they entered the room she whispered to both of them, “I already have a lot of friends.”

“Where have you been, Ms. Curry? I thought I was going to have to send out a search party.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Greir. I was asked to bring you these two new fresh minds to mold.”

Mrs. Greir looked over the boys and said, “Well, let’s see your schedules.” Mrs. Greir was a younger teacher, but she had no style to speak of. She hobbled over to the boys due to a damaged heel on her right shoe. Her thickly rimmed glasses took nothing away from the wreck of a hairdo she modeled.

“It looks like we have brothers joining our journey to learn the proper use of the English language. Class, please welcome Matthew and Connor.”

The class didn’t seem overly enthused to meet Matthew or Connor. The boys in the class looked like they wanted to throw something at them. Mrs. Greir motioned the boys to two empty seats and said, “Go ahead and take a seat, boys; we have a lot of work to do.”

The boys listened as Mrs. Greir reviewed the use of capitalization for the names of people, cities, states, etc. The boys tried to pay attention to the teacher, but they were busier looking around the room at the different types of kids who stared back at them. Some kids were wearing shorts, some jeans, some skirts, some boots, and some tennis shoes.

The girls in the room ranged from Amanda, who was just possibly the most gorgeous person either of the boys had ever seen, to girls who looked like they didn’t own a mirror. There was girl in the corner with stringy hair, big glasses, and shabby sneakers. This was similar to what the boys had seen in the city. Such differences from person to person!

“Mr. Chance, Mr. Chance, are you paying attention to me?” Both Connor and Matthew snapped back to the present and saw Mrs. Greir staring at them.

Connor answered first, “Yes, ma’am, I’m paying attention.”

She formed a sarcastic smirk and said, “Good, then you can give me an example of a city name to finish out this sentence that is both a city name and a person’s name.”

Connor looked to Matthew first and then blurted out the first thing that came to his mind: “Hathmec.”

Mrs. Greir looked to her new student and asked, “Hathmec? Who or what is a Hathmec?”

Matthew looked to Connor with worried eyes. Connor realized that Supreme Leader Hathmec, Hathmec Hall, and all the other things named after him didn’t exist in 1984. Mrs. Greir asked again, “Well, Mr. Chance, what are you talking about?” Matthew sensed that Connor had no idea what to say.

“Mrs. Greir, Hathmec is a town in Georgia, where we’re from, and it was named after its founder many years ago. Probably a better example would be Travis, where we live now.”

“I don’t know of any Hathmec, Georgia. Oh well, you are correct—Travis is a good example, so let’s work with that.”

Connor patted Matthew on the hand. “Thanks, bro. I’ll do better next time.”

The boys survived their first class and were startled by the ringing of a bell that seemed to come out of nowhere. They watched their classmates jump up from their seats and head for the door. Matthew noticed a younger looking girl staring at him. She seemed a bit awkward, with her glasses sagging on her nose. Her coveralls seemed a size too big for her.

Matthew asked, “So are we done for the day?”

She giggled and said, “We are for this class, but we have five more to go. Where are you headed next?”

Matthew pulled out his schedule and said, “Looks like I have Chemistry 1 with Mr. Knott.”

The girl frowned and grabbed her bag. “That’s too bad. I have Advanced Chemistry next period.”

Matthew shook his head in disbelief and asked, “You’re old enough to be in Advanced Chemistry, as a sophomore?”

“I’m not a sophomore; I’m a freshman. I just get to take upper-level classes.”

“Come on, Cassie, we’re gonna be late, and you know I like to get the best seat in the lab.”

Matthew asked, “Who is that?”

“That’s my brother, Jack. We’re twins, but I’m the smart one.” It was clear that Jack was Cassie’s twin. Besides the scar on his nose and the hair on his face, they looked quite similar.

The boy walked over and said, “Yeah, she got the brains and the looks. So, are you and your brother twins, too?”

Matthew replied, “Not exactly, but we might as well be. Isn’t that right, Connor?”

Matthew turned to see that Connor wasn’t there and began to look around the room. Jack asked, “Did you lose something there, Matt?”

Matthew grabbed his backpack and stumbled past the desks in the room. “Sorry, I need to go. Maybe we can talk more later.” He took off out the door and almost knocked over Mrs. Greir.

Cassie grinned at Jack and said, “He’s kind of cute.”

Jack replied, “He seems a little strange to me. Come on, we’re gonna be late.”

Matthew walked around the corridor of the school and searched for Connor. He made his last turn and saw his brother standing with Amanda Curry at her locker, along with three rather large boys. They looked upset with Connor. Matthew got to the locker in mid-conversation and interrupted. “Is everything OK here?”

The boy at the front of the pack turned to Matthew and snapped, “Who the hell are you?”

Matthew quietly replied, “I’m Matthew and this is my brother, Connor.”

Amanda grabbed the large boy by the arm and pulled him toward her. “Trey, get a grip! These are a couple of new guys that I showed around this morning, that’s all. Connor was just asking me about the classes.”

Matthew noticed that the other two large boys with Trey had created a cone around him and Connor. Matthew assumed that this would make it easier to pounce on both of them when the time came. Trey explained how things worked at the school, at least in his mind. “You two losers stay away from my girl or you’re gonna get pounded. That means no talking to her, looking at her, or even thinking about her.”

Connor wasn’t one to back down from a fight. He furled his brow and responded, “Oh really? Well, I’m thinking about her right now. In fact, we’re having a great time hanging out together in my mind.” He looked to Amanda and said, “How about we make it a reality?” Trey told his buddies to hold Connor and he prepared to pound him.

“All of you boys OK?”

Trey turned around to see Principal Baxter and backed off from the brothers. “Yes, sir, we were just introducing ourselves to the new guys here.”

Principal Baxter motioned down the hall and said, “Yes, I met them this morning as well. I think all of you need to head on to class now. The last bell will ring in exactly two minutes. I wouldn’t want our star quarterback being late for class.”

Trey grabbed Amanda’s hand, and they began to move toward their next class. The boys heard Amanda mumble, “You are such a jerk.”

Principal Baxter turned his attention to Connor and Matthew. “It looks like you two are making a quick impression here at the school. Just remember, I know all and see all here, so keep your noses clean.”

Once Principal Baxter was out of earshot, Matthew turned his attention to Connor and gave him a shove. “What the hell was that all about? You’re gonna get us killed before the end of the first day.”

Connor shoved Matthew back and said, “Look, I just made an impression on the girl that we are trying to woo here, and now she knows that I won’t take any crap from anybody.”

Matthew replied, “Oh yeah, I’m sure she’ll be impressed when you’re lying in a bloody heap in the middle of the hall. We’ve got to figure out how to get to this girl. Just pissing off her boyfriend isn’t going to do it.”

The boys continued to go to class through the morning, with no more incidents until they reached their lunch period. Both boys were sitting alone at a cafeteria table trying to decipher what they were about to eat. Connor threw something onto Matthew’s tray.

Matthew just stared at it and asked, “Why did you do that?”

Connor responded, “I’m not sure if that is some kind of meat or fruit or what it is, but I’m not eating it.”

Matthew heard a familiar voice. “Wow, you two sure didn’t waste any time getting in the doghouse.” Matthew turned to see Cassie and her brother, along with another friend, moving toward them with their trays. “Do you mind if we join you?”

Matthew motioned for the small group to join them and asked Cassie what she meant. Before she could answer, the third in their group spoke up. “You stood up to Trey and his pack of goons and basically told them all to stick it, and that was before second period had even started.”

Connor asked, “Who exactly are you?”

The small-statured boy replied, “Sorry, I’m Pete, or Pete the Meat, as most around here call me.”

Matthew asked, “Why do they call you Pete the Meat?”

“It’s in reference to dead meat. I get picked on a lot. I’m small, they’re huge, and it’s just the law of the jungle.” Matthew attempted to force down a french fry and told Pete that he shouldn’t get picked on for being small.

Pete explained that Trey and his buddies were stars on the school football team and it was just natural for Amanda, a lead cheerleader, to date the starting quarterback, whether he was a jerk or not. “It’s just the way things are. The cheerleaders date the ballplayers and the rest of us get what’s left over.”

Cassie jumped in. “I am
not
a leftover! Isn’t that right, Matthew?”

Matthew looked to the girl in the black-and-white striped glasses and wanted to be diplomatic about his answer. He shook his head. “Of course you’re not a leftover.”

Pete sensed the tension and said, “Regardless, the hottest girls in school are cheerleaders and Amanda is at the top of that list, so unless you’re planning to join the football team anytime soon, I would just cut my losses and avoid the big three.”

Connor asked, “The big three?”

“Yeah—Trey and his two goon offensive linemen, Rick and Austin.”

One of the goons came by the boys’ table and grabbed the tray in front of Pete and dumped it in his lap. He cackled, “Nice one! Looks like Pete the Meat has some cleanup to do!” Connor began to get up from his seat to confront the boy, but Matthew pulled him back down.