To Belong | Protector 5.25

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

       School was starting to get boring. Very boring. I mean, school had always been boring but recently, I could barely pay any attention when I was in class. I didn't know if it had to do with the fact that I couldn't sleep well or because it was close to the end of the semester. Well, not exactly close. There was still about two months left, but this was around the time where I was only thinking about summer vacation.

       Not to mention this was probably going to be the first summer vacation I was actually going to enjoy. All my other summer vacations were spent either doing a bunch of chores around the house while my foster parents slept all day, or it was spent running away from these foster homes and settling into a new one.

       At least this time, I wouldn't be running away or forced to do a bunch of different chores. The only chore we had to do around the house, apart from keeping our own bedroom and bathroom clean, was the dishes on a specific day. Since there were six of us kids, we each had one day per week to wash the dishes. Dad and Papa shared the last day. 

       I guess my excitement for summer vacation was another reason why school was starting to get a lot more boring than normal. It was also the reason why I kept falling asleep in class. Honestly, I was surprised none of my teachers had given me detention yet.

       Then again, they probably knew about my mental health so they were a bit understanding. Not understanding enough to let me sleep; they were constantly waking me up. But understanding enough to not give me detention.

       I zoned out so many times during my class before lunch that I didn't even remember a single thing my teacher had talked about. So when she said that we had to write a paragraph about the novel we were just discussing, the one we had read before class, I knew I was screwed. I didn't even remember most of what I had read. In fact, I didn't even know if I finished it.

       The bell rang, so I packed up my stuff before leading the classroom. I headed to my locker, weaving through the crowd of students that had already filled up the hallway. Sometimes, I did miss doing online schooling that I had to do since I was constantly switching foster homes. I didn't want to worry about going to an extremely crowded place every day.

       I got to my locker and as soon as I opened it, a bunch of notebooks and loose pieces of paper fell out. I sighed, bending done to pick all of it up. Someone soon bent down beside me, and I didn't even have to look to know that it was Webster. He would always meet me at my locker for lunch.

       "I don't think I've ever seen a locker this messy before," Webster said, gathering up the notebooks while I grabbed the paper. "Including mine. And I've had people compare mine to a landfill."

       "You probably keep old food in there, too," I said.

       "Actually, I don't," Webster said. "Only because I have a very sensitive sense of smell, so I can't even think about keeping rotting food in there." We both stood up, having gathered up all of the notebooks and paper. "You okay? You look stressed."

       "Just some homework that's probably going to be difficult for me," I said, trying to organize my locker at least a tiny bit so nothing would fall out the next time I opened it. 

       "Anything I can help with?" Webster asked, leaning on the locker beside mine.

       "It's for English, Webster," I said. "You're constantly asking me for help for English, and I'm two years younger."

       "Never mind, then. I was kind of hoping you would need help in math."

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "Webster, I'm fairly certain you're doing even worse in your math class than your English. You've even complained about not understanding BEDMAS, and that's one of the easiest things to learn."