Through Blessed Eyes

Chapter 3-- Scout

SCOUT

My first weekend in Scotland went fairly well, if I do say so myself. I didn’t hurt myself, embarrass myself, or get us banned from the country. I’ll assume that means I’m doing a good job. However, there was one problem with our whole arrangement.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Tess and Evelyn. I love Tess’s family. I love it with all my heart. But everyone is so… quiet. I’d been gone only a day and I missed the crazy living conditions back home. I miss dad kissing me goodnight. I miss the boys teasing me. I even miss Mikey’s alcoholic college roommate, Jeff, who comes over for dinner every other week and almost killed me with a bottle once. It doesn’t help that the international rates to call home are so expensive, and to make matters worse, nobody seemed to reply to my texts or return my calls.

So, by Monday, I was really feeling homesick, when I should’ve been paying attention in class, I was staring out the window and dreaming of what they were doing back home. Evelyn, who is sitting behind me, catches me dozing off, even. I don’t doze off in class.

“Are you okay?” she whispers in my ear.

“Fine,” I mutter, “Jet lag.”

Of course, that would have been a more realistic excuse a day and a half ago, when I didn’t have any symptoms at all and felt perfectly fine.

“Miss Blakely!” I hear from the front. I jolt to attention. Tess’s math teacher, Mr. O’Conner, is glaring at me over a pair of wire glasses that are perched on the end of his long, crooked nose.

“Sir?” I squeak.

“I don’t know what children do during class times in the States, but here, we pay attention. Understood?” he barked in his sophisticated Scot accent.

“Yes sir.”

BRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGG!

The bell rings to dismiss us to lunch, and I see Tess and Evelyn gather their things and head to the door. They linger, clearly waiting for me, but before I can get across the room to them, Mr. O’Conner bellows, “Miss Blakely? A word.”

I gave them a look that says Go on. I’ll be there in a second. Tess looks really worried to leave me all alone on my first day, and Evelyn looks worried to leave me all alone, period. I give them a reassuring smile, though, and they reluctantly leave the doorway as I turned to face the teacher.

“I understand that you are an exchange student,” he says, “but I will not tolerate any more of your daydreaming, your talking, or your sleeping. Do you understand me? I will contact your chaperone if this becomes an issue.”

I open my mouth to explain to him that I wasn’t talking, but rather responding to an inquiry Evelyn made about the state of my mental health. Then I close it when I remembered that if teachers in the States don’t appreciate my sarcasm, chances are that it’s kind of a universal thing.

“Yes sir,” I finally muster. 

Evelyn would be so proud of me, I think.

“Now, go on to lunch. Next time I catch you trying to sleep in my class, though, I will make you stay behind and write me an essay about how you should be sleeping at night instead of in here.”

I resist the urge to say that I have just experienced my first transcontinental flight, and that I am bound to be a little screwy with the time zones, and that he really needs to just calm down before that little vein in his forehead explods. I’m proud to say that I did, too.

“Yes sir,” I say again, through gritted teeth. I don’t resist well, okay?

“Go on,” he says, swatting the air behind me as he corrals me towards the door, slamming it behind me as I stumble into the hallway of the posh Scottish school Tess attends. I turn around and give him my best death glare through the glass before starting down the hallway in the direction I assume the cafeteria is in.