Sonder

Chapter 4

*FLASH!*

"That'll look great in the yearbook," Jenny winks and her eyes sparkle.

"I'm not sure my spandex buns are appropriate for the yearbook," he laughs. They catch up in a glance and then he dives into the pool.

*SPLASH!*

Miles into practice, his purple cheeks and ivory forehead spring up to the gutter. He coughs, sounding like a blown-out speaker. Wet and ragged like rocks tumbling in cement. Hacking sounds like a shovel full of crud being dug and slung from his uvula into the gutter. His coughs become cleaner, allowing him three calm breaths. Something resembling a crimson treefrog crawls down the drain. He shoots back into the pool behind his teammates.

***

After practice, he drives to nightschool. This scholastic house of ill-repute is essentially a shoebox outside of a track and field complex in the center of town. He's here to make up for all of his bad decisions as an underclassman.

As his Buick bumbles into the parking lot *SMASH* his window bursts in a phosphorus spray of rescue flare sparks and tracers. He is full of shock and confusion until he sees Jason approaching with a grin. Jason appreciated the effects of the well-flicked cigarette. 

They greet each other with sour names and a bumping of elbows, shoulders, and fists as they had been trained to do by MTV. They mulligan into the class recounting some of the highlights from last Friday's party. Wordlessly, Nick pops a pill. 

The class is taught by "Miss Cat" an animated skeleton who endeavors to teach them about pathos, ethos, and the other motivations detailed by the Greeks.

After that lesson, they are free to group and prepare some speeches for the next class. Nick, Sage, and Jason plan for the upcoming weekend. Jason makes the calls because he is shameless and gregarious in a way that disgusts yet fascinates Nick. Jason makes the calls using Nick's phone, calling nearly everyone in Nick's phonebook. It's amusing to them, Jason jokes about being Nick's secretary. He enjoys the confusion of the people he calls as they hear a voice they don't recognize:

"Hi, you don't know me, I'm Nick's secretary, Jason... I just want to let you know about Corey's shipping party this upcoming Friday. Will you be attending?" and he would do his thing, bantering with random people on the phone. Thank goodness, because Nick has horrible social anxiety.

"Hey, what about this Clair? Should I call Clair?" Jason, an unrepentant horn-dog is a little too excited about every female in the phone.

Nick screws up his face, scratches his head, and lets out a long doubtful groan. "I dunno about that..."