Combustion

First Gear

Lay and I waited outside the nurses office until Ben was finished. When he came out we explored the first floor of the school while waiting for the principal to call us into the office. "This is home room," said Lay as she showed him the class, "we come here everyday first thing in the morning for a hour so we can get situated for the day." He peeked inside the window, unimpressed with what he saw.

"Your last name is Harding right?" I asked him. He nodded. "Well, you got home room with us then," I continued. The school grouped students together by last name in alphabetical order by sets of three or four letters depending on the amount of students with that last name. My last name was Floyd, Lay's was Green and his was Harding. Ben barely made the cut for our room which stopped at "Ha" and the next set began with "He" and ended with "Ki".

"Let me get back in here before Mrs. Nelson starts to worry about me," said Lay as she opened the door to walk into the classroom, "I hope you feel better," she said looking at Ben's hand.

"I'll live, thanks for the help," he responded trying to seem as unbothered as possible. Lay blushed and walked into the room closing the door behind her. "Man that girl a dime and a half," he said smiling from ear to ear.

"You ain't seen nothing yet homie, come on," I told him. We walked upstairs to the next floor so I could show him more of Southern Hill but just as we were approaching the math hall of the school the bells rang and students emerged into the hallway like a flood. Ben was overwhelmed by the amount of students coming and going. He kept getting bumped and was clearly becoming aggravated. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the tide of students.

"Damn bro is it always this chaotic?" he asked in a startled tone.

"Every fucking day," I laughed, "it's not so bad once you learn how to maneuver."

We stood next to the stairs and observed the crowd of people: Freshman still not knowing where their class was despite being in school for the past four months, Seniors trying to flirt with the underclassmen and everyone else in between trying to maintain sanity and get through the day. Students had five minutes between periods to do what they needed to do before the next class. They could talk to friends, stop by their lockers, take a quick trip to the bathroom, whatever. As long as they were in their next class before the bell rang they wouldn't receive any disciplinary consequences but that also depended on the teacher and their relationship with that student. Those caught in the hall after the bell rang were immediately escorted to the office by a hall monitor unless they had an approved pass from a staff member.

The bells rang twice meaning the end of the five minute grace period and the start of the next class. Just as I was about to take him to my favorite teachers classroom a hall monitor named Jason approached us. "Can I see you guys' hall pass?" he asked. Ben looked at me and I made a facial expression back to him that basically meant I had the situation under control.

"Jason what's up man, how's your day going my brother?" I asked him.

"It's only first period and I've already sent four people to the office," he responded as he took out his note pad, "you two wanna' make it six?"

"Nigga I don't even –" started Ben before I cut him off.

"I mean you could do that but you'd be wasting your time," I told Jason.

"And how is that?" he asked.

"Principal Dallas told me to escort him around school," I said pointing at Ben, "she already knows what we're doing."

Jason looked at us both up and down with suspicion, "And why should I believe that?" he asked, "You've fooled me once, I won't let it happen again. You two with me, we're going to the office."

He grabbed my arm and tried to grab Ben's but he moved out of the way quickly. I pushed him off of me into a nearby locker and he fell to the ground. Pens, sticky notes and other random objects splattered onto the floor around him.

"Nigga didn't I just tell you we had permission," I yelled while standing over him.

"I'm telling the Principal!" he screamed back at me.

"Man let's beat his ass B," said Ben as he walked up next to me.

I considered the tempting offer just as the intercom came on and the voice of Principal Dallas said that she needed to see both Benjamin's in her office.

"You lucky we got better shit to do," said Ben as he kicked Jason's leg and headed towards the staircase.

I picked Jason up off the ground and dusted him off a little while handing him his items, "I told you we weren't lying dude, this could've went way worse," I told him, "next time just mind your business."

He stood there quivering until he saw a student walking and chased him down asking if he had a hall pass. I shook my head and caught up with Ben who was waiting by the stairs.

"Man dude is weird bro," he said in disbelief.

"It's a couple of 'em just like him spread around here," I responded while opening the door to the office, "like I said earlier you just gotta know how to maneuver."

We walked into the office and Principal Dallas told us she had good news and bad news. I always ate my veggies before my dessert so I asked for the bad news first. The bad news was that the accountant wouldn't be coming to school today so we couldn't get our passes today. The good news was that she would allow us until 3rd period to leave school and go get them from the accountant ourselves that was at least an hour and a half from now.

Ben and I looked at each other with confusion but Principal Dallas explained that because we waited so patiently she was going to grace us with such a wonderful opportunity. The only catch was that if we got caught by police officials we would have to say we were skipping school and deal with the consequences. We also had to bring her lunch from her home which she forgot to grab before coming to school because she was rushing. She said it should be on the kitchen counter as soon as we walk in.

We looked at Principal Dallas then looked at each other, "Deal," we replied in unison.