After School
I drop my pack on the bed, then turn to my cutie uni, Gumball. "Where do I begin?"
Today, Max and I talked, but it wasn't just a walk...
A walk?
...Max and I had a talk, but it wasn't any ordinary talk like we've had in the past. We got along, and just just...
"Breathe, me."
...After Max's remark about the school, a calmness washed over me. It was like I had transformed at the snap of the stapler, shaking loose the quiet, calm Chase, the mask separating from my face, dropping to the floor, shattering. While we wasted time waiting for Ms. Tudor, we held a Kieran/school roast. We vented about his parents and the trips, the school's classes, how my parents were duped.
It was like talking to a real age-old friend from grades past. Max cared about listening to me. He didn't mind if I made an idiot out of myself, mimicking kids, the staff, Kieran's parents. I couldn't stop myself from speaking. Max loves my Kieran whine. I like his ruffle-browed laugh, genuine cackling from deep in his lungs, no know-it-all smirk.
"Dang. Where has this Acorn been hiding?" he asked.
Was that pun intended?
"Old school," I said.
"Oh. You must've been popular."
Popular? I don't know about popular, but Glinda does.
I go up to the window and sing her pop song low, under my breath. See? It happens out of the blue, like with Max in Narnia's Spare Oom.
"I've been here for years," I say, mimicking Max. "Who told you it was some kind of genius school?"
I tried to warn them. The writing was on the desks and the tablets. Unless you're Arbourton, what school is truly made for smart kids? This school isn't like my old school. I don't have to play teacher and help every kid in class. There are two Leos instead of one.
"Need I forget Kieran?"
However, it's also like my old school. I'm learning the same things, but different year. I have afternoons with Mrs. G, but all we're doing is getting into more detail on historical events. Then, there's The Giver, haunting me for a third straight English class. At least the class project makes it fun, but still.
We haven't started on our project. I wonder what ideas Max has for this perfect place that Lorde would even be proud of. It's due Friday.
I bob my head left. "Thanks, me." Then, right. "You're welcome!"
What Max told me earlier...was he right, though?
"Who told you it was some kind of genius school?"
It just makes sense. Kieran's parents brainwashed my parents to drag me out of my old school for...what? To do a Giver brochure with Max? I don't understand. I'm not learning anything advanced. I'm not doing calculus, writing a thesis, winning Nobel prizes.
"Tchk. Dude, come on! You're smarter than them, Chase!"
If there's one thing that Leo taught me, it's that being smart doesn't always mean grades. He's a different kind of bright. He could ramble off MMA stats going back fifty years ago, and we aced a performance that we put on together because he knows how to make people laugh.
"How is that stupid?"
You know what's...
What's? Not "what's."
...You know who's really stupid? My...my parents for falling for the big lie from Kieran's parents.
"That's what's stupid," I say, and I plop into my chair.
Full-circle joke!
It's far too late for me to push back. I don't have a choice, never did. It isn't like they'll believe me, even if I showed them the proof because the proof is mostly on my tablet. I have a few sheets in my binder, but they'll say how poor me has to suck it up, stick it out.
I click back through my history to my school research in November. "What kind of school is this anyway?"
The brutal truth? I'm going to a new school that's like my old school because...you know why they're listed on the same site?
"It is. It's literally the same district. ...What?"
The only change is how...miserably numb I've felt since December.
"Do they...how did I not notice this?"
...Whatever.
"The pain still lingers," I say, mimicking Daniela when I see her intro playing on TV, my cue to switch to Paw Days.
I've been had, itchy wool flung over my eyes, lied to for...for what? Unless Max is the one who lied to me, but...what do I know?
"I'm a kid, right? I'm not supposed to know."
Is it spring break yet?
"Hola!I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Let's forget the Monday blues and get backto the drama, huh?"
YOU ARE READING
Castling: A Novel (NaNoWriMo21)
TeenfikceIt's a slice-of-life centered around "Chase the Ace," who finds himself changing schools against his will mid-year to help make the most of that brain of his. It'll be good for him, they say. He won't be so bored. He'll get to be with an old friend...
