Gifted

Ch. 10 He's Eighteen

Wednesday Aiden went to every class, but skipped seventh-hour. He was in no way ready to talk to Franklin, or face his fear quite yet. Thursday rolled around with no particular appeal as Aiden swept off the covers and smacked an alarm clock that had come in one of the mysterious packages when he was fourteen. He groggily walked across the hall to the bathroom and turned the sink on, taking a washcloth and wiping his face off with cold yet refreshing water. He also ran some of the water through his hair to get rid of his bedhead. Turning off the sink he walked back across the carpeted hall to his room, and changed to get ready for school.

                 With his shoes in one hand and backpack in the other, he stumbled downstairs to see both his parents ready for him, his mother's hand were hidden. Laying eyes upon both his parents he saw his mother reveal to him a cupcake, fully frosted, and a wax candle lit on top. "Happy Birthday sweetie!" his mother exclaimed with a wide smile.

                 "Was that today?" he muttered under his breath.

                 "How does it feel? Eighteen, my God, you're an adult," Cole boasted of his son.

                 Aiden ran his hand through his hair and tried to look enthusiastic, holding his eyes open wider. "Thanks, really, both of you. Where did you get the supplies for a cake ma?"

                 "Well honey," she started modestly, "I can always put something together for you," she walked over, fully dressed in business attire and kissed her son on the forehead.

                 Aiden wiped the sleeve of his loose blue hoodie over his forehead, attempting to remove any remnants of lipstick. "Mom!" he protested.

                 "A mother can still kiss her son on the forehead! You'll always be my little baby. Besides, I like this lipstick, it's not often I get to wear any. I can't possibly understand why you don't like it," she played dumb.

                 "Why were you two up so early?"

                 "It's a broadcast day," Senator LeFlour explained to his son. Aiden knew exactly what he meant. Not every day, but some, Cole LeFlour was set up in a conference room with a webcam so that he could sit in on Senate meetings.

                 "Long day then," Aiden stated, knowing there was no need to ask. "Oh, tomorrow I kind of have a date with this girl..." Aiden trailed off, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

                 "Well your mother and I take the same car to Augusta so you can just take your mom's car," Cole offered.

                 "The van?" Aiden asked disappointedly.

                 "You know I can't offer you the sedan. That's strictly a work car," Cole said, "hey, the van is it, take it or leave it, I don't care."

                 "I'll take it."

                 "Good," Cole said putting a false grin on his face. The Senator and his wife both walked out of the house. 

                 "Lame van," Aiden said to himself. He looked over to see pancakes were also made on the table, and syrup was in a miniature glass jar next to them. A folded piece of paper was on the table next to the entire set up. A marker stood straight up and started to write, "Does this makeup for the van?" Aiden could hear his parents start up the car in the driveway, he had a clear view of them both. YES! he projected with a truly joyous face. The last time he had a breakfast like this must have been when he was a little boy, he thought to himself as he poured syrup over the hot pancakes.

                 When he was done he went back upstairs, brushed his teeth, slid down the guardrail back down the stairs, grabbed his backpack, and walked out the door to meet Jon. They both walked to school, getting to Fisher's class just a little before the bell was to ring. Fisher, as always, arrived just in time for the bell to ring. Yesterday, his class realized this would become a pattern, and brought it up for discussion with their teacher, to which he responded, "They don't pay me to be here before that bell rings, so why should I show up early?"

                 The other mentionable event from Wednesday was Mr. Fisher's class seating chart. Axel Fisher wasn't dumb enough to put Aiden and Jon next to each other, but he also wasn't perceptive enough to see that there was a possible love interest between Aiden and Amanda. In result, the two ended up sitting side by side in their first hour Gifted History class. Needless to say, neither Amanda nor Aiden pointed this oversight out to their instructor. When the lights were out and the projector was illuminated again, everyone brought out their notebooks to take notes on Mr. Fisher's lecture in the dim classroom. Amanda tore out a sheet of paper from the back of the notebook and wrote, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" drawing a cake and heart balloons. She folded the paper and handed it over to Aiden. He unfolded the paper, took a peak at it and smiled, looking over at Amanda.

                 "Mr. LeFlour, I think you had something you wanted to share with the class." Mr. Fisher proclaimed, turning on the class lights.

                 "Just that I find the research on the dormant gifted gene dating back to the seventeen hundreds to be inconclusive," Aiden said confidently, not knowing how he was able to come up with something so clever that quickly.

                 "No... that wasn't it, Ms. Holloway, maybe it was you?" Mr. Fisher asked, walking in between rows so that he could be in front of Aiden and Amanda at the same time.

                 "I agree with Aiden," she started, "there is no substantial evidence to support a claim for the dormant gene theory."

                 Fisher snatched up the folded sheet of paper. "Ah, happy birthday Mr. LeFlour," Fisher spat out sarcastically. "Now use your notebooks to take notes on my lecture like you are supposed to!"

                 "Mr. Fisher!" Jon proclaimed. "I have an idea! We should all sing."

                 "No-" Fisher began to protest, but regardless the whole class joined in a few lines of Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, etc. They managed to waste the last two minutes of class carrying on with their singing. When they finished Fisher thought he could resume his lecture, only to be reminded by Jon that first hour was now over.

                 Amanda grabbed her stuff quickly and followed Aiden out the door. "Hey," she yelled over the crowd of students, "so word is getting around that you're ditching seventh-hour. Be careful ok?"

                 "How did you hear that?" Aiden stopped, looking over at the beautiful brunette standing beside him.

                 "I overheard a few teachers yesterday," she lied.

                 "My seventh-hour sucks, trust me."

                 "Who's the teacher?" she kept on the conversation.

                 "Alfred Franklin," Aiden stated, not caring if no one was supposed to know.

                 "Wow! That sounds like a class I would want to get into," she smiled, reaching for Aiden's hand.

                 "He's not what he seems, he's maniacal. He makes you feel welcome, not letting you know that his true purpose is to use you," Aiden said in frustration, looking down at his hand and Amanda's, making sure he really did feel her hand in his.

                 "Well just be careful ok? Wouldn't want you to get into any trouble with the principal over skipping," she said, expressing concern.