Sage (manxman)

Chapter 22 - Valiant

Chapter 22 – Valiant 

            Ford jolted awake in a cold sweat, another night of nightmares. Flipping over on the couch, Ford reached under it and pulled a small pad and pen from underneath. He started jotting down what he saw before it slipped from his mind. Over the past few months he had been building up the dream but it never stayed with him long. Sitting up and turning on the light he looked at the small apartment, gaudy with furniture with walls blanketed in picture frames. A bright morning light filtered through the cracks in the thick curtain bouncing off the floor. Ford had been staying with his grandmother all summer and today was the first day of his senior year.

After breakfast he grabbed his book bag and got into his white pick-up. Driving to school he wasn’t looking forward to it. He did want to see Levi, but beyond that there wasn’t anything pulling him back into the tall gray building. Stepping out of the car he looked around the parking lot. Levi hadn’t arrived yet but Nina was parked already. That was one person he did not want to talk to.

Then he saw it, a girl-tomboy-ish in dress with long black hair and a freckled face stepping into the street the school bus barreling towards her. Ford motioned his hand and a gust of wind pushed the girl out of the bus’s way just in time. He watched her stand up and pat down her body. Ford stared at her from across the parking lot and she looked at him, their eyes connecting.

***

            Ford sat down in his US law class, looking around the room as students piled in all chatting and happy. Then, she walked in, the girl from the morning. Her eyes connected with Ford and she took the seat next to him. He turned his head to look at her but she was buried deep in her cell phone.  Ford was not looking forward to when the teacher would arrive. He had avoided this class as long as he could but it was a pre-requisite and Mr. Lenoir was the only teacher to teach it. His heart beat faster in anticipation.

 Then, the teacher entered the class, her soft brown hair tied in a tight bun. She was dressed semi-professionally with thick-rimmed glasses and a  sharp featured face. She looked like she could have worked at a prison, stern and not smiling. 

            “Hello class,” the teacher began, “my name is Laura Atwood. I will be your teacher this semester. I know some of you are probably disappointed that Mr. Lenoir is not teaching this section, but unfortunately he will not be returning this year due to extenuating circumstances.”

            She reached into her briefcase and pulled out stapled papers. She handed them out to the front of each rows who passed them back. “So as you can see with the syllabus…we will be looking through part of the history of how law and order came to this country. Then we will dive right into important law – defining cases. Yes?” Laura looked to the back of the class to the girl seated next to Ford.

            “Hey,” She started, “so random question – I was just reading through the syllabus and…”

            “Tell us your name,” Ms. Atwood smiled, the first since she entered the room, but it felt forced.

            “Rica Feldman,” the girl tossed out.

            “Well Rica, we don’t allow hats in class so you will have to take yours off.” Ms. Atwood stared at the girl, who quickly removed her baseball cap and then smirked back at the teacher. Ford could already feel that they didn’t like each other.

            “Well, getting back to my question,” Rica redirected the conversation, “I see we are taking half a week to talk about the evolution of marriage laws in this country – that’s great.  We will be reviewing Loving v. Virginia.”