Engineering Moon Forth and Doctor Beam

Chapter 2

The first part of my plan, supposedly the easiest one, became kind of a stumbling block after a week or so. You see, I only get to see Beam in three classes plus homeroom. Go figure, he's in the genius, high level, chemistry with a side of socio-meds-whatever classes while I'm still slogging through the joys of finger painting. Seeing as out of four periods in a day I only get to ogle him for three, I really saw no point to actually attending Beam-less classes, but hey, I really had nowhere to go, so I did.

I think after my third straight day in my math class, the lecturer almost had heart failure from seeing me there so often. Though my chem teacher (would you believe it, I do have chemistry class!) avoided the coronary, he started to look at me like an alien species. Once in a while, he would just stare off to the windows, like he was ready to see a hidden cameras crew there saying 'gotcha! You thought Forth had really become a student!' Maybe it's the softie heart within me, but I felt vaguely guilty about causing him so much stress just 'cause I decided to attend classes.

But yeah, a week of solid attendance was the beginning of the plan, but man, did it ever have consequences. Like, I got called into the guidance counselor's office. Can you believe it? Who gets called in for going to classes? What are they gonna do if I ever get an 'A' in a course, send me off to the mental hospital before I poison the innocent students around me with my nefarious ways?

Sheesh, if I hadn't been getting my Beam fix in homeroom (only fifteen minutes, damn it), gym (oh god, the locker rooms..), art (Beam in a his way, pretty damned hot), and English (hey, I can't believe I'm in a high level class either, it was a glitch in the system), then the whole week would have been unbearable. As it was, seeing the guidance counselor was no bed of roses either. Or it could be a bed of roses, if those roses had some lethal thorns.

Oh, yeah, guidance counselor. His name, Professor Tew. His personality, even creepier than my best friend's. His face, a total complete mystery since he wears a mask all the time.

And they put him in charge of guiding students into the right path. Go figure.

Anyway, I had to go see him. I got called out in the middle of a class, whichever one that Beam wasn't in, by the intercom thing. Getting called out, not unusual. Half the time I'm in university, I'm getting summoned to the principal's office for something or another, usually to respond to such questions as 'why did you miss your 'insert random class' midterm' or 'were you aware that those two chemicals combined causes explosions.' Ya know, normal stuff. In fact, I see the principal, Dr. Push, so much that I think of him as a surrogate grandfather of sorts. He tells me not to do lots of stuff and I remind him that his grandson's birthday is coming up. Not all bad, you know, and really, if I was getting reamed for coming to school too much, I'd rather it be from Dr. Push, not creep-Professor Tew.

But whatever, the things I will do to fulfill my plans for Beam. That's right, I'm in love.

So, yeah, Professor Tew. When I entered his small, cramped office, all I saw was his head of hair behind his computer monitor and he didn't even look my way. He just kind of waved his hand at me, either in greeting or wai, and said nothing. Whatever was on that monitor was way more interesting than me, and by his rep, I would say he was visiting one of those sites that my guardian warned me that if I ever went, I'd be grounded into the next century, possibly longer. That just meant that I sat and waited. And waited. Daydreamed about Beam. Waited some more.

Half an hour later, I was fairly sure that Professor Tew had forgotten that I was even there. What is that saying, insult on top of injury? Yeah, that'd be the situation.

Then boom, he spoke. Still not looking at me, but he at least let me know that he was aware of my presence.

"Forth Darvid?"