Vampire Boys Of Summer (Completed!)

Episode 10: Miss Thomas & Angela

I didn’t even make it to the first class before trouble came knocking. My guidance counselor, a middle aged woman named Miss Thomas, caught me in the hall and asked me to come to her office. She offered me a chair across from her well-ordered desk, and cleared her throat.

“Miss Williams, This is pretty late in the game. There’s only a couple school days left and I kept hoping you’d make an effort to pull yourself out of your, um, slump, but the truth is you are going to flunk tenth grade. “

Crap, I thought, shaking my head.

“Unless you want to take a few classes in summer school.”

“Aww man. Summer school? Are you kidding?”

“I won’t make you go, Nora. But if you don’t, you’ll lack the credits to graduate to eleventh. You’ll be held back a year while all your friends move on.”

For a moment I thought that might not be a bad idea. Let everyone who knows me get ahead, so the new students coming in won’t know a thing about me. The Trumps would be moving ahead, too. It would be like going to a new school with a different peer group. Once you shifted up a grade, those that didn’t move up with you were forgotten or otherwise ignored.

She must have known what I was thinking. “It’s not as bad as it may seem. The classes are very small in our summer school program. The tutors are excellent and you only go half a day. Small price to pay to make up all the unsatisfactory work. “

“Can I think about it?”

“Well, we need to get you signed up if you’re going to do this. I’ll give you until tomorrow. But you are the last one to commit. Other students have already signed up and paid their fees.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know. Is that all you wanted from me?”

She nodded. “Yes, you can go on to class now.”

I got up and left her office in a bummed out mood. Summer was going to be wasted at a school desk. Angela would probably have three boyfriends before I even got out of school.

The rest of the school day was like a dull headache, the kind that is too small for an aspirin, but too big to think about other things. I coasted through my early classes and met up with Angela at lunch. When I told her about Summer school she was just as bummed as me.

“That sucks, girl. I was hoping we’d hang out all summer.”

“I guess we still can, but it will have to be in the evenings. No hanging out at the lake or boarding in the park.”

She shook her head. “Well, you have to go. You can’t ditch me and make me start junior year without you.”

“Yeah, I’ll end up going. When mom finds out, she’ll make me. My dad dropped out in the ninth, so she’ll be pushing me not to follow in his footsteps.”

“I don’t want you to follow his footsteps either. Steaks are for eating, not driving through someone’s chest.”

Angela was the only one who could say something like that to me and not make it sound like a smart ass insult. I tried to laugh but my headache was getting worse.

“You got an aspirin?”

“Shit, you’re at the pharmacy now, woman,“ she said. “What you need?”

She opened up her purse and pulled out three different bottles of pain reliever. I’m sure one of them was probably illegal without a prescription.

After taking some of Angela’s magic it seemed like the rest of the day passed like a dream. In fifth period where I had been drawing hot manga boys the day before, she finally hit me with the burning question.

“So, what’s his name?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t get his name.”

She frowned, disappointed. “Loser. You didn’t even go over there, did you?”

“Yeah, I did. It just didn’t turn out well. The guy’s an asshole. Won’t be drawing him again.”

“Shit girl, I’m sorry. I was hoping you’d get lucky. Better yet, I was hoping he had a hot cousin or something for me.”

I shook my head and laughed. “My Angela, always on the prowl.”

She grinned like a cat that had just eaten the tastiest fish. “You know it.”

“They had a party over there last night,“ I said.

“Yeah, I heard.”

“Really? What did you hear?”

“Grant and Nathan were talking about in first period. Apparently they went. Word has it that the Trumps were there.”

“I’m sure they were,“ I replied. It figures that the biggest hoes in the whole school would be there. My jerkface neighbor was probably drooling all over them.

“He didn’t invite you in or anything?”

“No, we didn’t make it that far.”

“Damn, total strikeout,“ she said.

I had to agree, but if the Trumps had been in attendance, I wouldn’t have wanted to be there anyway. At least now I knew not to waste my time with a certain cute Asian boy.