KISS: Casablanca High School

Ch 77: School $truggles (Paul)

Music blaring, Gene pulled into his parking spot, giving me a grin and stepping out of his car. "Hey you got the physics study guide done?" he teased. 

I rolled my eyes, shifting my backpack to the other shoulder. "You know the answer to that. You wanna come over to work on it after school?" 

"How about after my practice? I'm done at 5:30." Grinning, I walked with him toward the school. "Works for me. I'm not going to be eating until like 7 or 8 anyway." 

Eric shuffled miserably by, drinking from his hydro like his life depended on it. "Hey you ready for the chem test today?" Gene asked, kicking some snow at him. "Hey you ready for the chem test today," Eric mocked, drinking more of his coffee. "No! No I am not. But what I am ready for is for my hands to stop shaking so I can actually hold a pencil." 

Gene laughed, gently taking the hydro from Eric and twisting the lid back on. "I'm serious man, you can't keep using coffee to replace sleep. It's not going to be a hard test, don't sweat it." 

The bell rang and he gave me a parting wave, grabbing Eric and dragging him off to calculus. I watched, heart clenching, as they walked off together, wishing that I would be able to walk off to class with Gene. But it was fine, it would be fine, he was going to be coming over later anyway.

The doorbell rang hours later and I threw open the front door. "Damn took you long enough," I said with a grin, ushering him inside. Still red-faced and sweaty from practice, Gene stepped into the house, kicking off his shoes. "I'm gonna go get changed real quick, I'll meet you in your room in a few minutes to finish the study guide," he said, moving toward the bathroom. 

"Wow yeah just act like you own the place that's fine," I teased, running up the stairs to my room, grabbing my physics book and throwing myself onto my bed. Yawning, he walked into my room five minutes later, dressed in sweats and a t-shirt that was way too small for him. "Forgot I borrowed this from Peter," he said with a grin, tugging at the fabric. Biting back a smile, I shrugged, motioning for him to take a seat. "Too bad Christie's not here to see you. Might actually convince her to date you." 

"Whatever," he grumbled, pulling out his study guide and flipping through it. "So if we use gravity as the force down, then we can calculate the force normal by using Pythagoram theorem, right? So that would lead us to...uhm..." He bit down on his tongue, staring at the ceiling as he tried to do the math in his head. 

"17.3," I said, looking at the calculator. He punched me in the arm, but smiled. "Smartass," he grumbled, writing down the answer. 

We sat on my bed, going over the study guide one by one until at last it was finished. Letting out a sigh, Gene fell back on my bed, running a hand through his hair. "Dude I wish I had siblings." 

I raised an eyebrow, looking at him in surprise. "What? What makes you say that all of a sudden?" I asked, leaning against the pillows. He shrugged, staring up at the ceiling. "I dunno, I was babysitting the little Frehleys last weekend and it was nice, being able to take care of kids and having them look up to me and all that. Like I don't have any siblings, it's just me and my mom and it was nice. No, you know what, I want kids of my own."

Eyes wide, I looked at him in confusion before smirking. "I mean I'm surprised you don't already have some at this point," I said, laughing as he smacked me on the head. "Aw shut up. But whatever, I'm too young anyway. and it's not like I can afford to have a family anyway. Especially not after college takes all my money. If I even have enough money to get there anyway," he said sadly. 

"Look man you know that my parents would be happy to--" "Paul. No. I know they would, but I'm not...I'm not going to ask for handouts from your parents," he said, closing his eyes. "I know, I know. But if you ever change your mind..." "I won't. Anyway, you wanna go practice some songs?"

Smiling, I leapt off my bed and slid down the bannister, grabbing a guitar as Gene ran to his car to grab the bass he conveniently had in his backseat. "So, Shout it Out Loud?" 

Practicing without drums or a lead guitarist was not easy, and we ended up just sitting around playing riffs and spitballing ideas. 

"So anyway, I was thinking we need some kind of look when we perform, you know? Like rock music is good and all but we need to stand out more. What do you think?" I said, running a hand along the neck of my guitar. 

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sounds good," he mumbled, scrolling through his phone. 

"Ok so how are we wanting to stand out then? Like costumes and makeup and stuff? Like that would be cool. Well, it could be, just depends on how we do it." 

There was a loud clatter as Gene dropped his bass, sitting down abruptly on the floor. "Hey you good?" I asked, looking over at him in concern. A shaking smile spread across his face as he stared at his phone. 

"Good? I'm...I'm great, man," he said softly. "I'm great." 

Confused, I sat next to him on the floor, moving his bass aside and trying to look at his phone. "What happened? You gonna tell me the news or just be all weird and basically collapse on the ground for no reason?" 

Hands trembling, he passed me his phone before dropping his head to his knees with a weak laugh. I scanned the email, jaw dropping before staring at him with a smile. "Dude holy shit...you just got a full ride to Stanford," I said after a pause. 

He nodded, happy tears welling up in his eyes. "All tuition covered. All I need to pay for is room and books. I can afford room and books. I can afford...I can actually afford college," he murmured. 

I threw my arms around him, pulling him into a hug. "And a spot on their wrestling team! Gene, you're set! Congrats, man!" I cried. He laughed, hugging me back and burying his face in my shoulder. "I gotta call my mom, she's gonna be thrilled!" he said, jumping to his feet and grabbing his phone back. 

"Mom! I got into Stanford! And they're covering all tuition costs!" he shouted. There was silence on our end for a moment as Aunt Flora said something, making an even bigger smile stretch across Gene's face. "Yeah! Stanford! Fucking Stanford!" 

I could practically hear Aunt Flora telling him to watch his language as he laughed, nodding. "Yeah I'll come home in a few minutes and I'll show you the email! Love you Mom, bye!" He hung up, still shaking as he looked at me, beaming. "I can't believe it, man, I can't believe it. I got into Stanford," he said weakly. "Anyway I'm sorry I gotta go, my mom wants me home. She said she's gonna take me out to dinner to celebrate." 

Handing him his bass, I gave him another hug. "Nah you're fine, get out of here. I'll see you tomorrow, and seriously, congratulations! That's incredible, I'm so happy for you." Nodding, Gene hugged me back. "Aw Paul, Paul it's incredible, I'll be able to have so much leftover money for everything else, for anything else! I don't need to be stressed about money anymore!" he said, before running out of my house with a parting wave, door slamming shut behind him.

Shaking my head with a smile, I sat on the floor and looked through my own inbox, wishing I could get any acceptance email, regardless of whether or not it was telling me I got a full ride. 

Because if I didn't get into any colleges, I was gonna be screwed.