The Framing

Three.

November 30th, 6:00am. Bedroom.

I opened my eyes as my alarm started to go off. I sat in bed for a few minutes until someone opened my door.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting ready?" My dad asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah," I said. I got out of bed and shut the door as he was standing in front of it. I was really pissed at both of my parents for how they reacted the other day. They should know I'm innocent.

I took a shower and got dressed. I left my house without eating breakfast and started driving to school, which felt pretty weird since it's Saturday.

I pulled up on the curb by the cafeteria and sat down at a table by the door. By the time I had everything situated where I was sitting, it was 6:57am. Alex was supposed to be here in three minutes. I was expecting him not to come. I don't know much about him, but from what I've heard he doesn't take school seriously.

At around 7:15, just before I was about to leave because he wasn't here, I heard the doors to the school open. I thought it would be a janitor, but eventually Alex walked into the cafeteria and sat next to me.

"Hey," I said.

"Sup," he said. I had only heard his voice a few times. I was shocked at how deep it was.

"Do you wanna get started?" I asked.

"Sure," he said. He actually had a bag of stuff with him which surprised me. He pulled out a red notebook and handed it to me.

"What class is this for?" I asked.

"All of 'em," he said.

"You use a one subject notebook for six classes?" I asked.

"Yeah," was all he said. I opened and looked at the first page. It was a set of science notes, although I don't see how anyone could understand any of it. His handwriting was so bad and everything was so unorganized.

"Is there any class you want to start working on?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"So do you care where we start then?"

"Not really."

"I guess we can start with English since we have that together," I said, "how do you like the book we're reading?"

"Which one?"

"Uh, Animal Farm? It's the only one..."

"Oh," he said, "I haven't read any of it. I usually just read the sparknotes before a quiz."

"What grades do you get on them?" I asked.

"Sometimes a C+," he said.

"That's not really that good," I told him.

"We can't all be overachievers like you."

"You could at least try a little harder," I said.

"Why?" He asked.

"So you don't fail out of high school and live under a bridge for the rest of your life."

"I already got a place to stay," he said.

"What about a job?" I asked.

"I work at a 7-eleven in Peabody," he said. I guess it was good that he was making money.

"So you have a car?" I asked.

"Well I didn't walk here," he said, "why are you even here anyway? Is this some kind of extra credit for you?"

"No," I said.

"Then why?"

"You haven't heard all the rumors about me?" I asked.

"The only things I've heard is that you're a stuck up smart ass so I guess not."

"Someone put a knife in my locker," I said, "and the principal thought it was mine. He said he'd expel me if my grades weren't so high, so instead he's making me do this."

"Jeez," he said.

"Yeah..."

"That's pretty shitty luck."

"I know," I said, "and it doesn't make any sense. I don't know anyone that hates me."

"I know a few," he said.

"Besides you," I told him.

"Dude not a lot of people like you. You're kind of stuck up and pretend you're better than everyone else."

"That's not true," I said.

"Yeah it is," he told me.

"Well everyone thinks you're some kind of low life criminal who won't amount to anything," I said.

"At least I can admit those things are true about me."

I rolled my eyes. "Why are you even here? I'm sure you have better things to do on a Saturday morning."

"I do," he said, "but it's an agreement between my parol officer and the school that I have to do this shit. I'd honestly rather be anywhere else."

"So you're supposed to be in jail or something?" I asked.

"Yeah, something like that," he said.

"Whatever," I said, "we should probably get back to this whole tutoring thing anyway."

He sighed. "Sure," he said.

We spent the next few hours going back and forth at each other while I kept trying to bring him back to his notes. He didn't learn anything in the time we were here, which is what I was expecting. As soon as we weren't supposed to be here anymore, he got up and walked outside to his truck.

After that, I took my old iPod touch out of my pocket to text Nate on Snapchat that I was done.

How did it go? He asked as I was walking out to my car.

It was awful. I said.

Do you want to come over and talk about it?

I wasn't supposed to go anywhere besides school and home since I was grounded, but my parents were out grocery shopping for the week so neither of them were home.

Yeah I'll come over. I said.

I got in my car and drove to his house. "What's up?" He asked after I rang the doorbell.

"Nothing really," I said. We went over to his living room and sat on the couch so I could vent to him about Alex.

"He was so annoying the entire time we were there," I said, "I don't even know how I'm going to finish tutoring him since he never pays attention."

"Do you think you could explain it to administration?" He asked.

"Probably not," I said, "I'm pretty sure if he doesn't get his grades up they're gonna think I'm a bad tutor and expel me. I can't have that happen."

He continued to listen to me complain until I had to go home. As I was driving, all I could think about was how much I hated Alex and the school. But I tried to remain optimistic. Maybe something good would come out of all of this.