Hoops and Dreams

[30] Elementary, my dear Hazel

After a long pause Darnell is the first to speak to me, "We talked about this. You can't just ask Marco for something and expect him to do it."

"It worked last time."

"You mean the last time when he threw you into a pool," Sam says disentangling himself from the embrace. As though he's just realized that this much affection during the daytime might not be such a good idea.

"And you nearly drowned," Micah adds. "He's not the kind of person you can negotiate with."

I don't need to be reminded of that night, I haven't forgotten.

"And Vincent is? Did you miss the part of assembly where she basically declared war on the entire sports department?"

"That is a very British thing to do," Darnell says with a sage nod. Now that the midterms are over this must be the more relaxed version of him. Drawing on the similarities between our school principal and the American Revolution like a true history student. "They still have a thing for America."

"She's British. It all makes sense now," Micah says. "Why she's so obsessed with this investigation. She comes from the birthplace of Agatha Christie."

"And Sherlock Holmes," Sam finishes excitedly.

They cannot be serious. They've lost the damn plot and replaced it with the script of the Looney Tunes.

"Guys, now is not the time," I say but before I can continue the bell rings effectively cutting our conversation to a close. "I have to go. But can everyone promise they won't go to Vincent's office until at least this afternoon."

I'm already walking out of the room but I still catch Micah say: "Her office closes at three."

"Then see you at three."

I step into the hall and join the flow of students heading for their classes. Mr. Turner's math class is a whole stretch away from the science classes and so no matter how fast I walk I still show up late.

The worst part is a little tardiness is the least of my problems. I have a heavy article to keep out of the public eye and a suspension to avoid. How did my problems go from struggling to stay awake in school to struggling to stay in school full stop?

If this was what the rest of my junior year looked like then sign me out.

I walk into class when everyone's already seated. It's a tense moment. Mr. Turner knows I'm late, my senior classmates know I'm late even the pet turtle in the terrarium in the back knows I'm late. But thankfully, no one comments. It mightt be because we're already three topics deep into Integration and everyone in this room knows that they could blink and be sent back, days education wise.

I've probably missed an entire subsection just explaining this.

My seat in the middle row is taken and so I have to head to the back to grab the only desk available.

I pull out my notebook and start jotting down the notes scribbled onto the board. The lesson whizzes on and I burn through nearly five pages of paper trying to keep up. Mr. Turner writes down a set of questions on the board and asks us to solve them.

"When you're done swap with a partner and mark each other down."

I hate pair activities in math class. It provides an opportunity for one of my classmates to judge the chicken scrawl I call math and realize I'm an imposter. Call me old-fashioned but I prefer my work being torn apart by my instructor instead.

I work my way down the questions and their subsets with a weird mix of confidence and hesitancy. I've seen all this math before but putting it into practice is a different job altogether. The function button on my calculator is worn away by the time I'm on the last question. When I finish I look up to see that everyone is paired up and marking away. A major downside to learning with seniors is that that in almost every area they will outsmart and outwork you.