So she's going to live with us?

Chapter 16

Jude

"Write a persuasive writing piece on why freedom of expression is good or bad for our society." Jude mumbled to himself as he sat at his desk in front of his computer screen staring at the blank document apart from his name and the date.

Most teenagers would be hanging out and having fun on a Friday night but not Jude. He was too busy writing a freaking persuasive writing piece that was due on Monday.

Earlier in the day he tried to talk to some of the people that Mr Bebb recommended as good tutors but they couldn't commit to a fixed tutoring time because it interfered with 'family time' or 'prior engagements' or their own 'study sessions'. Jude had asked all of them.

Well, almost all.

He didn't ask Amy, but she was completely out of the question. For some reason Jude didn't want to admit that he was failing English to her. Maybe it was because his pride was too big and he didn't want her to think he was dumb. Especially when she actually thought he was a straight A student. How would he even ask her?

"Write a persuasive writing piece on why freedom of expression is good or bad for our society," Jude mumbled again.

He wished that Seth and Gabe were here so he could tell them to argue about the topic and just write down their debate then pick a side and use that as his persuasive piece.

But they weren't here and Jude was alone writing this dumb piece.

He groaned and slammed his head against the keyboard. The random letters produced would probably be a better piece of writing than if Jude attempted it.

He checked the time. 7:41 pm.

He was hungry but his mom didn't cook on Fridays. Friday was takeout night. However no one felt for pizza delivery or Chinese takeout so the rest of his family and Amy went out to eat. Jude stayed home and hoped the silence in the house would provide optimal conditions for him to do his homework. Plus he was grounded and couldn't go anyway.

But the only thing he had done for the past 2 hours was write his name, the date and repeat 'write a persuasive writing piece on why freedom of expression is good or bad for our society' while also contemplating the purpose of his life and if the struggle was worth it.

Jude looked up at his laptop screen and backspaced all the random letters his keyboard smash had created.

Then he went back to staring at the blinking text cursor.

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

Think.

Think.

Think.

Think.

Jude couldn't think of one thing to write about.

He finally gave up and went to get himself a snack from downstairs. Maybe if he had fuel he would be able to come up with ideas.

He was walking down the stairs when he heard a loud clank followed by a string of curse words.

Jude thought he was home alone but obviously he wasn't. Being the cautious guy he was, he didn't want to take any chances in case there was an intruder in the house so he picked up the closest thing he could use to defend himself which happened to be Charlie's Spider-man action figure that was lying on the stairs.

Jude's logic was that at least he could throw the plastic action figure at the intruder and knock them out long enough for him to sprint to a phone to call 911.