Damn Good Reasons **DISCONTINUED - SEE NEW VER!**

Chapter 3 - One for Justice

Every day for two weeks straight, Chris would come to my place after school and study for at least a couple of hours. Most of the time he'd bring Gordie, and if he didn't... let's say those afternoons were less productive. We'd usually get sidetracked and end up spending most of the study session topic-hopping. We'd talk about trivial stuff - new TV programs and movies, the new ice-cream flavors that Violet was experimenting with in the diner - anything that had nothing to do with real life. My place was like an escape for Chris - a sanctuary where he could come and feel motivated towards the future, not pulled back into his everyday worries and battles. 

But one day, he could not leave the outside world at my front door. The usual spark of inspiration he usually got when he sat down at my dining table didn't even flicker. He heaved his weighty textbooks out of his satchel and lumped them on the table in front of him and then just stared at them under a heavy brow.

I set down a fresh batch of chocolate chip and toasted coconut cookies that I had just baked and got no reaction. Now, that got me worried.

"What's the matter?" I asked, slipping into the chair opposite him.

He slunk his head down and rested it on his arms, and then began lightly thumping it on the table.

"Chris?"

He raised his head but kept staring at his books. "We had the test today," he muttered. "You know the one we've been studying really hard for?"

"Yes..."

"I got an A."

My eyebrows rose at least two inches in surprise. "Wow, way to go!" I said, reaching across the table to give him a congratulatory slap on the arm. "You kidder! You had me all worried, thinking you'd failed or something!"

"I did fail."

"What?"

"They wouldn't give me the A. They think I cheated." Chris reached into his satchel and slipped out a sheet of paper that was his test. Tick marks lined the edge, all the way down, with only a couple of cross marks in the middle. The teacher had written an 'A' at the bottom of her markings and then crossed it out to replace it with a big fat 'F'.

I snatched the sheet of paper out of his hands to inspect it more closely. The answers he'd gotten wrong were the topics he'd been really struggling with, and so that didn't surprise me, but he'd nailed everything else.

"This is outrageous!" Rage flowed through me in waves. What that teacher had done was appalling, despicable, disgusting. And for the first time, I truly understood the situation that Chris was in.

"I don't feel like studying today," Chris said, grabbing his books and stuffing them back into his satchel. "I dunno when I'll back." He rose to leave, but I called after him.

"Chris, what's your teacher's name?"

-2-

The lobby of the reception area felt dark, dank and empty as I stood in the reception area of Castle Rock Junior High, waiting for the school secretary to return from her lunch. I admit that I was nervous - I was only 18 myself, not exactly an authority figure over these teachers.

The secretary finally strolled in, showing her lack of enthusiasm for her job. She slumped her weighty body behind her desk and into her tattered chair and ignored me as she began stamping envelopes.

"Excuse me," I said.

"Yeah?" she replied, looking up at me with an 'I don't have all day' expression.

"I'm looking for Ms. Anderson. I was hoping to speak with her."

"You a student?"

"No."