Smooth Sailing

April 17, 1962

April 17, 1962

The only good thing that Edward Morrison could say about his senior year of high school was that it would be over soon. As he parked his car in the Clearwater Lake High School parking lot one Tuesday morning, he hoped that nothing too terrible would happen that day. It was already raining, but Edward knew that the day could get much worse from here.

Edward grabbed his cane, locked the car door, and stumbled toward the Clearwater Lake High School entrance. The pavement was quite slippery, and Edward struggled to maintain his balance. Plenty of people walked past, but Edward didn't get any help from his classmates. Eventually, he reached the door, opened it, and headed inside, completely soaked from the rain.

It was during times like these that Edward wished that James was here. James always managed to cheer him up, but he had graduated last year. Now, he was off at college, and Edward was alone and friendless at Clearwater Lake High School. As he headed toward his locker, the other students avoided him - none of the other kids wanted to be seen befriending the cripple. James wasn't afraid to be a little bit square, but nobody else at Edward's high school was like that.

Edward finally got to his locker, but when he reached for his books, Gary Reinhart walked by and knocked Edward's cane out of his hand. Edward fell over, and while he lay sprawled out on the ground, Gary laughed. Edward sighed - nearly every day was like this for him. He snatched his cane from off of the ground and after a few minutes of wriggling around on the floor, he managed to stand up again. He took his math textbook out of his locker and headed to class, but the hallways were nearly empty, telling him that he was probably late already.

When Edward walked into the classroom, Mrs. Minsky gave him a disapproving look. "Mr. Morrison, you're late to class again," she said.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Minsky," Edward said. He was too embarrassed to recount what had actually made him late for class, but he couldn't think of a good excuse either, so he simply hobbled to the only empty seat in the back of the classroom without offering an explanation.

Edward didn't recognize the girl sitting next to him. The school was massive, so perhaps that shouldn't have been a surprise, but Edward thought that he knew everyone in his class. The girl appeared to be Native American, and in Edward's opinion, she was quite pretty. Edward briefly wondered why he had never noticed her before.

"Let's continue on," Mrs. Minsky said. "Can anyone tell me what the derivative of 2x+3 is?"

Edward had no clue - he hadn't had time to do yesterday's homework. When nobody answered the teacher's question, Mrs. Minsky said, "Did nobody do the homework that I assigned yesterday?"

The girl next to Edward raised her hand. "The answer is two, Mrs. Minsky," she said.

"Very good," Mrs. Minsky said. "How about the derivative of 6x²-7?"

Again, the girl next to Edward raised her hand, but Mrs. Minsky didn't call on her. "Did anyone else do the homework?" she asked, but nobody responded. "Well, if nobody did the homework, then I suppose that we're all going to have to waste some precious class time so that everyone can complete it. You can work in pairs if you'd like, but everyone needs to be working on the problem set in Chapter 11 of your textbook."

Edward turned to the girl next to him and asked, "Are you new here?" It was the most reasonable explanation for why Edward had never seen her before, but Edward soon realized that it was not the best first impression he could have made on the most beautiful girl that he had ever met.

"Yes, my family just moved to Clearwater Lake," the girl said. "I'm Lorraine Hill, by the way. What's your name?"

"I'm Edward Morrison," he said.