{ #5 } Eclipse Of The Moon (MxM || 18+)

Chapter 5 - Philadelphia

Eclipse Of The Moon ~ Book 1 of Aaron
Chapter 5
Philadelphia

Wednesday 7 May 2002

"I'm certain you can do better, Mr. Cox. A little more effort and next time should be an A..." Mr. Matthews says as he hands me my English test back with a nice B on top of the sheet.

"Thank you, Sir," I reply almost eagerly.

I wasn't even expecting that much, so I am more than happy with a B, to be honest. Not having put much effort in that essay, I didn't think it deserved better than a C, so the B is more than welcome and should please my parents.

In fact, I could be a straight-A student because I have this innate ability to learn easily like, if I pay enough attention in class, I don't even need to review much before a test to get a decent grade. The truth is that I just don't fit in school.

I can't find any interest in what I'm being taught, and it feels like what I learn won't ever be of any use for what I want to do in the future. Not that I know what I would like to do later, but at least I know what I don't want to do. Working in an office, sitting at a desk all day-long, bearing with annoying colleagues and even worse, dealing with a manager, all these are out of my range. I aspire to be my own boss because I want to lead my life the way I want it. I need joy and fun.

Being studious and serious at school would help in that matter, but I can't resolve myself to it. Instead, I slack. A lot. I gawp. I zone out. I do silly drawings on my notebooks. I chat with classmates. All reasonably so as not to get in trouble, but that will have to change. Until now, things have been easy enough; next year will be the last one before graduation, so I'll have to provide more efforts and eventually make a decision on what I want to do in the future. This is going to be a pain in my ass and will certainly yield quarrels with my parents because their expectations aren't mine.

"You're dismissed, class. Have a nice afternoon and see you tomorrow!"

After Mr. Matthews' announcement, there is a loud brouhaha of scraping chairs and enthusiastic teenagers quickly packing their books inside their backpacks before they hurry out of the classroom. Me first.

Yes! Finally!

I eagerly walk to the lockers where I meet Mark, Joshua and Camden who were attending different classes for the last period of the day.

"Ready, guys?" Joshua asks once we have grabbed our empty lunch boxes, gym clothes and books we might need for homework.

Of course, we are! This is quite silly to lock ourselves in Joshua's bedroom to watch a movie when the weather is so nice and when we could have enjoyed an afternoon in the forest or at the shack, but we have already put off our viewing of Philadelphia twice, and there won't be a third raincheck.

First, there was that charity event at church I was forced to attend two weeks ago and that earned me a boring afternoon. The bingo game and sale of cakes were organized by my parents' closest friends, the Millers, and Father Joseph, in order to raise funds for the renovation of a part of our church. There was such a crowd! I can hardly believe that so many people attended, some of them even coming from nearby towns.

The event was boring in itself as it was, but being assigned to the bakery stall with Noelly, my nun-to-be sister, and the Millers' daughters only made the experience more painful. As if it wasn't enough to bear with their solemn conversations about college, future projects and God, I also had to put up with Josephine Miller's shyly-amorous glances. She is 16 and as far as I can remember, she has always had some little crush on me – with the most honorable intentions, obviously; I even heard our parents once say that we'd make a nice couple when we are older. Please, let me puke... However, I acted as a gentleman and managed to smile.