Life of Living Apart

Chapter 1

"James P. Sullivan!" Dean Hardscrabble shouted as Sullivan burst awake and nearly fell out of his chair. "What are you doing? This is the third time you have fallen asleep in Math class!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry" Sullivan groaned, and quickly grabbed his water bottle from off the floor. He opened it and threw water in his face, then shook his head from the cold, trying to wake himself up. He wiped the excess water off his face and set the bottle back down.

"What is the answer to number sixteen? Sullivan, answer the question, since you aren't paying attention" Hardscrabble said. Sullivan hurriedly threw open his textbook to a random page and began reading the contents.

"Uh, uh, oh, uh, five hundred and sixteen divided by the square root of nine. No wait, hang on a minute, okay. Sorry. Sally bought three apples and gave two to her friend, Samantha. Then, she bought five more and ate two. How many does she have left?" Sullivan read, then looked up.

The entire class exploded out laughing. "What? I read the question" he responded. Hardscrabble was standing over his desk.

"Sullivan, what page are you on?" she asked, glaring at him. "Fifty nine" he replied, getting worried. The fur raised on his shoulders. "And what page are we on?" Hardscrabble asked. "Thirty two" James said. "So why aren't you on the right page?" she asked. "And don't say you don't know, because you do know" she continued. Sullivan cleared his throat. "I just opened to a random page after you woke me up" he said. "Really?" she asked, and went back up to the board.

A few minutes later, everyone was continuing on their work when Sullivan's cellphone rang. He gasped. "Mike, what is it? You know that falling asleep thing you told me to do? I got caught!" he hissed under his desk.

"You were supposed to do it when she was out of the room! I'm calling because I need you!" he yelled. "Right now? Mike, I can't! I'm in class! Oh, she's coming! I'll call you back if I'm still alive!" James whispered loudly.

"Can you speak louder?" Mike shouted into the phone. Hardscrabble peered over James' desk. "James Sullivan, what is the rule about cellphones?" she asked.

"Uh, we're not supposed to have them out in class" Sullivan stuttered. "James! Did you die?" Mike screamed into the phone. Sullivan gasped. "Who is on the phone?" Hardscrabble asked.

"My friend" Sullivan said hurriedly. "JAMES! I ASKED IF YOU WERE STILL ALIVE!" Mike shouted louder. "Y-yes, I'm right here!" Sullivan yelled.

"Get out your phone one more time and you will be in detention for eternity" Hardscrabble threatened, and walked to the front of the room.

Sullivan hung up and raised his hand. "May I go to the restroom?" he asked. "Whatever. She's not paying attention" he told himself. When she was too distracted looking for something, he raced out of the classroom and down the hall as fast as his legs could carry him.

When he reached the restrooms, he paused to catch his breath. He called Mike back. "What do you need me for? I got out when she wasn't looking" Sullivan said loudly, and slammed the bathroom door behind him.

"Why I needed you? I'm in gym class, and the Sorority Girls are here! They're making fun of you! And besides, that gym teacher is psycho nuts. She made us run around the entire track like, five times, then made us do five million billion push-ups! All in one day! And all because Art and Don Carlton couldn't keep their mouths shut during attendance! They kept yelling to each other across the gym, and then Terry and Terri joined in, and then Celia and I got in trouble for lying to the teacher about absolutely absurdly stupid stuff!" Mike shouted.

"Okay, whoa, calm down. I've been in that gym class when Worthington took over the entire dodgeball team last year. He hit a kid so hard with the ball he had to be sent home with ice. Other than that, the teacher's been not that bad" Sullivan said.

"Uh, wait until you see her now. She's grown like, a foot, and has really long hair, and is so mean she made a kid eat chewed-up gum off the floor for eating in the bleachers!" Mike shouted.

"Are you serious? That's nasty!" Sullivan cried. "I'll come rescue you from the awful gym. The problem is, Mr. Knight is right outside the door, and I don't have a pass" he said.

"Just lie to him! It always worked for me. Run past him really fast like you're going to vomit, and he probably won't stop you. But you can't come out of the bathroom, because then he'll see that you were just in there. I've done it, and it works for me" Mike explained.

Sullivan waited until Mr. Knight was turned around, then he ran out of the bathroom really fast, covering his mouth like he was about to throw up. He was good at acting.

It worked, and he ran down the hallway, then skidded down the flight of stairs. He raced around the corner and arrived at the gym. "Okay, I'm...here" he gasped, out of breath again.

"Alright. You'll see me on the bleachers. We're playing dodgeball right now, and I'm out" Mike said, and there was a whole bunch of screaming and yelling in the phone.

Just as Sullivan was about to go in, an angry voice screamed, "James Sullivan! What are you doing?".