Former Teacher

28

"Seniors, it being the last day of high school for you, I want to announce that I had a wonderful time being your teacher for the year and as well as some of you last year. I cannot wait to see what pathway you choose and make the best of yourself." Lucas says, not even giving me a quick look.

Dalton and I are ready to get the hell out of this place. We have been talking about our graduation party. We aren't sure what days to plan it because we don't want to plan it while someone already booked it on that day. We considered sharing a graduation party.

Family would show because he and I are pretty much each other's companions, which I think is totally fine. Dalton is heading to community college next year as I decided at the last minute not to enroll in any colleges. I don't feel like it's time yet. Maybe in a few years, I will decide it's time, but for now, I'm going to work. I did get a job at Jimmy John's, so I'm thrilled to start that soon. I'm registered to begin on May 20.

Their subs are delicious, and I can't wait to take one home to enjoy. I totally didn't get a job to eat their subs...

As soon as the bell rang, we dashed off to our fifth-hour class. The day is almost over. Tonight we are having a campfire at his house to burn all of our homework and to enjoy the night eating pizza and watching Lucifer. We recently started watching the show, and it's quite good. We are on episode 6 of season 1. There are five seasons, so at least it's long so I can hang out with Dalton more often.

6:25 pm

I'm on my way to Dalton's house. He doesn't live far. All my papers are in the back as well as some wood because they were running low and my dad has a lot in his stock. I park my car in the street and texted Dalton, "I am here." I look into my mirror, checking if cars were coming. I hop out, walking in front of the engine to head to the passenger side to grab the papers.

Dalton walks up. "Need help?"

"Sure. The wood is in the trunk."

I walk in with my bag of papers and lighter fluid in my hand if they ran out or didn't have any to begin with.

"Pizza is on the way. I'm going to go set the wood outside."

"Okay, I will start Lucifer up," I say, setting my bag on the floor next to the couch.

I grab his remote and roam around to find Netflix. I found my way through his strange smart tv and pulled up Netflix.

"Oh good, you found it. I still have trouble finding where shit is."

"Haha, really? Does your dad know how to use it?"

"Nope, not even him, haha. He is too old. He's ancient." Dalton says, cracking a small joke.

"Ancient, huh? Never heard that in my book." His dad comes walking in.

"I meant young..."

"Sure ya did, kid." His dad says, laughing. "You two behave. No horsing around."

"Gotcha, youngster," Dalton says, doing that finger thing with his dad that he always does.

"I like the sound of that. Alright, I'm on my way to dinner. Enjoy yourselves." He says, walking out the door.

I sit on the couch. "You know Dalton, since your Korean, you never told me why you have an American name."

He sits next to me. "Well, my dad wanted more of a Korean name while my mom wanted an American name since she was American, and she already had a name in mind. She adored the name Dalton and won over my dad, of course."

"Aw, I love it. Wait, the last name isn't Korean either."

"My dad got adopted into an American family at five, so his last name changed."

I try and not to ask about his mom or anything associated with her because he never likes talking about what happened that night... What he told me tonight is the only thing he opened up about, and I don't want him to push him anymore.

"Gotcha! So when is the pizza coming? I'm starving!"

"Should be any minute." He says, kicking his feet up on the table in front of us.

The pizza arrived, and we dug straight into it. He ordered a large barbeque pizza, our favorite, and sprite. We finished episodes 6 and 7. We cleaned up to go outside and burn our work that doesn't have any more of a purpose. Well, it generally didn't have a purpose, to begin with, especially mathematics. I didn't need to know how to solve x. I'm burning that shit with extra pizzazz.