Chapter 2

The rest of the summer was normal. We all hung out at The Club. Finally, the back to school day came and I was in eighth grade.

The school I went to was called Brentwood Middle School. I had been going to the Brentwood schools since Kindergarten. Most of the kids from Brentwood Elementary went on to Brentwood Middle, and then to Brentwood High.

I woke up to my normal radio show, got a shower, and got dressed. I went downstairs to eat breakfast. My sister Tina, whom everybody called tee, was already eating breakfast.

Did I forget to mention my sister before? Oh, well, she doesn’t really need to be mentioned. She and her parrot, birdie, are annoying.

I ate breakfast, French toast, let Mulligan out, and then went to the bus stop to wait for the bus. The only person at my stop was a girl named Mandy Erwin. I had known her since kindergarten. In fifth grade, I had had a crush on her, but I got over that soon enough.

“Hi, Mandy,” I said.

“Hey Steve,” she said.

“So, you ready for eighth grade?” I asked. Trying to be friendly.

“Yeah. I think so,” she said, “What about you?”

“I could have used another one or two weeks of summer, but I guess so.”

“What did you do all summer?”

“I basically hung out at The Club with my friends and girlfriend.”

Why I added I have a girlfriend, I don’t know. I think I was just happy for myself.

“You have a girlfriend?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I don’t know. I just didn’t…Who?”

“Sarah Truman.”

“Really?”

“I hardly ever lie,” I said. Lie.

“Good for you,” she sounded disappointed.

Even at the risk of sounding dorky I asked, “Why do you sound so depressed?”

“Well…It’s just that…That ever since the fifth grade I’ve kinda, sorta, liked you.”

Why did I ask that question? Then I told her, “I liked you in fifth grade. I don’t know why I’m telling you this. I just thought maybe it would cheer you up.”

I don’t know what happened after that but all I remember is that someone moved on someone and we kissed. It was horrible.

Okay, so the kiss wasn’t horrible. It’s what happened during the kiss that was bad.

Right as our lips locked the bus pulled up. Sarah was sitting in the window seat. When I heard the bus, I stopped kissing Mandy. It was too late. Sarah had seen us.

Apparently, Mandy had seen Sarah too.

“I’m so sorry,” she said to both Sarah and to me. Sarah didn’t hear her or even see her mouth move because her head was in her hands and she was crying.

“Look,” I said, “let’s just get on the bus, go our separate ways, and forget this ever happened. For me, forgetting was going to be hard because Sarah would remind me forever. That is if we ever got back together.

I got onto the bus. Sarah had saved a seat for me just like she always does. I sat down.

“Go sit somewhere else,” she said.

“Sarah, I’m sorry,” I said. She didn’t answer, “If it makes you feel any better she came on to me.”

I lied, so sue me. I did feel somewhat bad for lying. Mandy and I had actually moved towards each other, she didn’t come on to me. Then I did what any idiotic, soon to probably be ex-boyfriend would do. I told Sarah the truth.

“I just lied to you. Mandy and I actually came on to each other; she didn’t come on to me. Forgive me, please.” I sat and waited for a no.

“Yes. I forgive you.”

I was shocked at her answer. I said, “You forgive me?”

“Do you want me to say no?”

“No.”

Then Luke and Lisa came on to the bus and sat in the seat on the opposite aisle from us.

Luke asked, “What’s up guys?”

Sarah and I both said, “Nothing.”

When Mark, Rick, and Kelly got on the bus, a new kid got on with them. There was one empty seat behind Sarah and me so we said he could sit there.

I said the normal introduction that we give everybody we meet, “Hi, I’m Steve Greene; this is my girlfriend Sarah Truman. Across the aisle from us are Luke Richards and Lisa Newman. In front of them is Mark Faro, and across the aisle from him are Rick Gibson and Kelly Brevard. We like to be known as “us.” What’s your name?”

He said, “My name’s Evan Halyard. Nice to meet you.”

The bus stopped at its last stop and a girl named Haley Mira got on and sat next to Evan. They talked for the remainder of the ride and I saw her give him her phone number.

“Dude, she gave you her phone number, you are officially going out with her,” I said. Then we went into school.

The way our school worked was during the summer they put your schedule in your locker. To figure out your locker number you went to the big bulletin board and the names were in alphabetical order and by grade, and where your name was that was your homeroom. Then according to homeroom was where your locker was located.

I looked at the board and saw that my homeroom teacher was Mr. Serbrook.

“Yes!” I thought. Mr. Serbrook was the most awesome teacher ever. The bell rang for us to go to homeroom.

“Hello class,” he said as the last kid took his seat.

“Hey,” we said in unison.

“Who here doesn’t know me?”

One person raised his hand. It was Evan. I had no idea he was in my homeroom class.

“One person, that’s it? What’s you name?”

“Evan Halyard.”

“Well, Evan. My name is Kevin Serbrook. You can call me either Mr. Serbrook, Kevin, or teach. I have written three novels, climbed Mount Everest, and have swum across the Mediterranean Sea and I’m only twenty-six.”

We all laughed. We knew he hadn’t done all of this stuff. The math was impossible.

“Okay, so none of that stuff ever happened. I got out of college at twenty-two and went right to teaching.”

Mr. Serbrook was also one of the literature teachers in our school. I looked at my schedule and it said I had literature with him right after the bell for homeroom ended.

The bell ending homeroom rang. I stayed in the seat I was in and I was the only person in the room.

As the other kids filed into the room, I saw Rick walking in with the rest of them. I also saw Garret Smith.

Garret was one of those kids you pretty much hate, but he is still sort of your friend. His way of being funny was stealing your pens and stuff. He would give it back, but it was annoying either way. Another of his downfalls was he had to be right about everything. If on his homework he got a question wrong, he’d fight with the teacher for a half hour to try to make the teacher say his way was right.

I waved Rick over to the seat next to mine.

“Mr. Greene,” Mr. Serbrook called toward me, “if that seat next to Mr. Gibson causes too much trouble, I will move one of you.” He didn’t say it in a mean way. It was more of a warning.

I looked in my desk for my literature book.

“Darn it!” I had forgotten the book. Either that or I had lost it.

“I see all of you are getting out your books. Put them away,” Mr. Serbrook said to the class.

I looked up and mouthed the words, “Thank you.”

“On second thought, get them out.”

I raised my hand, “Mr. Serbrook, I can’t find my book.”

“Well Mr. Greene, I guess you can share with Mr. Gibson.”

I flashed a thumbs-up sign to Rick.

“I saw that Mr. Greene. If you keep this up, I can partner you up with Mrs. Erwin,” Mr. Serbrook pointer to my left. There was Mandy sitting there. She flashed a smile at me.

“I’ll be good.”

“Okay, class. Open your books to the first story.”

I was good during the rest of the class. Rick, on the other hand, was not. He kept whispering stuff like, “Good thing Mr. Serbrook gave you another chance,” and “Imagine if Sarah found out you had to sit next to Mandy.”

“Shut up,” I whispered back, “You’re going to get me moved.”

Rick was as stubborn as a mule and kept on talking.

“Mr. Greene, you can read now.”

“No,” I thought, “I don’t know where we are. Rick wouldn’t shut up. Why me? Where is the bell when you need it?” I looked up at the clock, two minutes left in class. Maybe I could last two minutes. Maybe sitting next to Mandy for two minutes wouldn’t be so bad.

Rick pointed to a spot on the page, “Read here.”

“How do you know, you weren’t even paying attention.”

I read right there, apparently Rick was right.

The bell rang to let us out of class. “Homework. Read the rest of the story

In the hallway, I asked Rick, “How did you know where to read if you were talking to me the whole time?”

He shrugged his shoulders. I hate when he does that.

I went to my locker, got out my math book, and saw my Literature book was in there, I had probably forgotten it in the excitement of knowing Mr. Serbrook was my teacher.

I ran into Sarah on my way to class. I put my arm around her shoulders and asked her what her next class was.

“Math,” she said.

“What teacher?”

“Miss. Harver.”

“Me too.”

As we rounded the corner to the next hall, Christian Marcus came up behind us. He was the genius of the school. I mean a big genius, almost smarter than Alfred Ensten.

“You know, not only are communal displays of fondness rude, they are also very sordid,” he said.

I stared at him with a question on my face.

“Not only are public displays of love rude, they are also very disgusting,” he restated in a way I could understand it.

“You only say that because you don’t have a girlfriend,” I said back.

“Actually,” he said, “I have ample promising applicants.”

“You don’t have applicants,” I said, “You find a girl you like, and ask her out. Then if she says yes, you have a girlfriend.”

“Your system of receiving a girlfriend seems somewhat incongruous.”

I leaned over to Sarah, “You’re smart, what does incongruous mean?”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“It means strange, absurd, and illogical.”

“Thank you human thesaurus,” I said.

“Steve, we better head to class.”

“Okay. See ya, Christian.”

“Farewell.”

“That kid is too smart for our own good,” I said to Sarah. She laughed.

We walked into math class and found two seats next to each other. It’s not like it mattered; Sarah would never talk during a class. I’d secretly hoped some of that would rub off on Rick.

Math class was boring, as was Language Arts and Science. It finally ended though. It was time for lunch.

I went into the cafeteria and got my food. Then I went to find a place to sit down. My friends were already at a table and saving a seat for me. We talked about our first half day.

“What classes did you have, Steve?” Luke asked me.

I said, “Literature, Math, Social Studies and Computer class.”

Everybody else said what classes they had had and then the bell rang for us to go to our next classes.

The rest of the day was okay; finally, we got to go home.

When I returned home, my mom and dad weren’t there. Not a big surprise. My mom had gone about an hour ago and my dad left The Club at four. I looked at my watch, it was 3:15. Tina would be home in five minutes, I decided I would start my homework while I had some peace and quiet.

After I had finished my homework, I notices Tina was still not home. I knew the phone number to her school, so I called.

“Hello. Brentwood Elementary. Mr. Newart speaking.”

“Hi Mr. Newart. It’s Steve Greene.”

“Hi Steve. What is it you were calling about?”

“I was just wondering if your buses were working.”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, most of them are back by now.”

“Well then, I was wondering, does my sister have detention or something?”

“No. Why?”

“Because she hasn’t come home yet. She should have been here about twenty-five minutes ago.”

“Well. This is a dilemma, isn’t it? I’ll contact your parents so you don’t have to. If she comes home, call me. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Good-bye.”

“Bye sir.” With that, we hung up.

About five minutes later, the phone rang again.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Hi Steve, its Mom. I just heard from Tina’s principal saying you called and said she didn’t come home. Is that true?”

“Yes Ma’am”

“Just to let you know, she’s at the restaurant with me.”

“Why didn’t you call and tell me earlier? I was scared to death.”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

“Are you saying you care about your sister for once?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, the day has come!”

“Mom, get over it.”

“Okay.”

“Bye.”

“Bye,” She said. Then I heard a click, and the conversation was over. I hoped my mom would not tell my sister about our conversation.

The phone rang again. I was starting to feel sorry for the poor thing. I usually just took it for granted.

“Hi.”

“Hi Steve, its Dad, just calling to tell you I wont be home until six. Get your own dinner.”

“Okay. Bye Dad.”

We hung up. I got dinner for myself, then vegged out in front of the TV for a while.

When Mom and Tina returned home, it was about five-thirty. The first words out of my sister’s mouth were, “Mom told me what you said on the phone.”

I shot my mom that look that said, “Why?”

“Guess what?” I asked my sister.

“What?”

“It ain’t…”

I was cut off by my mother, “Isn’t.”

“It isn’t going to happen again,” then I chased her into her bedroom.

The rest of the night, I watched TV and played PS2. Then I went to bed.