Together or not.
* * *
The rideback to school was slightly more comfortable, even if I was still stuck in the middle. Archie traded with Bubba and I gained a whole quarter inch of space, though neither he nor Coop seemed able to resist their seat sprawl and I semi-roasted between them.
Jake had a reserved parking spot, so we slid right into a space not more than a hundred feet from a door to hall B. I had study hall next, so I swung by the room, checked in with the proctor and then headed to the library. After pulling the two books and checking them out for my TA period in Humanities for sixth, I found a table and got to work on my calculus homework.
Coop and I already divvied up our project for AP Lit and he said he might drop by after school to finish. One perk of him being my partner, he was aware of my desire to get things done promptly or well ahead of time. My work schedule did not allow for procrastination, not if I wanted to still get all the hours I needed and the sleep that I unfortunately required.
AP French included reading a book she gave us in class—ten pages a day. I snorted. I wasn’t going to read that slowly, but reading fluency in French was different than conversational French. I was really good at the latter, not so good at the former. I was kind of looking forward the challenge.
My study hour flew by, and so did my TA for Ms. Phillips. She’d been my Humanities teacher in 9thand 10th. As her TA, all I had to do was put together some PowerPoints and help herd the kids in the right direction for study resources. Otherwise, it was like having another study hall, which worked for me.
By the last period of the day, I kept smothering yawns as I headed for Mr. G’s room. Independent study for AP European History—I was lucky, G had said he’d proctor the class for me, if I wanted to do it. As a history nerd, I’d relished the chance and, sure, I could have gone for early release. I almost did, but then I kind of wanted to take the class, too. I caved and let desire win out over practicality just this once.
“Heads up,” Jake said from right behind me as he reached past to catch the door and pull it out of my hands and open.
“Hey.” What was he doing here? Of all of us, I figured Jake would have scored the early release, since he obviously didn’t take delayed start.
He nudged me inside and then dropped his backpack onto a desk. Mr. G glanced up from his desk and grinned. “Afternoon Thing One and Thing Two.”
I rolled my eyes. G was a great teacher—one of my favorites, if I were honest—but he’d been calling us the Things since 9thgrade. “Hey Mr. G.” I glanced at Jake as he stretched, the sound of his knuckles cracked as he extended his hands over his head and his shirt rode up baring those stellar abs I hadn’t seen since the pool party.
Not ogling Jake, I fixed my attention on Mr. G. “I picked up the optional reading and the dummies guide you recommended.” I still couldn’t get over that last part. Who used a dummies guide for class?
“Dummies guide?” Jake frowned.
“Yes, Mr. Benton. The dummies guide.” Mr. G held out a single sheet of paper. “Ms. Curtis—” I almost snorted at the formal names. Now he really was giving us a ration of shit. “—emailed me over the summer to prep for class, so she’s already a step ahead.”
“Not that unusual,” Jake said in a bland tone.
“Here are your textbooks,” Mr. G said tapping them. “They’re yours, consider them my gift to your education. And this…” He added a sheet of paper to the top of each book. I joined Jake in studying the schedule. “Is my recommended reading schedule. You need to finish the texts up to World War II for the exam, but if you can get up to the 80s, you’ll do even better on the essay portions because a lot of classes stop at World War II.”
I nodded. It wasn’t that ambitious a reading schedule unless the text was teeny-tiny.
“Since we’re an independent study class, you aren’t going to have homework, but there are a half-dozen documentaries you should watch. They’ll help flesh out the academic material.” He pointed to the list at the bottom of the page. “Most of them are available in the library to check out, and I think a couple are on streaming channels.”
Jake grinned. “We can do pizza and the History channel. My kind of homework.”
I didn’t even snicker. Jake—like me—was also a history nerd. A carefully curated secret, he’d shared it with me. We’d been known to hide out on the occasional weekend over the last few years and binge the various documentaries on the History channel. I’d seen one over the summer and went to text him a dozen times.
Never sent a single one though.
My bad.
“Okay. Well, I trust you both to work it out. Meanwhile, I have copies to go make for APush. Make yourselves comfortable.” APush also known as AP US History made up three of his morning classes.
Then G was out of the room and it was just Jake and me.
Awkward?
Not awkward?
To be decided.
Chapter Three
Independent Study