Read Online Love and Other Unknown Variables by Shannon Alexander - Free Book Online Page A

office. She slings her red bag over her shoulder and sets her empty coffee mug on top of the lockers while she locks the office door. Turning to leave, she spies me as I’m willing my locker to devour me.
    “Afternoon, Mr. Hanson.”
    I drop my Advanced Theories in Physics book (a good eight pounds) on my foot and swear involuntarily. Jedi mind trick: You heard nothing.
    I bend to retrieve the book, and when I stand I notice that she’s looking at me like she’s trying to see inside me.
    “So, it’s you this year, eh?”
    “Me?”
    “Big man on campus. Top dog. King of the class. Crowned head of the seniors.” She rattles off a list of titles. I look at her stupidly. Ms. Finch stops listing and looks surprised. “Wow. You don’t even know, do you?”
    “Know?”
    “You’ve been chosen.”
    “For what?”
    “Greatness,” she says, hiking her red bag up on her shoulder and stepping closer. Her scent is all around me, but something is missing. Charlotte’s is full of so much more.
    “They want you ,” Ms. Finch says pointing her car key at my chest to accent the last word, “to take me on.”
    It hits me. I don’t give a crap what “they” want. High school is a holding pattern. All I’ve ever cared about is the future. “They” can piss off.
    Charlotte has chosen me, though. Hell if I know why, but she said as much the other night. I stood up to be counted for Charlotte.
    Ms. Finch sizes me up one more time. “I’m glad it’s you.”
    I flush like a star-struck tween, trying to knit together the threads of our conversation so my mind stops wandering toward Charlotte. “Why?”
    “You’re a smart boy. I can see that. I bet you’ll make this interesting. Just remember,” she says solemnly, “‘with great power comes great responsibility.’”
    I’m frozen like a jerk.
    “The great Stan Lee. Spiderman? You must know it.” She grins and the flash in her eyes stops my heart. A challenge? Charlotte did say she was all about being some sort of Superteacher. I guess it’s a bigger victory to take down a fighting bull than to tip a sleeping cow.
    While I stammer for a reply she heads down the hall and leans on the double doors, opening them to the afternoon light.
    “See you tomorrow,” she calls before she dissolves into the glare from the autumn sun.

2.6
    T here’s a pallet of new stones to rebuild the small retaining wall around the garden bed at Dimwit’s today. They aren’t evenly shaped, so stacking them is a pain. They keep toppling and I keep shoving them back in place, grumbling things like, “Quote Spiderman to me, will she?” and “I’d like to hang her from the flag pole with a web.” Real intelligent crap.
    I’m rebuilding the same section of wall for the third time when Mrs. Dunwitty’s shadow falls over me. “Hey, Sisyphus,” she says. “Ever think of, oh, I don’t know, thinking?”
    I look up at her, the sun behind her making her skin darker than usual so that her eyes are lost like black holes. “Did you just call me a sissy?”
    Dimwit tilts her head back and holds her sun hat as she cackles. “You may not be smart, but you sure are good for a laugh.” She rumples my hair, which totally weirds me out. “I called you Sisyphus.”
    I look at her blankly, and shove a tilting rock back in place.
    “It’s a myth. Sisyphus was an ancient king. He was punished by the gods and spent eternity pushing the same rock up a hill only to have it roll down again.”
    “That sucks.”
    “Guess ya’ll haven’t studied it at your smarty pants school.”
    I shrug and reach for another rock. I fit it into place and it rolls back into me. I peek at Dimwit to see if she’s noticed.
    “Answers a lot of my questions, like how you can be so smart and yet stupid at the same time.”
    “I’m not stupid,” I mutter and shove the toppling stone back in place again. Not that she’s buying the load of manure I’m selling.
    “Prove it,” says Mrs. Dunwitty. “Use your