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Authors: John Passarella
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these”—he dumped the stack of books back on the table—“aren’t one of them.”
SEVEN
After lying to his parents that he’d finished his homework, Aidan Dufford ducked out for the evening to spend some time with his friends, which basically meant wandering around Braden Heights with no clear destination in mind. Technically, he hadn’t lied. He’d told them he was finished
with
his homework. Which was true. He’d had more than enough of term papers, essays, reading assignments and math problems for one day. Really, teachers should get together and declare a mercy rule, especially for seniors. Even prisoners were granted early release for good behavior. But to his mind, his teachers did put their heads together, like a gathering of psychological torturers, to decide the best way to drive their students crazy before they escaped the drab walls and crowded halls of Braden Heights High. Sadistic bastards, the whole bunch of them. And, really, how much of the crap they tried to stuff into his head would matter one week after graduation? The whole system was designed to keep teens busy during as many waking hours as humanly possible. Idle hands and all that bullshit…
Well, whatever. Just because they played a tune, it didn’t make him a dancing idiot. But dropping out wasn’t an option. Not this close to the finish line. He’d play along just enough to get by. Get the diploma and get the hell out.
Problem was, he’d skipped too many classes and missed too many assignments to give himself any wiggle room. Every day remaining in the school year meant another tightrope walk to avoid expulsion, summer school or failure. Another day of nodding his head as one person after another told him what to do and where to go and how to be, starting and ending with his parents, with his teachers and the vice principal in between, and even Chloe when everyone else was too busy to nag him.
So, really, who could blame him for wanting to blow off some steam? It was so much easier to hang out with Wally and Jay. They got it. They got him. And so what if they got into a little mischief now and then. Wasn’t anything major, really, just kids clowning around. A little loitering, a little smoking, with an occasional side of vandalism, but mostly decompressing. Wasn’t as if anybody their age could find jobs these days. And even if something turned up, some minimum-wage slave job, they had their whole freaking lives to work from dawn to dusk or vice versa. What was the goddamn rush?
Lately, between the home and girlfriend situations, he’d much rather stay out and tune out, walk the streets with his friends, vent about the indignities of his daily life and ignore the uncertain future. If he tried to take it more than one day at a time, he really would go crazy.
“Everybody keeps telling me I’m an adult now,” Aidan said as he walked down the street three abreast with Wally and Jay. He could see the wrought-iron fence ahead at the corner of Second and Hawthorne. That’s where they’d split up, Aidan heading east and the others north. In other words, his freedom walk was nearly over. “As if turning eighteen flipped some magical damn switch in my DNA and changed me somehow. Know what I mean?”
Jay nodded.
Wally said, “Yeah, like, ‘Welcome to the club.’ And you’re like, ‘What club? That’s it? That’s all there is?’”
“And nothing they teach us in school makes any difference,” Aidan continued. “None of it really matters.”
“I have no clue,” Jay said.
“It’s like they want to confuse us,” Aidan said. “Pretend like they’re preparing us for something, but the stuff in the books is all crap.”
“It’s a conspiracy,” Wally said. “Joke’s on us, man.”
“You know what?” Jay said. “I bet they don’t have a clue either.”
“You’re onto something,” Aidan said, laughing. “Making it up as they go along.”
They paused by the wrought-iron fence that marked the perimeter
SEVEN
After lying to his parents that he’d finished his homework, Aidan Dufford ducked out for the evening to spend some time with his friends, which basically meant wandering around Braden Heights with no clear destination in mind. Technically, he hadn’t lied. He’d told them he was finished
with
his homework. Which was true. He’d had more than enough of term papers, essays, reading assignments and math problems for one day. Really, teachers should get together and declare a mercy rule, especially for seniors. Even prisoners were granted early release for good behavior. But to his mind, his teachers did put their heads together, like a gathering of psychological torturers, to decide the best way to drive their students crazy before they escaped the drab walls and crowded halls of Braden Heights High. Sadistic bastards, the whole bunch of them. And, really, how much of the crap they tried to stuff into his head would matter one week after graduation? The whole system was designed to keep teens busy during as many waking hours as humanly possible. Idle hands and all that bullshit…
Well, whatever. Just because they played a tune, it didn’t make him a dancing idiot. But dropping out wasn’t an option. Not this close to the finish line. He’d play along just enough to get by. Get the diploma and get the hell out.
Problem was, he’d skipped too many classes and missed too many assignments to give himself any wiggle room. Every day remaining in the school year meant another tightrope walk to avoid expulsion, summer school or failure. Another day of nodding his head as one person after another told him what to do and where to go and how to be, starting and ending with his parents, with his teachers and the vice principal in between, and even Chloe when everyone else was too busy to nag him.
So, really, who could blame him for wanting to blow off some steam? It was so much easier to hang out with Wally and Jay. They got it. They got him. And so what if they got into a little mischief now and then. Wasn’t anything major, really, just kids clowning around. A little loitering, a little smoking, with an occasional side of vandalism, but mostly decompressing. Wasn’t as if anybody their age could find jobs these days. And even if something turned up, some minimum-wage slave job, they had their whole freaking lives to work from dawn to dusk or vice versa. What was the goddamn rush?
Lately, between the home and girlfriend situations, he’d much rather stay out and tune out, walk the streets with his friends, vent about the indignities of his daily life and ignore the uncertain future. If he tried to take it more than one day at a time, he really would go crazy.
“Everybody keeps telling me I’m an adult now,” Aidan said as he walked down the street three abreast with Wally and Jay. He could see the wrought-iron fence ahead at the corner of Second and Hawthorne. That’s where they’d split up, Aidan heading east and the others north. In other words, his freedom walk was nearly over. “As if turning eighteen flipped some magical damn switch in my DNA and changed me somehow. Know what I mean?”
Jay nodded.
Wally said, “Yeah, like, ‘Welcome to the club.’ And you’re like, ‘What club? That’s it? That’s all there is?’”
“And nothing they teach us in school makes any difference,” Aidan continued. “None of it really matters.”
“I have no clue,” Jay said.
“It’s like they want to confuse us,” Aidan said. “Pretend like they’re preparing us for something, but the stuff in the books is all crap.”
“It’s a conspiracy,” Wally said. “Joke’s on us, man.”
“You know what?” Jay said. “I bet they don’t have a clue either.”
“You’re onto something,” Aidan said, laughing. “Making it up as they go along.”
They paused by the wrought-iron fence that marked the perimeter
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