Things weren’t great. I had this grand plan to fail sixth grade, but the truth was, I didn’t think it was going to work. Dad had already scheduled an interview with the admissions office at Riverway without even asking me about it. I’d have to attend that next month. And Mr. T wasn’t bothered by my lack of work. My time with him was slipping away, and I felt like I had no control over it. I felt sorry for myself, and because of that I didn’t care—about anything. That was why I raced down the halls on that cart ignoring Danielle’s pleas to stop, because what did it matter?
I cruised down the baby slope near the library with no problems. It was fun. Danielle tried to stop me from racing down the steep ramp.
Her words just motivated me to go even faster. I took off with a running start. I didn’t want what my father wanted. I didn’t want to listen to anyone. Danielle was the one with me in the hall, but my father was the person I pictured in my head. I tore down that ramp until the cord caught in the wheel, then everything slammed to a halt. I catapulted right over the top of the cart.
I found out that Mrs. Williams is one tough woman. I flattened her when I came tumbling down the corridor. The collision was so violent I didn’t even realize who I’d crashed into at first. Once I came to a stop, I sat up and the first thing I saw was Mrs. Williams’s underwear—again. I only saw them for a second because Mrs. Williams recovered quickly. She just got up and rubbed it off like a professional football player. But I couldn’t shake the image of her underwear from my head. They looked like something Lexie would wear. Then I realized Mrs. Williams was staring at my pants. Probably to see if I’d wet myself again. How embarrassing. To her surprise, I could tell by her raised eyebrows, I was dry. She should have checked my underwear. What was she going to do to me?
“Well, Peter, I’m happy to see you’re having fun again,” she said. That was it. Then she walked up the ramp. The only other time I remember being that shocked by a teacher’s response was last year when Mr. T told me to tie a knot in my you-know-what after I kept sneaking out to the bathroom.
After the shock wore off, I got to thinking that maybe Mrs. Williams hadn’t yelled at me because she felt bad for me. That was not what I needed. If that was how she and Mr. T felt, then they’d never fail me. My plan wasn’t going to work. I didn’t know what to do.
FADE IN: LS of the classroom. We see the desks arranged in a big U shape with the cart holding the LCD projector stationed in the middle. MS. NEWBERRY’s class is spread out on the floor while MS. NEWBERRY sits next to MR. TERUPT and MRS. WILLIAMS along the side of the room. MR. TERUPT and LUKE walk to the cart. It’s LUKE’s turn to present. He is the last to go.
MR. TERUPT
Thank you to Ms. Newberry’s class for coming to see our presentations and for being such a terrific audience. I also want to tell my class that you’ve done a wonderful job. And now for our last presenter—Luke.
MR. TERUPT gives LUKE a high five.
CUT TO: CU of slide #1—THE SCIENCE BEHIND LOVE
LUKE VO
The science behind love.
CUT TO: LS of the classroom. We see LUKE from behind, standing next to the cart. We can see past him to the screen, and we see everyone else sitting around the room, watching his presentation. Some of MS. NEWBERRY’S STUDENTS are giggling. They can’t handle LUKE’S topic. They’re not mature enough.
CUT TO: CU of LUKE. He’s straight-faced, all business and completely serious about his presentation.
CUT TO: Next slide. We see images that depict the five senses—eyes, ears, nose, lips, and skin.
LUKE VO
Is it all about the five senses? How does he or she look? How does he or she smell? Taste? Feel? Does he sound confident? Does she sound lovely?
CUT TO: MS of various students in the audience. The camera moves from one area to the next, spanning the classroom. We see boys blowing pretend kisses, girls poofing their hair and batting their eyes.
CUT TO: Next slide. We see pictures of various butterflies.
LUKE VO
Male and female butterflies release pheromones in the air to attract mates. Some of these perfumes can be smelled from over a mile away.
CUT TO: Next slide. We see one ugly monkey, a red bird, and a green lizard.
LUKE VO
A very red face for this monkey, the bald uakari, is a sign that he is healthy and likely a good mate. The great frigate bird does not have red feathers, so he pumps a massive amount of air into the red pouch on his throat. Females can see his ballooned-up red throat and are attracted to it. And our green anoles will use color changing to attract a mate.
CUT TO: Next slide. We see a spider.
LUKE VO
And my personal favorite, the Australian redback spider. The male will perform a dance for more than an hour in front of the female he is trying to impress. If he stops too soon, or if he doesn’t have the right moves, the larger female will bite his head off.
LUKE’s spider story gets a big reaction. We hear exclamations of “Awesome!” “Wicked!” “Eww!” “Whoa!”
CUT TO: Next slide. We see a picture of a man and woman getting married.
LUKE VO
When our senses like what they detect, signals are released in the brain telling us he or she is the one. In the animal kingdom, if all goes well, then a mate is chosen, not eaten. In people, if all goes well with the courtship, then a likely next step is a ring and a proposal.
CUT TO: MS of LUKE as he pulls a small package from his pocket. LUKE walks over to MS. NEWBERRY and hands her the box.
MANY STUDENTS
Oooh!
MS. NEWBERRY smiles at LUKE and tilts her head in a playful gesture. She begins opening the box. She gasps. Slowly, she looks up and MR. TERUPT gets down on his knee in front of her.
MR. TERUPT
(to Ms. Newberry)
Sara, I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?
MS. NEWBERRY
(tears in her eyes)
Yes … Yes!
THEY embrace.
FADE OUT.
JESSICA VO
I started crying when Mr. Terupt proposed; many of us did. I thought of Ms. Newberry in the hospital waiting room last year, only wanting a chance to get to know Mr. Terupt better. I was so happy for her. I was so happy for him. Mr. Terupt had fallen again. But this time, he fell in love.
Winter had arrived. It was bitter cold and frost covered the ground most mornings. Lexie stopped riding her bike to school and started taking the bus instead. So I didn’t think it was important to tell Mr. Terupt about seeing her bike at the abandoned house. But Lexie kept changing.
It wasn’t just lipstick anymore, but eyeliner and bling, too. She called her jewelry “bling.” And she had other new words. Things were suddenly “sick” and “nasty,” which in her world, meant the best—or in her new words, “the bomb.” She thought her outfits were “sick.” She thought her “fresh” look was something special. At least, that was the feeling I was starting to get. She had a new attitude with her new everything else. It scared me because I didn’t like it. I was beginning to wonder if the old, mean Lexie was on her way back. I hoped not.
Even though we were done with our PowerPoints, Jeffrey and I kept visiting the center. Jeffrey so he could see Asher, and Mom and me because we liked volunteering our time with the patients. After dropping Jeffrey off at home one night, I asked Mom to try that scenic route again. With all of Lexie’s changing, I needed to see if she was still hanging around that abandoned house, even though I had no idea what being there meant.
As we neared the house on Old Woods Road, a black car came barreling from the driveway and fishtailed onto the road in front of us. As it sped by in the opposite direction, I caught a glimpse of Lexie in the backseat. She wasn’t smiling or laughing. She looked scared.
“Lexie’s your friend,” Mr. Terupt had reminded me. I didn’t know why at the time, but it was clear to me now. A friend’s help was what she needed.
Mr. Terupt didn’t want me to be afraid to tell on her. It was the right thing to do. It was what Lexie needed me to do, and what any good friend would do.
The next day Jeffrey and I sat waiting for Mom after school. We were on our way to the center again. But then the unexpected happened.
“Anna, your mother just called,” Mr. Terupt said, hanging up the classroom phone. “She has to stay late at work today so she can’t make it.”
“Ugh,” Jeffrey said.
“Don’t worry. Ms. Newberry and I are going to take you guys instead. I’ve been wanting to see Asher anyway, so now I have the perfect reason.”
“Awesome!” Jeffrey cheered. “Terupt and Newberry save the day.”
Jeffrey and I climbed into the back of Ms. Newberry’s car. She drove while Mr. Terupt rode shotgun. I clicked my seat belt, and that was when it hit me. Here was my chance to be a friend. I knew Jeffrey really wanted to see Asher, but this was a one-time opportunity. I didn’t have to tell on Lexie; I was going to bring help to her instead. This was the sneakiest thing I’d ever done. My heart beat faster. My mouth went dry and my hands felt all sweaty.
“Ms. Newberry, could we take the scenic route, if that’s okay with you?”
“Sure, that sounds nice,” Ms. Newberry said.
Mr. Terupt smiled and Jeffrey gave me a weird look but I didn’t say anything. We turned down Old Woods Road and approached the abandoned house.
“That’s it,” I said, pointing ahead to the place.
“What?” Mr. Terupt asked.
“That’s it! Pull over!”
“Anna, what are you talking about?”
“That’s where Lexie’s been going.” I pointed again. “Pull over.”
Ms. Newberry stopped on the side of the road in front of the house. What now? I thought. Mr. Terupt leaned over and honked the car horn. Then he got out and yelled.
“Alexia! It’s Teach!”
I got out with him. The ground was barely white, but we could see our breath. Mr. Terupt reached in and honked the horn again.
“Alexia!” he yelled.
“Lexie!” I yelled.
She came bursting out the front, jumped off the porch, and ran to Mr. Terupt. She was crying. Sobbing.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. She buried her face in his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.
“It’s okay,” he said. “We’re here now.”
I felt really bad for Lexie. What had she been doing that had her so upset? I walked over and held her with Mr. Terupt. It was just like last year in Mr. Terupt’s hospital room when Lexie went from bad to good. I felt a warmth in my heart with this hug, too, but it didn’t last as long because that black car came barreling from around the back of the falling-down house. There were several older-looking kids in the car. The boy driver stuck his middle finger up at Mr. Terupt and then fishtailed onto the road and sped away.
What was Lexie doing with those kids?
Gateway drug. That was one thing Peter and Danielle talked about in their PowerPoint presentation. That’s like saying smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol could, like, open a doorway to trying other stuff. Badder stuff. Listening to them present, I wondered why they picked this topic. I didn’t realize it had everything to do with me. But Teach did.
I took a drag on my cigarette. I didn’t cough. I was getting better at it. I was chillin’ on the green couch, hangin’ with Lisa and Reena while they did their homework. Brandon had gone out to his car to get something.
Once it turned cold, Brandon started picking me up from home with his car every day. We’d chill for an hour or two at the hangout until it was time for the girls to go to basketball practice. Brandon would give them a ride and then drop me back at home. He had nothing else to do. He said he couldn’t handle the sight of his teammates working out on the mats without him, so he stayed away from wrestling. He was messed up over it. I felt really sorry for him.
“Got a treat for you today, kindergartner,” Brandon teased, rejoining us in the back room. “This stuff is dirty.” He held up a plastic sandwich baggie filled with what looked like dried-up green leaves.
“Dirty” meant “wicked good.” Same as “nasty” or “sick.”
Suddenly I wasn’t chill anymore. I didn’t know what that stuff was, and it made me nervous.
“I just scored this bag of weed. I bought it right in school,” Brandon bragged. “Stupid teachers. None of them understand what I’m going through.”
That slap in the face woke me up. That was the second time Brandon had ragged on his teachers. Like, I felt bad for Brandon, but I didn’t believe what he was saying. I had the best teacher in the whole world, and like, I knew he cared.
Then I heard his voice coming from outside. “Alexia! It’s Teach!” My heart took off.
“What was that?” Brandon yelled. The girls looked at each other and shrugged.
Then again: “Alexia!”
I had the best teacher in the whole world. He knew and he cared. I flicked my cigarette into the ashtray and ran out of the house. I jumped off the front porch and ran straight into Mr. Terupt’s arms.
“I’m so sorry,” I said. I cried and cried. It hurt so much to disappoint him. Feeling his arms hold me made it hurt more and less all at the same time. He wasn’t giving up on me. I was lucky.
December was a month I had grown to hate over the last two years. The holiday season always made me miss Michael even more. That wasn’t any different this year, but other things were.
All of a sudden Mom and Dad were talking to each other. I found them drinking coffee together at the dining room table one morning, so I made a point to look and see if it was happening again the next day, but instead I found them lying in bed together. I still didn’t know what it was, but the holiday season was filling my house.
When I got home from school one afternoon, there was a Christmas tree waiting. We’d had a tree last year, so it wasn’t that big a deal, but decorating it together was. Mom played our holiday CDs and we pulled out ornaments that I didn’t even remember we had. Then we had a family dinner. All three of us sat down and ate together, a wonderfully decorated and smelling tree in the background.
I did most of the talking, telling them all about school. I told them the story of Luke’s presentation, and how Mr. Terupt was going to marry Ms. Newberry.
“Now, that’s a proposal I’ve never heard of before,” Dad said.
“How did you propose, Dad?” I asked.
He looked at Mom and smiled. She gave a sheepish grin back.
“When I was a little girl my daddy gave me a music box,” Mom said. “It was my favorite thing in the whole world. Your grandfather died when I was in high school, and that music box stopped working shortly after that.”
“Your mother told me about it when we were dating, and I never forgot,” Dad said. “I made her a new music box and gave it to her one night.”
“He had me in tears before I even opened it,” Mom said.
“What happened when you did open it?” I asked.
“I found this,” she said, showing me the diamond ring on her finger.
Dad reached across the table and took Mom’s hand in his. They were smiling, and so was I. I went to bed that night happier than I’d been in a long time, still having no idea that the best was yet to come.
When I walked into the house after school the next day, I found Mom and Dad in the living room. Mom was rocking Asher.
“He’s going to be with us for a while,” Dad said. “We’ve become his foster parents.”
That was when I started believing in angels.
january
Like, there was a lot happening with me in the new year. For starters, I had a job. I was working at the Pines with Mom after school. Mostly I cleaned the dishes, but once in a while I got to wait a table or two, or seat some of the guests. The cook was a guy named Vincent, and boy, could he whip up some delicious foods. He also told the corniest jokes in the world, like, “Why wasn’t C
inderella any good at soccer?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Because she always ran away from the ball.”
I liked Vincent and his dumb jokes, and I loved being with Mom. The restaurant was a cool gig. It was all thanks to Teach—and Anna.
Teach came and rescued me from the Old Woods hangout. He knew something was up with me, and Anna helped him discover my secret. I still can’t believe she had the guts to do that. I mean, part of me is mad that she ratted me out, but I also realize I had gotten myself into a mess that I didn’t know how to get out of. I was crazy scared when Brandon pulled out that plastic baggie. I wasn’t ready for that. I feel like Anna was my guardian angel. I’m so lucky to have her as my friend and Teach in my life. He wasn’t one of those teachers that didn’t know or didn’t care like Brandon talked about. I sometimes wonder what I’d be like if Teach hadn’t shown up. I piled into the backseat of Ms. Newberry’s car with Anna and Jeffrey after we watched Brandon demo his infamous fishtail exit—his middle finger included free of charge.
No one said anything in the car. Ms. Newberry drove to a different school, where Anna and Jeffrey got out. They met up with Anna’s mother. I figured I was next to get dropped off, but that wasn’t the case. Instead of going to my empty house, we ended up at the Pines.
Turns out Teach had been to the restaurant before that day to talk to my mom. His concern for me intensified when Mom was unable to make the parent-teacher conference back in October. Probably not that big a deal under normal circumstances, but I was the only one without a parent to attend for the second year in a row. That was, like, reason enough for Teach to start paying closer attention to me—that and my mysterious “after-school program.”
There was a lot of explaining to do, but Teach knew I’d been through enough for one day, so we just ordered dinner and sat and ate—Teach, Ms. Newberry, Mom, and me—together.