Chapter 5: Act II
In English class, Katelyn slouched low in her desk chair with her feet propped up on the back of the seat in front of her. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, let alone trying to focus on the script of Romeo & Juliet open on the desk next to hers. She’d lost her textbook months ago. She thought it might be in the back of Jodi’s car. Jodi was Katelyn’s oldest sister. Great, Katelyn thought, I’ll never see that again. Jodi was banned from the house since her boyfriend, Brandon, stole her mom’s ATM card and withdrew over $600 before her mom caught on. Jodi was the one who had given him the pin number.
Katelyn stifled a yawn. She had stayed up late sending messages back and forth with Tim. After meeting him Friday at Jenny’s apartment, Katelyn hadn’t gone more than a few hours without contact from him. Today was quiet, though. Tim went to the alternative school in Ames nine miles down the highway. Katelyn wondered why she hadn’t heard from him. She heard the alternative school had a freer schedule and let kids use phones and email during classes.
“How many of you believe in love at first sight?” Katelyn wasn’t the only student stirring from a near drooling state at the change in voice. The teacher stood at the front of the room, a short, dark-haired, overweight woman who failed to energize the classroom full of students. Her hand was still poised over the pause button on the CD player. The previous day she had made the students fill character roles and read the lines, but most of the words came out butchered. The teacher had corrected so many lines, so she might as well have read them all herself. Instead she impatiently kept looking at the clock. There were less than three weeks until school was out for the summer. What a shame if we don’t finish this retarded play, Katelyn thought. What is the point in reading it. Everyone knows how it ends. They die. Who cares? Now, the class was supposed to follow along in the book while a cast of British actors blasted from the CD player’s crappy speakers.
“Okay, get out a piece of paper,” Teacher Woman announced as a punishment. In response, several students groaned. “If you don’t want to talk about it, we can journal about it,” she said, but a couple of students came to the rescue and raised their hand.
“What are we supposed to write about? Love?” said Tommy Turner, a state wrestling champ, who probably couldn’t write his own name let alone a journal entry. Somehow, he was passing this class, whereas this made the third class of the semester that Katelyn was failing.
“Romeo and Juliet just met. He was in love with another girl just hours before, and now, all of a sudden, he’s in love with Juliet?” Teacher Woman stared out at the students with disbelief. “He just saw her and fell in love?” she added with a touch of condemnation.
Gee, thought Katelyn sarcastically, I wonder what she wants us to say. Why did she bother asking?
Quickly, the brainiacs of the class came to the rescue.
“Romeo just likes her for her beauty. He said he’s never seen true beauty until now,” chirped one valedictorian candidate.
“Yeah, but it doesn’t say what he finds beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder; maybe he recognizes her soul and that’s what is brighter than everyone else.” This response came from the girl who wore lots of hemp material clothing and long skirts. More than a few moans came from around the room.
“He just wants in her pants,” Tommy threw out and achieved the laughter he was shooting for. He was always performing, whether on the wrestling mat or not.
“That’s enough,” Teacher Woman intervened, but held her own smile, obviously satisfied with the brief discussion as proof of her students’ attention. “Now let’s skip to the balcony scene. Notice the concerns Juliet voices in her monologue.” With her discussion duty completed, she pushed play on the CD player and the heavily-accented lines resumed. Teacher woman went back to her desk, looked the class over for problem students, and then became absorbed again in her computer screen.
Katelyn tried briefly to glance at the textbook, but she noticed her neighbor wasn’t even on the correct page. In fact, behind his shaggy hair, his eyelids were already closed again. Katelyn glanced at the clock. Thirty minutes to go and she was done for the day.
Her hoodie’s pocket vibrated with a text alert. She looked to the teacher, who was visibly amused by whatever she was reading or watching on her monitor. She’d chance it.
“Lites on or off today?” It was from Tim. Katelyn contained her smile.
She didn’t know about Romeo’s love at first sight, but she was feeling something she never had before. Only two days after meeting him, she felt like he was supposed to be in her life. They had so many things in common. They liked the same music. He introduced her to songs from bands she’d never heard of. She made a point to download them. He was funny. He was interesting. And, he liked her.
He had told her how he couldn’t do regular high school anymore because of all of the idiots—other kids and teachers. After his third fight, he was expelled from his high school, so now he went to the alternative school in Ames. Even though Katelyn still sometimes fumbled her words when she talked to him, he must not think her a total idiot. He agreed with her about her opinion of grades in school, about cheerleaders suddenly lacking individual thought once they made the squad, and about how wrong it was that the local police seemed to target the poorer neighborhoods for their patrols.
He paid attention to her. Even Katelyn’s friends only seemed to give her part of their attention when she talked to them. He would look at her without turning away, and, if possible, link into her thoughts through his olive green eyes. And, there was the way Tim made her feel when he kissed her.
Katelyn had kissed other boys, a friend of Emily’s last boyfriend at the Rollins Dam and then, regrettably, some guy at Jenny’s last month after drinking too much. That guy was gross. He would have put his tongue down Katelyn’s throat if he could have. Plus, he instantly started to run his hands all over her and groped her breasts before Katelyn was able to push him off.
Tim’s kiss, though, was more like what she imagined kissing should be. Katelyn touched her neck, remembering his lips softly leaving a trail along its side.
She tried to come up with a clever reply to his message. The Shakespeare CD recording grabbed her attention briefly with some famous lines. She smiled at the timing and her idea for a response.
“Soft, thru yonder window lite breaks.” She hoped she didn’t sound like a tool. Katelyn added “and I wish I could break out”.
Within a minute his reply came: “Do it! I’ll meet u outside.”
She responded, shifting in her seat to lean over her phone. She looked around the room and saw at least two other people texting. “lol, but that would seal my coffin at NHS.”
Another two minutes and she looked up in amazement after reading his reply. “Tim is (choose one): A. friend material B. creepy, I wish he’d leave me alone C. all I want in a man D. a geek.”
Katelyn screamed inside. No Fair! She was sure she was blushing. She wondered about what she meant to him, but she didn’t have the guts to ask him. Now, he was putting her on the spot. He was obviously wondering about how she felt, too. She wished she knew what he thought of her. They’d only known each other a few days.
When in doubt, Katelyn turned to humor. She crouched over the phone again, beginning a joke about her history of failing multiple choice questions, but she snapped the cover shut quickly as Teacher Woman appeared right in front of her desk.
Damn, thought Katelyn, no one gets caught by her. Now the preps in class would have something else to laugh about.
“Give me the phone,” Teacher Woman said firmly, holding out her hand.
Might as well try the standard replies, Katelyn thought. “I was checking the time; I can’t see the clock from here.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
Why do teachers open themselves up to ridicule like that? Kately
n couldn’t help herself; she cocked her head and shrugged her shoulders.
Teacher Woman’s eyes widened for a second before narrowing. “Give me the phone right now.”
“I’m expecting a message from my mom,” she said in a pleading voice. “My aunt is having surgery and she’s supposed to let me know how it went.” Katelyn tried to make her voice crack, but she hadn’t mastered the art, yet.
Teacher Woman didn’t even flinch. She just stayed set in front of her and gave her that look that teachers and parents have mastered, one that says BS and I Have More Power Than You all in one.
Katelyn knew her game was up. She brought the phone out from under the desk, flipped it over, opened the back and removed the battery. She put the powerless phone into the teacher’s hand and gave her a smug look.
“Go to the office.”
“What!?” Katelyn yelled in disbelief, “What for?”
The whole class had turned in their seats to watch the altercation. Some had obedient fear in their eyes. Most were amused, reveling in her punishment. Tommy pointed at her and mocked a noose being hung around his neck.
Teacher Woman tilted her chin in the air and said, “You’re being insubordinate; you haven’t done a thing today in class.”
Katelyn steamed. She hated this place. She defiantly turned back to the teacher, looked down at her desk and pushed herself up. Almost eye level with the teacher, she said, “Well, that makes two of us.” She heard the snickers of students and the gasp of the teacher as she grabbed her notebook and walked out the door, her head held high.