Page 113 of Reaching Avery
Something about that made Dad narrow his eyes and he slipped his arm around Mom’s waist more protectively.
***
The following week, teachers took things easy on us. Most of them—with the exception of the evil Mr. Davis and his progressively balding head—didn’t give us much homework. We were out of school the next week for Thanksgiving anyway.
That Wednesday, I hung out at Avery’s desk before history class.
He was wearing a heavy leather jacket that looked pretty badass on him and the black shirt underneath had an animated skull rocking a green mohawk. His skinny jeans didn’t have any frays, but they had some kind of buckle hanging off them. And the falling apart Converse shoes he usually sported were now replaced by ones that looked brand new, or close to it.
Compared to the first day of school, he looked like a completely different person.
The smile on his face was the biggest difference, though. Instead of looking miserable and untrusting of everyone, he looked… happy.
When Mr. Jones started class, I reluctantly left Avery’s desk to go to mine.
“Such hardship it is, Mr. Blake, for you to have to sit down and learn,” Mr. Jones said, responding to the way I plopped down in my seat and sighed. “No worries. Your boyfriend will still like you in fifty minutes when my class is over.”
I cracked a smile as the class laughed. Mr. Jones was cool. He was a teacher I hadn’t been too sure of in the beginning because it was his first year, but he truly cared about his students—even when picking on them.
After history, I walked with Avery to biology. Ben was already in the room waiting on us, and the three of us talked about the test the next day. Mrs. Brown wasn’t giving us new material to learn, but she was the type of teacher who thought it was a great idea to give us a big test before a holiday break.
I guess it was better than having a test right when we came back, and since the test was Thursday, she was giving us a movie day in her class Friday.
“It’s going to be easy,” I said, attempting to reassure them. “You just need to study the section on plants and know how photosynthesis works and also be familiar with the difference between osmosis and diffusion.”
Avery stared at me like I was speaking ancient Greek.
“Says the guy who has, like, super human biology knowledge,” Ben said, holding his hand up. “For the rest of us average people, it’s hard.”
Mrs. Brown gave us the class period to study for the exam, so we scooted our desks together and had an intense study session. Well, more like I quizzed Ben and Avery in a type of Jeopardy style where the first person to hit their buzzer—aka my hand—would be able to answer. By the end of it, my hand had been slapped so many times that it looked like I was Christian Grey and had just finished a raunchy butt-spanking session.
Not that I’d ever watched those movies or read the books.
Before going to algebra, I had a thought. I veered toward the library and jogged down the three steps into it. It sat kind of in the middle of the building, with glass windows all around it where people could see out—which I thought was a dumb distraction if you were trying to study, but whatever.
Mrs. Lane peered at me over her book. “Can I help you Mr. Blake?”
“Yeah, actually,” I said, going up to the desk.
Avery still hadn’t found the book he wanted in that vampire series, so I asked if she had it yet. She checked her computer before looking back at me.
“Books four and five are both in that section,” she said, smiling.
I went and grabbed them before checking them out. One look at the clock told me I had like a minute to hightail it to algebra, so I ushered a quickthank youbefore running out of the library and to class.
At lunch, our crew all sat at our table, and so many different conversations were going on.
Travis and Sarah faced each other, their food forgotten, and they spoke quietly amongst themselves. Yeah, they were all ooey-gooey and so sweet that it’d give me a toothache if I looked too long. But I was happy for them.
They’d gone on their first official date Monday night, and from the very little Sarah told me about it, I knew it must’ve been amazing. She told meeverything, good and bad included. So her non-detailed responses told me she was really serious about Travis.
“Dudes, we need to go out again,” Ricky said, snagging mine and Avery’s attention.
After the show Friday, we’d gone out to eat with him and then had hit the pool hall where we’d stayedwaytoo late playing pool and goofing off. Time had passed so fast that it hadn’t felt like that long, though. It was definitely something I’d love to do again.
“Yeah, we do,” Avery agreed. “So I can show you up at pool again.”
“I was just a little off my game that night,” Ricky countered, shaking his head. He did the whole pointing two fingers at his eyes before aiming them at Avery thing. “Next time, I’m comin’ for you, Loki.”
