Jeffrey Daniels and School

Monday dawned annoyingly bright and cheerful. The sun shined on my face and I groaned covering my head. I willed myself back into the deep darkness that was sleep, but my alarm rang loudly, gladly. It seemed the whole world was happier than me. I stared groggily at the alarm clock. It was 7:00 am. I wanted to smash it.
I sluggishly moved through my morning routines. I washed up, got dressed, dressed everyone else, and made breakfast. Breakfast was as lively as ever.
"Hey, I wanted the jam bagel!", whined Adam.
"Finders keepers!" said Maria, munching vigorously and looking at Adam like, 'ha ha, you can't have any!'
"But I want it! Give me some!" Adam wheedled, climbing onto the table and reaching for the bagel.
"Get off the table, Adam!", mom said sternly.
"But I want it!"
"Your sister got it first."
"But Alex says we should share, and Maria won't share!"
"Alex."
I sighed," You can have my bagel, Adam."
Adam stared, "But that's your bagel."
I almost felt like laughing, but was too tired. "I'm not hungry."
"Really?"
"Really."
"You won't take it back?"
"I won't take it back."
"Okay!"
Adam cheerfully took my bagel and I put my dish in the sink. I made myself a lunch (of course it had tomatoes in it), and left the house as quickly as possible before I could be involved in any... episodes. My walk to school began in quiet meditation. I didn't have a paper route today. It was my day off. I wondered what I could do with the extra hour. I could go to the arcade, but somehow just didn't feel like it. My ponderous thoughts were interrupted by the booming loud voice of a large dark thing that loomed over me.
"Alex!" Boomed the voice, moving out of the direct sunshine. There stood large and tall, Jeffrey Daniels, a big dark chocolate colored teenage boy, with a permanent smile and a head of corn-rolls. Jeffrey was the yin to my yang, though he would see it as the other way around. Jeffrey was tall, dark, handsome, friendly, not prone to violence and in fact hated it, athletic, and often dumb as a door nail. Though whether he was actually stupid or just preferred for you to think so was a mystery to me. On the other hand I was the opposite. I was small, even delicate, and short, very short. I was even, dare I say it, cute. I was also cynical, grumpy, rude, and violent. I wasn't sporty or athletic, but I was very good with "family skills", like cooking. Jeffrey liked to joke that I'd make a great wife someday. I liked to punch him for it. But despite it all, or maybe because of it, we were the best of friends.
"So did you do the homework that Mr. Blight gave us?", asked Jeffrey with his usual cheerful grin.
I stared at him drolly. "You mean that stupid essay on the second dark age? Hell no. I hate depressing shit like that."
Mr. Blight was our history teacher, the most boring man alive. He wore dull grey clothes and wide rimmed glasses (as if he couldn't just get a cheap eye surgery) and was so old fashioned (and old), he was practically a dinosaur. The love of his life? History. Yep. The old man could hardly stand living people, but the dead ones? He adored them. And us living folks? We hated him.
"You're totally gonna fail his class, man. You never do his assignments." Jeffrey looked at me with pity in his eyes. "You're totally screwed, man."
I rolled my eyes. "I can afford a single F, dude. What I can't afford is a pounding headache, followed by dieing of boredom."
Jeffrey laughed, "That I believe! You always look on the verge of tears in his class."
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, nothing. You just really hate history. It's your arch-nemesis."
"Trust you to turn this into some hero-bad guy scenario."
"I don't mean that! I'm just saying that you and history are like oil and water! You just don't fit."
I gave him my best "and you do?" look. "Yeah? Well if that's me and history, you and girls are worse! I swear, you're scared of them!"
Jeffrey shivered, "Girls are evil, man. They use their feminine whiles to catch you and then they drop yah in a hot minute for the next guy."
I laughed, "What girl dumped you, dude?"
Jeffrey shook his head. "Not me, some she-devil dumped my lil' bro. He cried for a week! It was bad, man. I told him not to date her. I said she had the cooties, but he didn't listen, man. Now he's totally girl shy."
I shake my head and try not to laugh," Yeah, I'm sorry for him. But you know who I'm sorrier for? You, dude. Cooties? You're 17, dude! Yet, you still believe in cooties!" I held my sides and the laughter burst out of me in huge gwafs.
Jeffrey stared at me appraisingly, "Yeah, laugh it up. But you won't be laughing when you catch'em. My dad said that he caught'em once and he nearly died."
I stared at Jeffrey, my eyes shiny, "And you believed him? Dude!!" I couldn't stop laughing! "Don't say anymore! My sides are gonna burst!"
"Uh-huh. You just wait, man. You just wait."
Slowly my laughing subsided and I caught my breath. Old Jeff was a real riot. He was always so funny. He was the best medicine for a cynical guy like me. I could forget all my problems with him. He was the best friend a guy could ask for. I glanced over at him, he looked petulant.
"I'm sorry, dude. It was just funny. I didn't mean to laugh at you."
"Uh-huh." Jeffrey wouldn't look at me.
"Seriously! I'm sorry. Really." He still wouldn't look at me. "Fine! Be that way. But don't expect to copy my notes today with that attitude!" I stormed off. I was just glad I didn't hit anyone on the way to school.
I kicked a trash can. "Ow!" I hopped holding my foot. This just wasn't going to be my day, was it? I sagged against a wall and peered at my watch. It was 9:00. I was so late for school. Grabbing my bag I made a dash for it. Any later and I could be expelled, and I worked so hard to get in. Antonius Academy jumped out at me. It was a large building, actually several large marble buildings. Antonius Academy was made up of several sections. The Primary/Nursery division, the Elementary division, the Middle School Division, and the High School Division. That made 4 large buildings widely apart and a slightly smaller building right next to the Primary, which was the nursery. Then there was the dorms for the live in students.
There were lots of dorms, and I'd seen children as young as three and as old as 20 living in them. Some wealthy families would just enter their children here at a young age and never see them again until they're like 25. And it's not like they couldn't come see them. The school let family come whenever they want. After all, you can't impose visiting hours on the busy wealthy folks, they only have so much time to come visit. If they come in the middle of class? Who cares. They're paying top dollar.
The rich kids had it pretty easy. They practically floated through the whole system with passing marks, even the dumb ones. Money talks, I guess. I wasn't like them. I was from a normal middle class, single parent family. I earned my way in. I had an academic scholarship. But that meant I was in pretty much free, so I had to meet higher harder expectations. All A's basically. I did it even with Mr. Blight's lame history class. I was good at doing such excellent work, even if I missed a few assignments, it wouldn't hurt me any (probably, I'm not really getting an F, I think...). Jeffrey was also here on scholarship, except he had a sports one. He played basketball, an ancient popular sport. He didn't have to make good grades. As long as he passed he could stay. Somehow Jeffrey managed to have perfect straight C's. It's because of things like that, that I think he's a genius pretending to be dumb. How do you get exactly 75% in every class?! I'm not that good. I may have all A's but it's not like the percentages are identical. I'd have to be a genius! But I'm not, just really smart and hard working. I think that counts for something, I'm not sure what, but it was good enough to get me into AA so it's good enough for me!
After graduating from AA, if your a scholarship student who did really well, you've got a free pass into Antonius Private University or APU. APU does all of it. There's nothing you can't study there and you can get any degree. That means you can get an Associate's, Bachelor's, Master's, or the highest of all, Life. I hear it's a necessity to have a Life degree if your going to rule a country, so all royal family members and nobles are expected to have one. Life takes ten years to complete! After that there are specialized degrees like Doctorates and Magestuates. Master Magestuate takes just as long as life and there are smaller forms of it like Apprentice, Student, Junior, Senior, and then Master Magestuate. Apprentice takes two years, Student takes four, Junior takes six, Senior takes eight, Master takes ten. I personally plan to earn an Associate and then either a Master's or a Life degree. I'm already signed up for an Associate at APU. I'll start next year and I'll have to work hard as both AA High Division student and APU Associate Temporary student. It's not gonna be a cake walk, but I'm a stubborn guy. I won't lose.
But right now I just don't want to lose my nerve. I took a deep breath and opened the door into my own personal hell. The whole class turned to look at me. "Why Mr. Ross, so glad you decided to come. Come thirty minutes late! Sit down before I change my mind and send you to the office!" I staggered to my seat and slumped down breathing raggedly. I had ran all the way to class. Do you know what that's like? Probably not. Let me give you an idea. Imagine you have a football field, now times that by 500! Now imagine running across half of it after convincing the gate gaurd who sees you every school day that you are a student, but forgot your I.D. card, and then when you've finally found your school building, after getting lost in the freaking school forest, and then running up three flights of stairs in thirty minutes! Have you ever done that? I didn't thing so. I deserve a freaking medal!
Someone tapped my shoulder. "Are you okay, Alex?" It was Melisa. She was a chestnut haired girl with big blue eyes and a perfect complexion with perfectly straight white teeth. Very pretty, very nice, very rich, and totally out of my league. I have a crush on her.
I could feel my face getting hot. "Yeah, I just ran here is all. I'm totally pooped!" The understatement of the year. I was so exhausted that I couldn't feel my legs! But I knew that they were trembling and if I tried to stand right now, I'd definitely fall.
She looked at me worriedly with soulful eyes. "Are you sure your okay? I could ask Mr. Blight to let you rest in the nurses office."
"I'm fine. Really."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
She nodded and leaned back in her seat to look at the board where Mr. Blight was writing about the second dark age. "In the year 2150, pollution took a turn for the worst. This was after scientist had fixed problems with excessive carbon dioxide in the air. Another catastrophe was just waiting to happen. While fighting global warming, people forgot about other problems like radiation and things spun out of control. By the time anyone noticed, it was too late. In the year 2201 more than half the world population had died. By 2300 only a quarter of the world's people still lived. Everything took to a standstill and finally in the 2500s the world was set back to the the stone age. But no one forgot how things used to be and everyone decided that this time, they'd take better care of their home. It wasn't until 4015 that the world would start to stand on it's feet again. A person called, Jahk Silabar would change everything for the better. He introduced new and old ways to keeping the earth healthy and it was him and his descendants who paved the way into this glorious advanced and peaceful world. We are much further ahead than our ancestors before the dark age thanks to Jahk Silabar. As you should know, Jahk Silabar was our country's very first king. The country itself is named after his family and we have thrived under their rule. There has not been a single tyrant in their rule which is thanks to their system of only picking those who have the best interest of the country to run it. First born son and such is outdated and only ever caused trouble. Now only the best suited from the family is chosen. This has been a good and effective method for more then a thousand years. The Silabars led us out of the dark age. May they rule so wonderfully forever."
Mr. Blight paused and there was a revered silence for several moments. "Now start writing this stuff down! You'll be tested on it next week." Mr. Blight sat down and started working on something.
Melisa poked me again. "What?!"
"Are you sure your alright? You're shaking."
I was shaking but I wasn't capable of walking to the nurses office. I couldn't possibly stand, let alone walk. "I'll be fine"
"If you say so." She sounded upset and started to take great interest in her notes. Wonderful. I've hurt her feelings. I sighed. It's gonna be a long day.