Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 338(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
“I’ll go, but only if you let me choose the music,” I teased. “And you don’t complain when I start stealing your body heat.”
“Deal,” Tibbs said. “We need at least one girl for the team.”
“Then I’m your girl,” I said as I looked at my watch. “I gotta go, or I’m going to be late for school. This family meeting was fun. We should do it more often.”
My brother patted me on the back. “Love ya.”
I reluctantly left, feeling the gurgle of my stomach the entire way to school.
You see your calls not going through? Very blocked. Very Peaceful. Very dead to me.
—Brecken’s secret thoughts
BRECKEN
I flushed the toilet, prayed that my tampon would tide me over until third period, and made a mad dash out of the bathroom after washing my hands.
I’d been in and out of the freakin’ bathroom all morning, and I could just hear the students now.
They all knew I had a dairy intolerance.
They also knew why I left, and what I did when I left.
They were all assholes, too.
Every last one of them.
Of course, because my stomach hurt so bad already, I hadn’t been prepared for my period to start today as well.
It just figured.
The first day back at school, where I had to deal with Jolessa and Rupert, and my period had to start. Oh, and let’s not forget the lactose intolerance rearing its ugly head.
I made it to the classroom, barely glancing into Rupert’s open door as I passed when the bell rang.
I huffed out a breath and said, “Made it!”
Most of my students were the same as last year. But there were one or two new faces that appeared.
A new student that looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here, and Rosalyn, a quiet student that used to be in the other history teacher’s class, but was moved after a few issues arose with other students.
I eyed her as she tried to sink into herself and the hood of her sweatshirt, contemplated telling her that she needed to lose the hood, and decided against it.
I honestly couldn’t care less if the students wore hoods.
I didn’t care if they were following dress code period.
As long as they were here and ready to learn, the rest didn’t matter to me.
A particularly vicious cramp had me grimacing and walking to the whiteboard where I had my lesson plan listed out for the day.
My hand on my belly, wishing it was a hot water bottle and not my hand, I started explaining the outline.
None of them stopped their whispered discussions.
“Okay, class,” I drawled as I turned to face them. “You will listen to me, or you’ll face my wrath!”
“What are you going to do? Eat yogurt tomorrow to punish us?”
I laughed at my favorite student’s words.
Sadly, that might punish me way more than him.
“No,” I said. “Because, unlike what you might think, I don’t like to punish myself.”
“Then why do you eat so much dairy?” one of the other students asked.
“Dairy is in literally everything,” I pointed out. “It’s only been recently that dairy-free places have been popping up. Used to, I couldn’t even enjoy a cupcake. I hate to admit it, but sometimes I just can’t turn down Mexican food.”
“Amen to that,” Cecelia, one of the top of her class seniors, said. “I went to Little Mexico last night, and it was phenomenal.”
“Agreed,” I said. “Now, who can tell me what they think started World War One?”
Generally, this many seniors wouldn’t be in my World History Class.
Truthfully, this was generally a ninth grade or tenth grade subject. But for some reason, I had more than usual this year. More than a third of my class.
It was fun. I truly enjoyed having all these young adults in my class.
What I didn’t like, however, was how out of touch with reality they sometimes were.
I mean, I was supposed to send an eighteen-year-old young man that didn’t know why World War One started out into the world and expect him to be a functional member of society?
Really, there was a reason we learned history…so we didn’t repeat it.
Yet, most of them were still clueless as to what led them to where the world was today.
My least favorite student—though I’d never admit it to anyone—proved that point next.
“Because the US wanted to be the top dog in the world and decided to start taking out lesser nations,” Frances drawled, knowing what he was saying was going to piss me off.
This was literally the one kid in the entire school that I couldn’t stand.
Why?
Because he acted like a little rich prick that had daddy’s money to always fall back on. To bail him out of the hardest of situations.
He also fully expected to pass his classes based solely on who his father was.
And, the sad fact was, he was right.
“Actually, no,” Cecelia said. “In actuality, World War One started because of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.”