Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 555(@200wpm)___ 444(@250wpm)___ 370(@300wpm)
“I’m not changing your grade over this, just so you know.”
“That’s fine. I’m packing in some extra-credit points to buffer it.”
He shook his head, his smile widening.
I ordered a latte with whipped cream. “Oh, and two apple crullers.” I turned to James. “Go ahead.”
He asked for a black coffee, then reached for his wallet.
“I got it,” I said, sticking my card into the chip reader before he had a chance to fight me on it.
He looked annoyed, but didn’t say anything until the barista began working on our drinks. “I have cash.”
“I’m not interested.”
He eyed me strangely. “I think I need to set a teacher-student boundary here.”
“I’m gonna pretend you offered an awkward thank-you, and we’ll move on from there. You can hit me back next time…or whatever.”
The overhead fluorescent panels reflected in his glasses as he looked me over like he didn’t care for my insistence, but he didn’t object further, and I was glad.
After the barista finished preparing our drink orders and bagging two crullers, James and I found chairs at a corner table. The sound of my chair scraping across the floor filled the space as I noted, “Nice place for our first date.”
“Whatever.” He snickered as we settled in.
“I assumed you’d take me somewhere fancy…maybe we’d have steak and wine.” I hoped my joke would mask my real feelings, which were unfortunately not very far from what I was saying.
I pulled out a cruller from the brown bag and put it in my mouth as I passed him the paper bag with the other. “Go ahead. I got it for you.” I took a bite out of mine and kept the remainder in my hand. I closed my eyes, savoring the taste. “I could eat apple crullers for every goddamn meal.”
He reluctantly accepted the bag and took a bite out of his.
“Don’t tell me you don’t like crullers, Teach, because then I’m not sure we can be friends.”
“It’s good. I can tell by the look on your face I’m not enjoying it quite as much. You sure you don’t want it?”
“Nah. If I can’t get extra credit for this trip, then I’m willing to bribe you with delicious treats.”
He rolled his eyes. “You’d better stop before you get the rumor wheel churning. I’m pretty sure the barista goes to Wyachet.”
“Really? You recognized him?”
“Yeah. He’s usually in the freshman/sophomore building, so I assume that’s his grade.”
“Huh. Go figure. I hardly remember faces. School’s always been a blur to me. If I remember someone, I either really like them or they annoy the hell out of me.”
“I think it’d be different if you enjoyed school more.”
It’s been different since I’ve known you.
“Meanwhile, it must be a nightmare, not only having to get through school, but then having to go back,” I remarked. “What kind of nightmare life is that?”
“You’re looking at the dream,” he said, as earnestly as I could have imagined him saying anything.
“Wait? What?”
“Why do you say it like that? This is actually what I was aiming for as a kid.”
“Dreams are supposed to be like…becoming a movie star or the president.”
“That’s ridiculous. That sounds more like people who are going to have to learn that they can fail at some dreams and then find new ones, a thousand times more satisfying than pipe dreams. Not to dissuade you, Mr. Future President.”
I nearly choked on the whipped cream. “Jesus, you trying to kill me, Teach? And you don’t know. I could be the next Tom Cruise. But you don’t get to turn the tables on me yet. I wanna hear about this teaching dream of yours.”
He pondered it for a moment. “I was always good at school. Studying was fun to me. I would even help my friends with their homework. We’d be on the phone for hours at a time. I would walk them through algebra or biology. English was my favorite subject, if that wasn’t already clear, but I was the sort who studied and had to study. I couldn’t just walk into a class like my brother, who would not crack a book and somehow aced every test. He was a prodigy. Just incredible. And an amazing guy on top of it.”
A radiant light had sparked to life in his eyes as he’d discussed studying, but just as quickly as it had appeared, it faded with his smile, as though the reality that his brother was no longer with us had, not for the first time, crept up on him. He shook it off. “I liked helping my classmates do better in classes, offering them studying tips and encouraging them with their tests. I guess you could say I got a lot of positive reinforcement from my peers around that. And I had some pretty amazing teachers, who inspired me. Who made it seem like it was everything to be able to be in so many people’s lives, helping them like that.”