A City of Fools

Eli took a deep breath as she walked towards the office, an irate Alex next to her. She tried to keep as much distance between their bodies as she could but, of course, it failed due to the other students rushing to class and running into them.

“Watch it,” Alex muttered, shoving their shoulders together as he opened the door to the office and walked in.

Eli quickly stepped back as the door slammed shut in her face. “Ass,” she mumbled under her breath before reaching for the handle and letting herself in. By the time she reached the guidance counselor's office, Alex had already occupied the only chair in the room. She wasn't surprised. She cleared her throat and stepped into the room.

“Can you close the door for me, Miss Carter?” the guidance counselor, Mrs. Jones, asked her.

“Of course,” Eli said quietly, moving to shut the door behind her. She didn't miss Alex rolling her eyes and hers narrowed just slightly. She turned back to Mrs. Jones and crossed her arms. “So, um. I don't want to be rude, but—“

“Did I have a reason to call you down here?” Mrs. Jones asked, smiling softly. “Of course. Alex, stand up and let Eli sit down.”

Alex sighed loudly and didn't try to hide his distaste as he stood up, reluctantly surrendering his chair for the red-head standing next to him.

“Thank you,” Eli said softly, sitting down in the chair and setting her bag next to her feet.

“Miss Carter, how are you holding up since your brother's death?”

Here we go again, Eli thought to herself, letting out a sigh. “I'm...doing as well as expected from someone who's brother just killed himself.” She'd had enough people talk to her about how she was 'holding up' at the funeral and in the week after his death that she was beyond being polite. How did people expect her to react, anyway? What did they expect her to say? That she was sunshine and rainbows or that she wanted to die? It was infuriating.

Mrs. Jones nodded slowly. “So you're in the anger stage, then?”

Eli rolled her eyes. “I'm in the stage where I'm sick of people asking how I am.”

“Have you ever had to deal with death before?”

“Not that I remember. Relatives passed away when I was younger, distant ones,” Eli said. “But no one close to me. Not until Gabe.”

“Is there anything you want to talk about?” Mrs. Jones asked.

Eli sighed. “Yes, actually. What is Gaskarth doing here?” she asked, pointing to the boy leaning at the wall, clearly not paying attention until he heard his name.

“Yeah, why am I here? I didn't do anything,” Alex said, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Because, Mr. Gaskarth, you've been in a similar situation, have you not?” Mrs. Jones asked, looking up at him curiously.

Alex's jaw clenched. “I don't want to talk about it.”

“And you came through relatively unscathed,” Mrs. Jones continued. “I think it would be beneficial for both of you if you, Alex, were a sort of...peer mentor to Eli. She just lost her brother and you lost yours a couple years ago. I know you didn't have someone to talk to. Maybe you and Eli could discuss it and it could help both of you move on.”

Alex shook his head instantly. “No. No way.”

“I really don't think that's necessary,” Eli added. “I'm doing just fine on my own. I don't need him.”

“She doesn't need me,” Alex agreed.

“Not at all.”

Mrs. Jones smiled softly. “Miss Carter, it's okay to admit that you could use a shoulder. Mr. Gaskarth, I'm sure you could've used someone after your—“

“Stop!” Alex exclaimed, running a hand through his hair. “I don't want to bring this up. And it's definitely none of her business,” he snapped, nodding his head towards Eli.

Eli scoffed. “Oh, please, like I want to know your business and the details of your precious life oh so badly,” she mocked, rolling her eyes.

“I didn't ask for you to contribute, did I?” Alex asked, eyebrows raising. “No, I didn't. So stop.”

“Excuse you, you pathetic—“

“Children!” Mrs. Jones exclaimed, sighing.

Eli's mouth snapped shut and she glared at Alex before looking back to the guidance counselor.

“What?” Alex snapped.

“Mr. Gaskarth, I'd advise you to watch your tone,” Mrs. Jones warned him. “Now. I expect you two to spend time together outside of school, talking about this. You two are more alike than you'd care to admit.”

Eli sighed.

“And to ensure that you two actually spend time together, I've talked with your English teacher as well.”

Alex rolled his eyes.

“I'm not so naïve as to think you two wouldn't just lie about spending time together outside of school. I, too, was a teenager once,” she told them, a smile on her face. “So to ensure that you two actually help one another, your English teacher has decided to make an exception on an assignment coming up for the two of you.”

Eli paused. “But he and I aren't in the same English class—I'm in AP,” she told him.

“And now, so is Mr. Gaskarth,” Mrs. Jones told them. “Mr. Gasksarth, your English class has been switched to AP and now both of you share the same study hall in order to accommodate for the schedule change. Mr. Torres would like to speak with both of you after class. And considering you two have study hall afterwards, you won't need a pass. Mr. Torres will keep me posted with your updates. And if I hear of you two fighting, we'll have to get the principal involved. And I know for a fact, Mr. Gaskarth, that you wouldn't appreciate that. And Miss Carter, you wouldn't want a mark on your perfect record, would you?”

Eli sighed, biting on her bottom lip. Mrs. Jones was right, of course she was. She hit her in the spot that was most important to Eli—her grades. “Okay,”

Alex scoffed. “Are you kidding me? Please tell me this is some kind of joke.”

“It's not a joke,” Mrs. Jones told him.

“I'm not doing it.”

Mrs. Jones sighed. “Mr. Gaskarth, we're not exactly giving you a choice.”

+

Eli slung the strap of her bag over her shoulder as she walked out of the office. The door slammed shut behind her and she sighed. “When are we gonna do this?

Alex scoffed. “I'm not doing shit.”

“Gaskarth, I don't want to do this either,” Eli started before she was interrupted.

“Then don't. Because I don't want to. And I'm not going to,” Alex told her. He didn't even spare her a glance over his shoulder before he started to walk away.

Eli groaned before running to catch up with him, grabbing his arm. “Alex, please.”

Alex shook his head. “Not happening. You only want it to so you precious grades don't drop.”

“That's. That's not fair.”

“Well, it's true, isn't it?” Alex asked. “I mean, after all. You just want something to focus on now that your brother is fucking dead.”

Eli's jaw dropped but she didn't have the voice to reply. She just stood there in the middle of the empty hallway as Alex walked away. The last thing she wanted was to spend more time with him but her grades were important.

After all, her grades were her ticket to get out of that town and away from all the memories of Gabe.

+

Needless to say, Eli skipped her first class. She wasn't in the mood to deal with lecturing just yet. She wanted to find Lauren; she needed a best friend and knew she was in gym. She made her way towards the locker room, pushing the door open with her foot. She planned to just hide out in there until Lauren found her—which she didn't expect to be long considering Lauren almost always just sat in the locker room during gym.

Eli sighed and walked through the lockers, passing by the showers when she stopped. “Really, Lauren? Really?”

Flushing, Lauren pushed Jack away from her, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand. “Hey, Eli,” she greeted, smiling awkwardly. “Um. Sorry, I... I mean, we... Sorry.”

Eli just frowned. “Jack, you should go. I need my friend.”

“Yeah, definitely,” Jack said, pecking Lauren once more on the lips before smiling softly. “See you during lunch?”

Lauren flushed, nodding. “Of course.”

With a bigger smile, Jack walked out of the locker room.

Eli sighed. “Lauren...” she trailed off, shaking her head.

“I'm sorry, Eli, really. I mean...”

“He was practically eating your face,” Eli snapped.

Lauren rolled her eyes. “C'mon, Eli, you're not mad about that. What's wrong? What did the counselor want?”

Eli frowned at the memory of the conversation and kicked the locker next to her. “She wants me and Gaskarth to fucking be peer counselors to one another or something. Because apparently he's lost someone and it's pretty clear that I've lost someone. And something about changing our English project or my grade is fucked and Gaskarth refuses!”

Lauren paused. “Pause. That's a lot to take in.”

“I know!” Eli sighed. “And it's not like it even surprises me that he's so selfish, you know? God forbid he do anything to help someone else. And especially me. God, he hates me so much and I don't even know why because I've never even talked to him before! But he does and it's annoying. I don't know what these people expect from me, you know?”

“I know,” Lauren said, reaching forward to hug her friend.

Eli pulled away. “No, you don't know! My brother is dead! And people keep asking me how I am, how I feel—how the fuck do you think I feel?! My brother is dead and I have everyone up in my fucking face asking me stupid shit all the time! I'm done, Lauren. I'm done. If Gaskarth doesn't want to help me, then fuck it, I'm done,” she ranted, unaware that tears were sliding down her cheeks until she reached up to push her hair behind her ears and felt them. She shook her head, her bag dropping to the floor as she slid down against the lockers, pulling her knees to her chest.

“Eli,” Lauren said softly, sliding down on the floor to kneel next to her friend. She wrapped her arms around Eli's shoulders and pulled her closer. “It's gonna be alright, you know?”

“No, it's not,” Eli snapped, tears falling down her cheeks quicker. “It's not.”

“Maybe not soon but, one day, it will be,” Lauren told her. “And you know I'm here for you.”

“I know,” she whispered. “I know you are.”

“And if I have to beat the sense into Gaskarth until he helps you, I'll do it,” she said, a soft smile on her face.

Eli laughed, just barely. “Yeah?”

“Totally,” Lauren said. “And I'd film it and put it on YouTube. Just for you.”

Eli smiled slowly. “You're the best, Ren. I'm sorry for...falling apart on you.”

Lauren shook her head. “Never apologize for that, Eli. I can't imagine what you're going through since Gabe. You never have to apologize for crying to me. You can do it anytime. I”m always here.”

“Thank you.”

+

“Mr. Gaskarth and Miss Carter, see me after class, please,” Mr. Torres said before starting to pass out light green papers amongst the rows. “Now, for the rest of you, this paper has all the guidelines for your Topic of Interest paper that you'll be working on for the rest of the year. You can pick any topic that interests you, as long as it's school appropriate, and you'll have writings due every two weeks. I'll explain more when the time comes but this week, I want you guys to find a topic that you can see yourself writing on for a while. Because this topic is going to become your best friend, you boyfriend or girlfriend, and you will be spending more time on this paper than anything else. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me, and you'll be required to write down topics by Friday. That's two days away, people, so start thinking,” he explained as the students looked over the paper. Some sighed, some groaned, most were apathetic.

Eli looked at the paper, keeping one for herself anyway, before passing the rest behind her. The guidelines were long and she knew there would be a lot of papers due. She was just curious to see how Mr. Torres was going to personalize this particular assignment for her and Gaskarth. She spared him a glance out of the corner of her eye—he was rolling his own and messing with his pencil.

Not surprising. He didn't appear to be the type to actually do any schoolwork anyway.

With a sigh, she anxiously awaited the end of class. When the bell finally rang and signaled the start of the last period, she slowly walked up to the desk, arms clenched across her chest, as she waited for Alex.

“Mr. Gaskarth, Miss Carter, I'm sure the assignment has been brought to your attention by now,” Mr. Torres began, before handing them both a sheet of pale blue paper. “Your assignments will be on death and how people handle it. And you'll be working with one another because your papers will be on one another. I expect a two page paper on my desk every Friday that deals with each other and your losses.”

“And if I refuse?” Alex asked, tossing the paper back on his teacher's desk, frowning.

Mr. Torres smiled softly. “You won't, Mr. Gaskarth,” he said, handing him the paper for a second time. “Just do the assignment. It's not worth this bad-ass rebel act, okay?”

Alex sighed.

“I know you two aren't excited about it. Who would want to bring up tragic events every week until Christmas break?”

“Until Christmas break?!” Alex asked. “Are you kidding me? I don't want to see this girl every fucking day until Christmas break!”

Eli rolled her eyes. “Thanks, man.”

Mr. Torres' eyes narrowed. “Watch your language, Mr. Gaskarth. And yes, until Christmas,” he repeated. “Now, the school board and I aren't giving you any options.”

“So, what? You have the whole board involved now?” Alex scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Mr. Gaskarth, regardless of your attitude, I expect the two of you to work together. I want a two-page paper on my desk every Friday, detailing the events of each other's life surround the death and grieving process,” Mr. Torres told him.

“We won't have enough material after, like, three weeks, Mr. Torres,” Alex told him. “There's no way we can write a two page paper every week for the next two and a half months and not run out of material.”

“You'll figure it out, Mr. Gaskarth. Do you have any questions, Miss. Carter?” he asked.

Eli shook her head, keeping her eyes on the floor. She wasn't going to voice protest about having to spend the next few months with Alex, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do.

“Whatever, man, I'm not doing this,” Alex told him.

Mr. Torres smiled softly. “Give me a reason to fail you, Alex.”

Alex frowned.

“Now go get to work,” he told them.

Eli walked out of the room, arms crossed over her chest. Really, she wanted to disappear. This assignment was going to be hell, considering it was all about Gabe and she had to spend so much time with Gaskarth.

Alex sighed. “I don't want to do this.”

“Not surprising,” she muttered.

“What's that supposed to mean?” he asked, voice raising.

“That you're a selfish idiot who doesn't give a shit that someone else's grade depends on your attitude,” she snapped. She didn't even give him time to reply, she just turned around and walked to study hall, hoping to get a start on her first paper.