In Too Deep

Chapter Four

Class the next couple of days were especially awkward for me. I was back on my medicine, Mom had picked up the refill on her way home from work, but having stable moods left more time for me to think normally and realize how awkward things had become. I had little to no interactions with Luke because it was apparent Anna didn’t like him talking to me and he hadn’t been in Civics since we both had talked to Mr. Hotpants for some reason. So I was alone with said man, who kept giving me knowing looks and winking at me when none of the other students were watching. I was starting to feel like the little bit of perfect I thought this semester was going to be was falling to s***.

But there was one slight positive. This weekend me and my moms were going away to E’s parent’s house. A lot of people hate the step family, but I was different. They didn’t have any real grandkids so I was like a treasure to them. Well, it was mostly E’s step mom; her dad was perpetually tired from years of work in the Mines. But he seemed like he was a good dad before E’s mother happened.

Fortunately for me it was already Friday. I had to endure Civics and then I could go home, pack, and hit the road. It was a long trip and if Mom could have gotten off early I would have gotten picked up early from school to beat the traffic. I didn’t mind the trip though. It was E who would probably have the most trouble, being as far along as she was made it hard to be pent up in a car for four hours. I predicted frequent stops, unless she somehow knew how to shut her bladder off for four hours.

I was conflicted about my pacing for walking to Mr. Hotpants’ class. On one hand, I wanted to get the heck home, but on the other hand, class with no Luke and a strange acting Mr. Hotpants made class nearly impossible. So I settled on a medium pace and made it just in time to have a few minutes alone with Mr. Hotpants. Yippee.

“Hello, Blake. How are you doing? Any better?” he asked looking up from his teacher’s edition textbook.

“Yes, sir. Much better now. Thank you for asking,” I said awkwardly taking my seat, which was unfortunately closer to his desk than I liked.

“I have sensed that things between us has been a little tense.. to say the least. I just hope I didn’t over step any personal boundaries you have. I wasn’t trying to be a creep, I was just trying to help,” he explained setting his text down.

I felt that telltale deep scarlet creep into my cheeks. He had mistaken my awkwardness as being creeped out. “I didn’t think that at all. I was just embarrassed I cried on my teacher and acted like a nutbag in front of him.”

“I’ve only been a teacher for a semester. I was a student for nearly seventeen years, including college. Don’t worry about it,” he reassured sounding like he really meant it.

It was strange how he could sound like a regular person one minute and flip his teacher switch on the next, because kids started filing in and he picked up text back in teacher mode. As weird as it sounded, I got the strange feeling that I could easily be friends with Mr. Hotpants. If that were the case would I have to stop calling him Mr. Hotpants?

He decided to split us up into groups, even though he wasn’t planning on it until next week. He cooked up an impromptu lesson plan for the day and I swear I think he was trying to kill me and do me a favor at the same time. He put me with a girl named Genny, she was sort of quiet and didn’t talk to anyone, but her friend Rachel. They both sat on the opposite side of the room as me so I hadn’t given them much thought.

He continued grouping people up until everyone had someone to work with. Without Luke there was an even number of kids so everyone was able to work in pairs of two. I was thankful that the only person I had to work with was Genny. She didn’t seem like she would give me much trouble, and would actually help with whatever we had to do, instead of making me do all the work which people frequently did.

“Okay, now that everyone has a partner, I will tell you what you are in a group for. I want you all to get a textbook from the back. Once you are back in your seats, I want you to work together and leaf through the book until you can both agree on a section or chapter that you are particularly interested in. Once you have made your decision I want one person to come up and get whatever you may need to make a poster highlighting the reasons why that particular section or chapter interests you. I’m not grading on artistic ability, just effort. I don’t normally do art project type assignments, I figured since it’s the first Friday of the new semester I would cut you a break. Plus this lets me see what all interests you all. In a way you are deciding what we will be covering this semester.”

There were a couple groans from the kids who were used to sleeping all block, but for the most part everyone seemed to be pleased with the idea. It was an extremely easy assignment, and an even easier A. Besides it was the perfect chance to showcase my drawing skills.

Mr. H, for short, sat out boxes of markers, glue, colored pencils, scissors, and other random art supplies. Then he got out two rolls huge rolls of paper. And gave us a look to let us know we needed to get a move on. So far no one had gotten up to get a textbook.

I chanced a look at Genny who was playing with one of her many bracelets running up her wrist. She seemed to feel my eyes on her because she looked up at me. “Hi, I’m Genny,” she offered, giving me a small smile.

“Blake,” I replied returning her small smile. “Do you want me to get the book?”

She nodded and dropped her eyes again. I realized that was probably about all I was going to get out of her, so I got up and retrieved one of the heavy textbooks. I dropped it on the desk with a loud thump, miscalculating the distance I was dropping it, and received lots of startled dirty looks from the rest of the glass. I gave an innocent shrug and slunk into my seat.

Genny just looked at me with curious eyes. “Are you interested in Civics at all?” I inquired hoping to get more than just her name from her.

She nodded. “I like Government. I wish I could be a judge, but I could never do that.”

I pursed my lips, mulling that over. I couldn’t picture her being interested in anything but Andy Biersack. “Why couldn’t you be a judge?”

She snorted out a teeny tiny laugh. “A lot of reasons. What about you?”

“I’m more interested in Economics section, but it doesn’t matter to me,” I said with a shrug. At my old school we had Government and Economics as two separate classes. It wasn’t grouped together and called Civics. I took Government my eleventh grade year and it bored me to tears.

“No, I mean what do you wish that you could do, but can’t,” she pushed quietly.

I thought for a minute. She probably meant career wise.. “Well, I wish I could be a graphic designer or something like that, but I’ll probably do something practical.”

She gave a rolling smile, that didn’t quite touch her eyes. And what I meant by that is that she a smile appeared on her face for a second and then rolled off into a straight lipped frown. She started fidgeting with her bracelets again.

“Alright, I hope you have picked your topic because it’s time to get the art supplies,” Mr. H said looking up from whatever he was working with on his desk.

I sighed and looked at the book we hadn’t even opened up. “I guess we’ll do the section on the Supreme Court?”

Genny nodded and I left her to get the supplied we would need. Because I was more of a doodler I decided to get markers to draw with, two pairs of scissors, a bottle of glue, and a couple scraps of felt to fill in the white spots. I figured if she got to pick the subject, I would be given full creative license to do whatever I wanted.

“What’s all that?”

“It’s the stuff I’ll need to make our poster. I already have an idea of what I want to do,” I replied setting all the stuff on our scooted-together desks.

“Oh, okay, what do you want me to do then?”

I twisted my mouth up thinking. “You can just sign your name on the back if you want. I don’t mind doing all the work when I have a good idea for what I want to do.”

She just nodded and then buried her nose in the textbook. I got to work sketching out the scene I had in mind on a scrap of paper to make sure it worked. Once I was satisfied I set about drawing it up on the ginormous sheet of paper. Then I proceeded to trace the picture with the appropriate colored markers. I took my time while tracing, it could get a little tricky with markers. Once I was done I sat back and surveyed my work. It wasn’t the best thing I had ever done, but as I glanced around the room I could tell I had done a lot better than everyone else. I glanced over at Genny to see her nose deep in a journal. I shrugged it off and started gluing down the felt.

“S***,” I muttered.

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot there had to be writing. I can’t do bubble letters worth s***.”

“Here let me,” she said and took the marker from my hand.

She started forming perfectly neat bubble letters that explained our section. I was actually impressed. As good of an artist as I was I still couldn’t do bubble letters and she was banging them out like they were regular print letters.

“How did you get so good with bubble letters?”

She flashed a small smile. “It’s innate for girls. You don’t think we print our crushes names do you?”

“Like girls are the only one who does it,” I mumbled a little louder than I meant to.

She squinted her eyes at me for a second. “Rachel owes me an Andy Biersack poster.”

“Why?” I questioned her curiously. I was right about her interests though, you can always tell the girls who are Andy fans.

“Because I was right. You are gay, she just thought that you were metro.”

“Glad to know I’m the object of your betting pools. It’s not exactly a secret any way.”

She reached up and tucked a strand of hair out of her face causing her to shift her bracelets. There were dozens of angry pink lines littering her pale skin. I couldn’t avert my gaze and eventually she caught on. “Mother f*****,” she murmured hiding them again.

“What’s going on there?” I asked softly.

“Look not everyone has as good of a life as you and your pal Luke. I’m not just another dumb emo cutter. I have reasons. It’s none of your business anyway. Didn’t your mother ever teach you it’s rude to stare?”

“My life may be a little better now that my mom is remarried, but it used to be a h*** of a lot s******, oaky? Everyone has secrets that they’d rather not bring up. I wasn’t judging you. I just wanted to know why they were there.”

“My step dad is a creep. But under the pretense that you care they are old. I haven’t done it since he caught me in the act.”

“Then your secret’s safe with me,” I said giving her a sympathetic look.

After that there was a thick awkward silence between the two of us for the rest of the class period. When the bell rang she was the first one out of there, not even waiting for Rachel. In all the awkwardness I had forgotten to turn in my drawing or even gather my stuff up. After I was packed I walked over to Mr. Hotpants desk and sat it down, hoping he wouldn’t turn around from where he was digging in is cabinets.

I got just a handful of steps backwards before he stopped me. “Do you still walk home?”

“Yes, sir. Every day, I ride the bus in the mornings though.”

“How about you let me give you a ride? It’s the least I could do,” Mr. Hotpants offered packing up his things.

I thought for a second and realized I really didn’t feel like walking home. It would enable me to get a head start on packing as well. “That sounds great. I’m going out of town soon and I’ve got to pack still.”

We walked in silence all the way to the parking lot. A nice sports car blinked to life under the thick sheet of rain and I assumed it was Mr. Hotpants car. He ushered me into the passenger seat and then walked around to the driver’s side. I stared through the windshield trying to make sense of the road under the massive amount of rain that was coming down. I had no idea how Mr. Hotpants was able to drive.

After a while I had gotten so lost in the rain I had forgotten I wasn’t alone. So when Mr. Hotpants spoke, let’s just say it was a safe bet I’d have to change my underwear when I got home.

“So where is it that you are going this weekend?”

A few calming breath’s later, I replied. “To see some family. They live in West Virginia, so it’s a little bit of a trip.”

Mr. Hotpants’ face scrunched up. “I’m so sorry you have family there. I actually attended WVU for a year.”

I laughed at his typical reaction. Everyone seemed to look down on the state; it made me feel sorry for E. I liked visiting well enough, but I couldn’t imagine growing up there. Granted we didn’t live in that big of a city, but we were only about an hour and a half from a major city, I wasn’t even sure if West Virginia had any big cities.

“It’s not so bad, if you’re just visiting. I like to travel anyway. Riding at sixty miles per hour, on never ending, interstate calms me. It regulates my mood better than my medicine does.”

D***. Sometimes I forgot who I was talking to when I talked to him.

“I can appreciate that,” Mr. Hotpants said shaking his head and scratching his jaw line. “You appreciate art do you not?”

“I doodle, if that’s what you mean,” I replied keeping my eyes on the road. Sometimes it was hard to look at him, I felt like I was always embarrassing myself. He was just so pristine and perfect, one of the types of guys that was out of everyone’s league. I couldn’t imagine the sort of person he’d go for.

He laughed looking at me for a moment and then returned his eyes back to the road. Apparently I had amused him. Kudos for me. “That is sort of what I meant, yes. An old companion of mine from college is having an art show, almost like a workshop of sorts, and I was wondering if you would like to go.”

His words surprised me and caused my head to snap up to look at him. Had he just invited me to go with him to do something that I love? That sounded a lot like a date to me. A date with Mr. Hotpants. My teacher. I couldn’t help but ask him if that’s what it was. “A workshop? With you? Is that a date?”

He shrugged. “Could be. Or it could be an acquaintance giving another acquaintance possibly a once in a life time experience.”

I could not believe him. He was just so, gah, words could not describe what that man was. He made an obvious date sound professional. Not like a business venture, but just like two colleges helping each other out.

“Provide some details before I give an answer.” I was most definitely going to tell him yes, but I didn’t want to seem too eager. Plus there was still the whole mother’s giving permission thing.

“Next Saturday, around five.”

“That is doable, but you never said where. I don’t have a car or a license so my mom will have to drive me..” I started obsessing, trying to decide how much of my soul I would have to sell to get to go. I wasn’t sure if either of my moms would appreciate me going out with my teacher. He was roughly seven years older. But that didn’t matter. I had to go.

Mr. Hotpants reached up and scratched the back of his neck. He looked like he did not want to answer my question. Oh, God it was probably in another state or something. Why would he even invite me if it was so far away? He had to realize that I didn’t drive or else I wouldn’t walk home from school.

“Columbus, I know that’s a two hour drive, but hear me out. I’ll be your chauffeur seeing as how I am the one who invited you. If I need to talk to your mother, I would be more willing to. It would last until dark, and food would be provided due to the late hour they will be keeping us.”

I took a moment to absorb all of that information. It sounded like he definitely wanted me to go. He was willing to drive me. My moms would have to agree to that. I smiled before replying. “I would like that very much. It sounds like a lot of fun.”

I looked up to realize that we were on my street. I pointed out my house and told him thanks again for the ride and the invitation. I rushed inside, realizing I was alone, and allowed myself to breath. I didn’t know what was happening or what was going to happen, but I liked the idea of it.

I thought about potential scenarios as I backed my things for the weekend. It seemed like things were looking up, after such a s***** couple weeks. I had a lot of things to look forward to.