Sorry for the delay in uploading this chapter, enjoy.
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After making fun of my strange relationship with Regina, my friends began to talk about their typical teenage topics, as always, every now and then, Alan or I ended up as judges of strange disagreements between our other two friends.
Alan and I were so engrossed in watching an argument about which magazine was better that we didn't notice when Georgie, our fifth friend, had arrived.
"Hey," Georgie said, greeting us with a big smile.
"Hello," David and Brock quickly responded to continue their discussion.
"Good morning, Georgie," I said to our newly arrived friend. "Are you nervous?" I asked as I watched him move things from his surprisingly messy locker.
Surprised by the question, Georgie froze for a moment with a notebook in hand. "What?" he asked aloud, nervously. "Nervous, me?" he asked again, furrowing his brow and looking around. "No, not at all. Why do you ask?" he continued hastily, closing his locker hurriedly.
"He's definitely nervous," Alan commented with a small mocking smile.
"Don't tease him," I said to my calm friend with fake annoyance, giving him a light shoulder punch. "It's normal to be nervous, Georgie," I continued, giving my nervous friend a one-armed hug. "If you need anything, you can always count on me; after all, we're friends," I said with false sweetness, placing my hand on my chest.
Seeing the strange expression Georgie gave after my comment, I couldn't help but laugh, accompanied by Alan. "Idiot," Georgie said as he pushed me with annoyance, which only made me laugh even more.
"What's going on?" Brock asked, who had at some point stopped his strange argument with David.
"Oh, nothing, it's just that Georgie here is a little nervous," Alan said, condescendingly mocking in his tone, causing my other two friends to exchange puzzled looks for a few seconds before breaking into a big smile.
"Is that true, Georgie?" David asked with feigned concern in his voice as he quickly approached Georgie and trapped him under his arm.
"No," Georgie immediately responded defensively, trying to dodge David's arm but failing.
"Come on, Georgie boy," Brock said, imitating David's falsely concerned tone. "You don't need to hide your feelings. Tell great Brock how you feel," he continued, also trapping Georgie under his arm and starting to walk alongside David, dragging our friend with them.
Beside Alan, watching the situation in front of us, we chuckled and bumped fists in a small celebration before following our friends.
"PJ!" I suddenly heard Sheldon's voice a few steps away from us. Turning and searching for my little friend, I found him, or at least his arm raised among a crowd of teenagers. It took him several seconds to extricate himself from the mass of people in the main corridor.
Dressed like a full-fledged insurance salesman with dress shoes, pressed pants, a button-up shirt, and perfectly combed hair, moving strangely due to a briefcase that was basically the same size as his torso.
"Wait, please," he said, practically shouting over the endless noise caused by our schoolmates' conversations.
"Good morning, Sheldon," I greeted my little friend when he finally reached us.
"Good morning, PJ," Sheldon responded elegantly, straightening his back. "Friend of PJ," he continued, also acknowledging Alan with a slight nod.
"Mini Cooper," Alan said, returning the greeting with a strange haughty smile.
"I'm nine years old, obviously, I'm small," Sheldon commented, offended, straightening his back even more in an attempt to appear taller than he actually was.
"Sure, whatever you say," Alan continued sarcastically, making Sheldon, for some reason, nod with pride, snorting.
"Don't pay attention to him, Sheldon; he's just teasing you," I advised the child calmly, who in return showed confusion in his expression. "Come on, do you need me to accompany you to the classroom?" I continued, ignoring his puzzled expression and pointing to the hallway where dozens of people were filling every available space.
"Yes," Sheldon responded seriously, looking with concern at the crowd of people in front of him.
As we made our way through the crowded hallways, I occasionally shielded him from excited teenagers who were approaching without noticing.
"Will this happen every time there's a game at school?" Sheldon asked worriedly, as I gently guided him, avoiding another excited teenager.
"It's possible it won't," Alan replied, without taking his eyes off the path, "it's the first game of the season, so it's especially exciting for everyone," he explained, still not taking his eyes off the path. "If we win and continue doing well, I'm sure it will stay this way," he finished seriously, still moving forward.
"Then I sincerely hope you lose," Sheldon said after thinking for a moment, strangely hopeful.
"Wow," Alan and I said at the same time, surprised, stopping for a moment to look around.
"Sheldon, for your own sake, I strongly recommend that you keep those comments to yourself," I said calmly to the child, trying not to draw the attention of dozens of football-loving Texan teenagers.
"Why?" Sheldon asked, completely bewildered.
"Well, Mini Cooper," Alan said, laughing slightly, causing Sheldon to furrow his brow in annoyance again. "You're in Texas, and here, if there's something people believe in besides God," Alan continued, interrupting Sheldon, who seemed to want to say something about the nickname Alan gave him.
"It's football," I finished Alan's thought.
"Exactly," Alan said arrogantly, causing Sheldon to fall silent again. "So, what do you think will happen when a bunch of emotional and nervous teenagers hear you, little genius, say that you hope their team loses?" Alan asked, still with arrogance.
"They'll hate you and possibly attack you," I replied, jokingly teasing the child.
Our words seemed to affect the young boy, as he simply stared at us, occasionally shifting his gaze from one person to another before nodding slowly.
"Look, Sheldon, I can protect you from a bunch of people on our way to the classroom," I said as I moved him to avoid another excited teenager, "but from their collective hatred," I continued, shaking my head and clicking my tongue on the roof of my mouth, "a man is just a man," I finished, trying to scare the child as we entered the classroom, where we had arrived a moment ago.
On our way to our usual seats at the back of the classroom, Alan and I shared a quiet laugh.
"Hey, where were you guys?" Georgie asked as we took our seats. "Accompanying your little brother," Alan replied ironically, trying to annoy the easily agitated teenager, which, as expected, worked, making Georgie roll his eyes and snort with annoyance.
"Yeah, basically doing your job as the older brother," I added sarcastically with a big smile, also teasing Georgie.
Georgie seemed like he wanted to say something but was interrupted when the classroom door opened. "Good morning, everyone," Mrs. McElroy said, receiving a response from almost everyone in the room, including me, while still proudly smiling at Georgie for my joke.
"Now, who can tell me the family names of Romeo and Juliet?" the teacher asked after a few moments in class, smiling at the class.
As usual, the first and basically the only ones to raise our hands were Sheldon and me.
Mrs. McElroy, seeing that I raised my hand, smiled cheerfully before changing her expression to a forced smile. "Yes, Sheldon," she said with defeat in her tone.
"Romeo is the only son of Lord and Lady Montague, and Juliet is the daughter of Lord and Lady Capulet," Sheldon said proudly, straightening his back in his seat.
"Correct, Sheldon," Mrs. McElroy said seriously, still with a forced smile.
Upon hearing his 'victory,' Sheldon turned with a smug smile, which I had already become accustomed to, so I simply returned a calm smile. Annoyed at not receiving the reaction he expected, Sheldon turned back.
The class continued relatively normally, except that every time my hand was raised, it was ignored. Strangely, Mrs. McElroy acknowledged my presence and my raised arm but never asked for my response, which was making me nervous for some reason.
As time passed, Sheldon's arrogant smile grew even wider, and incredibly, his back straightened even more than usual.
At the end of the class, everyone was packing up their things. "For homework, you need to start your essay on Romeo and Juliet," Mrs. McElroy said with a fake friendly smile.
"Are you coming?" my friends asked as they began to move out of the classroom. "I'll be there in a moment," I replied as I approached Mrs. McElroy.
"Oh, PJ, hi," Mrs. McElroy greeted cheerfully. "How are you?" she asked with a friendly smile.
"I'm fine, thank you," I responded, hoping to continue and ask her why she ignored me, but the teacher interrupted my words. "Well, that's good," Mrs. McElroy nodded with a big smile. "You have to be at your best today, PJ," she continued with a certain degree of seriousness. "Coach Cooper said that with you on the team, there's a great chance of going far this season," she said as she guided me out of the classroom.
"Go wolf!" the teacher exclaimed excitedly, cheered on by passing teenagers before closing the door in my face.
"So, I just wanted to ask why you didn't ask me anything today," I said to the closed door in front of me. "Oh, I see. Well, I guess I was worried for nothing. Thanks, Mrs. McElroy," I continued, pretending to speak with the teacher.
Taking a deep breath, I decided to ignore this first class and continue with my day.
Advancing quickly and catching up with my friends in the hallway, Alan asked, "So, why?" as he stopped slightly, distancing himself from our other three friends who were engaged in an incredibly animated discussion about magazines.
"What?" I asked, puzzled by my friend's question.
"Why didn't she ask you anything?" he replied calmly with a small smile.
Surprised by his accurate assumption, I didn't respond for several seconds as we walked behind our other three friends.
"I didn't manage to ask her," I finally replied after a few seconds.
"Well, I don't think it's anything bad," Alan said calmly with a small smile.
"I hope not," I said hopefully when we arrived at our next period.
Our next period was a science class with Professor Givens. Once again, my hand was ignored. After a few attempts, I decided to give up and simply sit through the class without raising my hand, allowing only Sheldon to do so.
At the end of the class, I approached Professor Givens, who had his head buried in his arms, lying on his desk, likely feeling depressed due to Sheldon's constant verbal punishment during the class, not realizing how it affected an adult much older than him.
"Mr. Givens," I said softly to the depressed man, causing him to lift his head a few centimeters. "Duncan," he said with fake enthusiasm. "What are you doing here?" he asked, puzzled.
"I wanted to know—" I was about to say until I was interrupted again. "You have to go with your friends," he said quickly, gaining energy. "Today is an important day; you have to win that game so you can go to a great university and not end up as a high school teacher with a student who is clearly more intelligent than you, despite his annoyingly young age," he continued rapidly without pausing to take a breath as he guided me out of the classroom. "So, please, I implore you, win that game so you can achieve great things," he finished with a forced and fake smile, closing the door in my face for the second time.
"Twice in one day," I said, unable to believe it. "What's going on today?" I continued, still puzzled, before walking again to catch up with my friends in the cafeteria.
In the cafeteria, my friends were already seated at our usual table.
"Hey, SuperStar, I know you're a nerd and all, but do you really need to stay after class in the classroom?" Brock asked with a teasing smile.
Taking a seat without bothering to respond to his obvious attempt at mockery, I greeted the other people at the table with a slight nod of my head.
"So?" Alan asked with a proud smile.
"Nothing," I replied irritably, not surprised by his quick deduction.
"I'm sure it's not a big deal," he said, downplaying the matter as he ate his lunch.
I didn't bother to respond. The game, the decision about Dr. Donnall's proposal, my future, and now everything strange – it was all making me worried.
"Hi, PJ," a girl's voice said from behind me.
Turning to face whoever had spoken to me, I found a teenager I had probably never seen before. "Hello," I responded, surprised, as the teenager made annoyed gestures to a group of girls at another table.
"I just wanted to wish you good luck with the game and everything," the unknown teenager said nervously.
"Thank you," I replied, genuinely grateful. "I'm sorry, I don't know who—" I was about to say when a sudden movement caught me off guard. "PJ!" Regina's excited voice, very close to my ear, with pressure on my shoulder and two arms squeezing me tightly.
"Regina," I said, surprised, as she took a seat next to me, pushing one of my teammates aside.
"I came to ask again where our date is," she said sweetly, tightening her arms even more. "You know, on Saturday," she continued with a strange smile, looking directly into my eyes.
"At the café in front of the cinema," I said, a bit distracted by Regina's incredibly enticing strawberry scent and the sensation on my shoulder.
"Good," she finally said, releasing the tight embrace and returning to her own table with a hypnotic sway of her hips.
Starting to think about math problems again to address a growing issue in my pants, I remembered what I was doing before Regina interrupted abruptly.
"I'm sorry," I apologized, turning to nobody, surprised because the girl was no longer there. I turned to Alan on my other side to ask where she had gone.
"I told you," Alan said without looking at me, still eating his lunch.
"Intimidating," David and Brock said simultaneously, laughing while making feeble attempts at creepy sounds.
"No, not at all," I immediately denied. "Regina just came to ask about our date," I asserted, trying to appear more confident than I really was. I had a lot on my mind, and I didn't want any issues with Regina to be one of them.
"If you say so," Alan said, obviously condescending, with a little mocking smile, accompanied by teasing from my other friends.
Ignoring them, I decided to quickly eat my lunch.
The day went on, the last period, mathematics with Mrs. Ingram. Of all the teachers, I was sure if there was anyone who would allow me to answer some questions to distract my mind, it would be her.
"Now, who can tell me the result of this equation?" Mrs. Ingram asked, turning towards the board.
Once again, as was often the case, only Sheldon and I raised our hands.
Taking a deep breath, Mrs. Ingram, without looking at anyone in the class, said, "Yes, Cooper," leaving me completely speechless.
"The answer is thirty-two. I would like to mention that the most efficient way to solve this equation is..." Sheldon was saying, but I interrupted him, "No, not you either!" I said, raising my voice and standing up. All the pressure I had felt throughout the day made me forget my manners. Mrs. Ingram turned, surprised, looking at me fixedly, which made me realize how disrespectful I had been.
"What?" Mrs. Ingram asked, surprised.
"I'm sorry; it won't happen again," I said, embarrassed, sitting back down in my seat.
"No, it's okay, Duncan. Tell me what's going on?" Mrs. Ingram said, much less surprised.
"No, it's just that, well," I was trying to say, "it's just that all the teachers have been ignoring my hand to answer questions, and I thought you wouldn't either. It was just an outburst of excitement. I'm sorry," I quickly said, now even more embarrassed.
The classroom fell silent for several seconds until a loud burst of laughter from Mrs. Ingram interrupted the silence, making all my classmates, including myself, look at her in confusion.
"Oh," Mrs. Ingram finally said after several seconds, clutching her stomach in pain from the laughter attack, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she continued, wiping a few tears from her eyes, "I knew you wouldn't mind answering a few questions." She said, still with a big smile.
"What?" I asked, not understanding what was happening, a sentiment I shared with the majority of people in the classroom.
"Oh, it's just that Coach Cooper asked us to go easy on you, Duncan, after all, today is the first game, and you need to be focused," Mrs. Ingram said with a big smile. "But I knew you wouldn't mind."
"We're on the team too," Georgie suddenly said, offended as he stood up.
"Yes, but unlike you guys, Duncan actually wants to be tested," Mrs. Ingram replied haughtily, immediately making Georgie sit back down.
"Well, let's continue, Duncan, can you tell me the answer to this equation?" Mrs. Ingram asked with a big smile, writing on the board.
"The answer is 10," I quickly responded, doing the calculation in my head.
"Correct," Mrs. Ingram confirmed cheerfully.
Sheldon, upon hearing my 'victory,' turned with a deep frown on his face, responding with the same calm smile, and turned his face back to the front.
It felt good to have the answer to something in these days.
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Author Thoughts:
As always, I'm not American, and definitely not a doctor.
Here ends another chapter, getting closer to 100k words (WOW!).
Now, this chapter might feel like filler (it definitely is), and I apologize for that. I've been having very little time to write lately, with the first exams of this period coming up, I've had to put writing aside a bit to focus on education. There will be a chapter every week, that's for sure, but I hope you'll forgive me if some of those chapters are of lower quality.
Now, I'd like to point out one personal thing I like to do on this website at least. In the Top Fans ranking, which basically counts the number of contributions, the first place is me, the second place is Victor_Venegas (thank you for supporting the story so much), and the next one, just one point below, is KJLC (also, thank you very much for supporting the story). In my mind, it's a weekly competition to see who ends up at the top. So basically that, from now on, every chapter will have a thank you note to those people in the top (excluding me, I'm not that narcissistic).
Thank you very much to:
Victor_Venegas
KJLC
keyakedo
For supporting the story.
Having said that.
I think that's it, as always, if you find any mistakes, let me know, and I'll correct them immediately.
Thanks for reading :D