章 22: High School... Again
Principal Higgins heard someone knock on her door, and without lifting her head from her pile of documents, told whoever it was to come in.
She sensed a presence approaching her desk and looked up, "Alfred?"
Connors didn't reply, he tacitly handed her a folder full of papers, and Higgins inquired "This is?"
"Jay Aslan's test papers." he replied absentmindedly.
Higgins raised an eyebrow and looked at her watch, "He gave up so soon? It hasn't even been 3 hours... I'm a little disappointed."
Connors didn't reply, he just stood there in a daze and Higgins frowned, "Alfred, what is wrong with you?"
".... ced them." he mumbled, his voice still heavily tinged with incredulity.
"What?"
"He aced them... All of them."
Higgins outstretched hand froze before she swiftly snatched the papers from him and proceeded to inspect them carefully.
After she was finished, she sighed. "Unbelievable."
She turned to her colleague and smiled, "Thank you Alfred, you may go attend to your affairs."
Connors nodded and left.
Principal Higgins stayed silent for a long while, before picking up her phone to make a call.
Monday, September 13th 2010.
Jay had tried avoiding his best friends as much as possible. Although his mom had stopped mothering him, those two had apparently decided to make replacing her their lifelong mission.
It had taken some time to get everything settled but he would finally be starting school.
He had, of course, passed the tests with flying colors, he couldn't help but chuckle inwardly at the face his mother had made when they'd gotten the test results back. Principal Higgins had simply smiled and congratulated him but her amazement hadn't escaped Jay's notice.
He could've tweaked it so as to get lower scores, but he hadn't wanted to.
He intended to gradually test out of various subjects so that he'd be able to graduate earlier. He wanted to get a college degree in order to make up for his past self's regrets as well as to placate his mother when she would find out about his intention to become an entertainer.
He was a little annoyed at the fact that the almost three weeks delay for his file to be processed would make him the "new guy" though.
He was attractive as could testify his appearance and charm stats. He would be lying if he said that he didn't like women checking him out, but high school girls... That was gonna be uncomfortable. He sighed and grabbed his bag before getting down the stairs.
"All set?" Lee asked. Jay started school earlier than Lou, so he would commute with his father most of the time.
He nodded and kissed his mom and sister good-bye before joining his father.
Helen had dragged him to the shopping mall five days ago and she had went full-commando on him. They had spent six hours in there. Six freaking hours, and the worst part was that four out of those six were wasted because of her indecisiveness.
The clothes they had bought had ended up stuffing his walk-in closet full.
Jay was wearing black jeans, a white supreme t-shirt, the Tommy Hilfiger jean jacket and Timberland boots he had bought in Switzerland as well as a black beanie – his mother had insisted he cover his head, and he hadn't had the heart to tell her that he would have to take it off during classes anyways. He had also gotten multiple leather bracelets for both his forearms. The absence of his tattoos made him uncomfortable so he would make do with that for now.
"It's too bad you're not sixteen yet, you'd be able to drive yourself." Lee said.
"I was actually thinking of getting a bike, that's also good exercise." Jay replied.
"Oh good idea, I think my old one still works, it's somewhere in the garage. It might need a bit of working on and maybe a paint job but it's yours if you want it."
"Really? Thanks dad, I do."
Lee chuckled, "No worries, when you said bike I thought you meant motorcycle for a second, I bet your mother would've had a fit."
"I actually plan on getting one when I turn 16 instead of a car. How do you think that'll go?"
Lee was silent for a moment before looking at him meaningfully, "What do you think?"
"I'll try and be a good son for the remaining six months." Jay mumbled.
"You do that."
The ride was short and they were soon in front of the school building, Jay grabbed his bag and got out while Lee went through his wallet before handing him five 20s.
"This is..." Jay started.
"For the week." he said.
"I don't think the cafeteria is that expensive."
Lee chuckled, "It's not. And I know your mom prepared your lunch so don't play coy with me. The money's for having fun, you know, theater, bowling... Your choice. Just don't splurge because that's all you'll get until next Monday."
"Aye Aye captain!" Jay waved at him and made his way in.
There were many people already and he stepped up his pace as he needed to get his class schedule from the school's administration.
When he got there, Vice-principal Connors was talking to one of the secretaries and smiled when he noticed him.
"Ah Mr. Aslan, I was just talking about you. You're looking for your schedule right? Here you go, your home room teacher is Mr. Trefzer." he said handing Jay a paper.
"Thank you sir." he said and heard the bell ring.
"No problem, wait up, they have to find you a locker, most of them are all taken so you'll probably have to do with a bottom one though." Connors said amicably while patting his shoulder before leaving.
"That's okay, I don't mind." Jay smiled at the secretaries and waited. Both of the women were middle-aged, and they seemed like kind people.
While one of them looked through her computer, the other smiled at him, "Aslan from Aslan & Associates?"
"That would be my dad." he admitted.
"Your father is a good man." she said, "That firm is the only one to take so much pro bono in the entire state. I'm Natalie, your father represented my son two years ago. He was the only one willing to, and he won the case. My boy has turned a new leaf since then and works at the garage downtown. If you ever have a problem, you come to me."
Jay smiled gratefully and the other secretary looked up from her screen.
"Locker number 675 is open, it's the last middle-one available. Here's your passcode." she said handing him a piece of paper.
"That's great, thank you." he smiled and was about to turn around when he thought of something and asked, "Could I trouble you for a tardy slip? The bell has already rung and it's my first day..."
"Of course dear, here you go." Natalie smiled kindly and made one for him.
"Thank you." he said and left.
It took him a few minutes to find the locker he was assigned to and he put all of the books he wouldn't need until this afternoon before hurrying towards his classroom.
Once he had reached the door, he took a look at his watch; it was already 8:16am so he was 16 minutes late.
He knocked and opened the door when he heard the "come in".
"Mr. Aslan, I presume?" Mr. Trefzer asked.
"Yes sir, I'm sorry for being late, I was at the school's administration." Jay said, handing the man his tardy slip.
Mr. Trefzer looked at it before nodding at him, "That's fine. Why don't you introduce yourself."
Jay turned to face the class and spoke simply, "Hey, I'm Jay Aslan."
A moment of silence ensued before Mr. Trefzer realized that he was done with his introduction. "... Alright, you can just go take the seat behind Greg, he's the one with the whatever locks."
"It's dread locks man! Dreadlocks!" Greg indignantly protested.
"That's Mr. Trefzer for you young man."
Jay nodded at Mr. Trefzer and found his seat.
"Alright folks, there's still a good 13 minutes of home room left, so just use that time for reading or do anything you need to do. I want silence though." the teacher said before sitting down at his desk and leafing through his papers.
Jay took out his schedule for a better look; he had World History and then Algebra II before lunch, and English in the afternoon.
The bell rung again at 8:30am and everyone scrambled to put their stuff back in their bags. Jay was no different, he said goodbye to Mr. Trefzer in passing and as soon as he was in the hallway, he was surrounded.
"Hey where do you come from?"
"How tall are you?"
"Do you play any kind of sports?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
"I love your shoes!"
Jay started feeling dizzy, most of the people cornering him were girls but some guys had also hung back in curiosity.
He was thinking of a way to get rid of them all when he heard someone shout his name and the crowd parted like the Red Sea.
He turned to look and had never before felt more grateful to see those girls than right this moment.
"Hey Kitty, hey buck-" Em covered his mouth with her hands before he could say anymore.
"Don't you dare!" she let out through a stiff smile and he nodded.
"You guys have classes nearby?" he asked.
"No, but we knew this was gonna happen. Let's go, we'll walk you to your next class. Don't worry, no one will bother you after that." Leah smiled and grabbed his right hand while Em grabbed his left and they dragged him away.
The crowd was left there rooted before they came back to their senses and hurriedly dispersed.
The girls led him to his World History class, before going back their respective ways.
Jay shook his head in amusement, to be honest he was kind of grateful since they had gotten the other kids off his back, although he still had no idea how.
Class was boring, he wasn't learning anything new and his photographic memory made it almost too easy, he couldn't suppress a yawn. That was a bad move.
"Are we annoying you, Mr. Aslan?" he heard the teacher ask.
Mr. Square had been in a foul mood for days now. His damnable dentist had charged him an exorbitant price for his tooth decay, and it had already been three days but his mouth still hurt like no tomorrow.
Now the new student who had more to gain by making himself scarce was actually listlessly yawning during his lecture.
Jay wryly shook his head, "No sir."
"Then, care to answer the question?" Mr. Square challenged.
Jay noticed everyone was now staring at him, but simply ignored them. "Nicholas II..."
"Louder please and in a clear and succinct voice." the man demanded.
Jay's eyes narrowed. Heh, was he getting picked on?
"I said," he slowly stood up, his palms pressing on his own desk, "Nicholas II was the last emperor of Russia. He reigned from 1894 to March 15th 1917 when he was forced to abdicate. He was given the nickname Nicholas the Bloody, in reference partly to his cruel way of handling a few harmless demonstrators who wanted to present him with a petition. They were all shot on their way to the Winter Palace." he stated, his eyes never breaking contact with the teacher. "Is my answer loud and clear enough for you, sir?"
Jay heard one of the students suppress a laugh while Mr. Square coughed in embarrassment.
"Very well, good job Mr. Aslan." he half-heartedly said before changing the subject.
Jay sat back down and couldn't help but let out a smile facing the window next to him.
He doubted the guy would interrogate him again anytime soon.
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