The Weight of the World (31 page)

Valerie
was down the hall posting a notice on the student involvement board.
Devon kissed Frank goodbye at the door and headed over, curious to
see what she was doing.

“Didn't
Nick destroy the abstinence club?” she asked, looking at the
meeting notice in Valerie's hand. Devon was just barely in her
regular clothes, now. She could only wear pants that stretched and
her fitted t-shirt displayed a slightly convex stomach.

“He
tried to. I sent out an email last night. I let everyone know exactly
what Nick was up to and let everyone know that no matter what
mistakes they made, they can come back and renew their promise. We're
recruiting freshmen immediately, before Nick gets much of a chance.”

“I'm
not sure Dr. Livingstone's rant did much to sway him,” Devon said.

“It
did something. How much is yet to be tested,” Valerie said.

“Well,
even he's smart enough to know that he doesn't want to be a teen dad.
So maybe it helped. Look where my impulses got me; I'm wearing
stretch waistbands and getting diaper coupons in the mail from
Target. But you know Nick, that kick in the balls probably did more
than a thousand speeches could do.”

“You
know, it's not too late for you to join, too,” Valerie said.

“Abstinence
club? Me?” Devon laughed. “Keep dreaming, Hess. Keep dreaming.”

Zach
nearly walked into Peter as he entered Dr. Livingstone's office. It
was this near-collision that made Zach notice just how tall Peter had
gotten in the past year. “Woah, when did you grow?”

Jason
heard voices at the door to the hall. He didn't look up from his
newspaper, “It's too early to be going home sick,” he called.

“Fine
then,” Zach said with a smile, “I won't ever come and visit you
again.”

“Oh
hey, Zach. That black-eye's almost gone. Peter?”

“I
just... I had something I wanted to talk to you about. I can wait
until Zach's done.”

“Something
Pantheon related?” Zach asked.

Peter
shook his head and looked down at his tennis shoes.

“Oh,
well, I just wanted to say hey, see how everything was going,” Zach
said.

Jason
nodded. “Good. It's good. Luckily the kids were out of town and I
was on my way to pick them up during the panther attack, you know. So
life's been nice and boring. Or as boring as it can be with
toddlers,” Jason added.

“Cool...
well... I'll let Peter talk to you about his thing. See you later.”

“See
you later, Mr. Jacobs.”

Zach
walked back towards the door, glancing over at Peter curiously.
Whatever he wanted to talk to Jason about, Zach was sure that it was
serious.

“Oh
hey, Zach!” Jason called. “This might interest you. They got the
approval for the school trip this year.”

“Yeah?”
Zach asked. “Where to?”

“Greece,”
Jason said with a smile. “Feel like visiting the motherland?”

http://www.olympia-heights.com

Twitter-
@Nimbuschick

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