Call Me Romantic (BxB)

Chapter 5

{ꔫ NASH ꔫ}

"Nash Hayes, please report to the 11th grade office." The speaker above the student's head booms before going off with a click.

"oooh, you're in trouble," Nash's friend, Archie, teases. Archie is never the serious type of guy. He has brown skin and it compliments his perfect teeth when he smiles. He has a buzz despite Nova begging him to get rid of it.

Even though he met Archie just this year, they are pretty close and Archie always has some wise advice like an old man would. Nash doesn't have many friends so anyone who's friends with him gets pretty attached quickly. Archie and Nash are close with art since they both take a livelihood into it. They love talking about art ideas and drama they’ve overheard in school during class. It's probably the most fun Nash has had in an art class and he has to be grateful about that.

Archie of course knows what Sam did as well, how could he not? The bruise that is painted on Nash’s face is pretty obvious. Teachers have been asking all day too, but he lies about it.

Nash drops his paintbrush in the cup, "I'm sure it's nothing." At least he gets a break from painting. It gives him more time to think about his illustration and next steps. Maybe even a short sweet story behind it. The teacher gives Nash a pass, and he waves to Archie before he walks to the office that's on the other side of the school. He has to admit that he's nervous. Nash never goes to the office, and if he does, it's for early dismissals or paperwork.

Is he in trouble because of what happened on Wednesday? Maybe they saw the video and want to talk to him about it. It was on school property so it would count as a school fight. Well, not a fight more like a one-and-done. Either way, it’s not out of the question but Nash seriously doesn’t want to talk to Sam because they will call him in.

When he gets into the office, the ladies point him to a room in a small hallway that Nash goes down a second later. He puts his sweaty hands on the door and takes a deep breath— “You got this.”—before opening it.

The room is small, with a work desk on the right side of the light grayish-blue wall and pictures about ' reaching out for help' and suicide hotlines. It's nice, but no one is looking, and going, "Hell yeah, this made my day!"

A middle-aged woman with a gray pixie cut lifts her eye from the computer and smiles, "Hayes, take a seat." Nash sits down on a gray cushion chair with wood arm handles in front of her long desk. Her desk is filled with papers and folders, showing an insight into her chaotic but organized life at the same time.

Mrs. Quinn is one of the good adults in this building who likes her job. Nash comes here a lot when he's having a bad day and visits Mrs. Quinn. Thank God for his 504 plan. Guess having a mental breakdown about your gender identity is a really easy way to get the plan. Or maybe they just don't know how—or don’t want to— approach it so they take it the easy way out.

Mrs. Quinn types something on her computer before rolling away to the other side of her desk with her black leather chair, the wheels squeaking against the floor as she does so. "Alright, I called you down here today because I wanted to talk about credit." Mrs Quinn began as she ruffled through the papers on her desk and found a thin packet.

Nash huffs and sits back relieved it’s not about what he thought but also annoyed, "I thought I had enough?"

"Well," she adjusted her glasses and showed the packet to Nash. It’s his picture with all the school information, height, sex, grade, GPA, etc.

"I was thinking you could join a sport. Your grades are great, and I already checked with your mom, so you don't have too much after school. You only have to play for a semester too. You've never done a club or anything and the only one you’ve done was GSA but… that isn’t much. Plus, It'll look good on your college application. A lot of schools look for that kind of stuff and it’s very impressive. Jobs too."