Missing Assignment

Chapter 2

"What? Class was so bad you had to try burning the whole place down?" Chris asks Cody. It's meant as a joke, but knowing Cody, he might be right.
"Hey! I was just trying to cook!" Cody says back as if it justified setting off the sprinkler system for the whole school.
"What would you even be cooking at school?" Mars asks.
"Don packed my lunch cold, I wanted it hot." He replies.
"Well, guess what? Now it's wet. Hope you like soup!" I tell him, taking my shirt off to wring out some of the water. Chris shakes his head to get some water out of his blonde hair, one of a few facial similarities he has with his sister.
"How about we go out for lunch today? Get some good food for a change!" Faith asks, wringing out her hair too.
"Says the girl who was just worried about head counts." I remind her.
"Hey, getting dry food is important!" She replied.
"Getting better wifi would be nice. Having to hack into the school wifi to unblock the sites I'm using is starting to get very tedious." October adds.
"I'm in!" Mars says.
"I could go for a real burger." Chris agrees.
"Hell yeah!" I say, punching the air. A hand grabs my wrist while it's there.
"You seem to have gotten lost during the evacuation! Come on, Zackary, it's time to head in, and I'd like to talk to you about your grade." I hear Mr.Marlow say, voice still chipper as ever. He starts leading me back to the door. Damn, and I was so close to getting away.

"Have a seat, Zack." Mr.Marlow says, gesturing at a chair across from his desk. A puddle is still there from the sprinklers that have since been turned off. I tip the chair and watch the water as it joins the rest on the floor.
"If this is about my missing work, I already told you-" I start, but he cuts me off before I finish my excuse.
"C'mon Zack, I know school isn't always fun, but I want you to succeed! If you don't pull your grades up somehow, I'm afraid you may have to retake this class. I'm not a fan of holding people back, you know!" He says, still keeping his upbeat tone and demeanor even though he's soaking wet. I swear you could cut his arm off, and the man would still find the good side of it.
"Then don't." I reply flatly.
"I don't have much of a choice if you fail my class now, do I? But what I can do is give you extra credit to boost your grade a bit! But you do have to do an assignment to get it, it'll be a special project, just for you!" He tells me, the smile on his face is really annoying.
"What, do I have to name all the presidents' birthdays? Make a shitty diorama of some history battle?" I ask in a cocky mocking way. I can't believe he's gone almost the whole school year without cracking, without that smile turning into a frown. I'm still waiting for the day he cries.
"Nope, I'm going to have you do a history project about our town! I want you to do some research about something that happened here that you find interesting! Write an essay to read or make a presentation to show about your topic, and if you do a good job, which I know you will, I'll give you the credit needed to pass my class!" He replies happily.
"So, I get to look at our towns history and pick any topic I want to talk about, and I pass?" I ask, making sure he knows what he's telling me.
"Yep! I figured if I let you choose your own topic, it would help since you know what interests you!" He replies.
"Alright, I'll get right on that." I say, standing up to leave.
"Have fun!" He adds as I walk out the door.

I leave Mrs. Glass's class as the lunch bell rings, Mars is already waiting for me at the door, and their green eyes light up as they see me.
"Who let you out early?" I ask as we start walking towards the library, there's a back door in a hall by the library hidden behind a wall that makes it easier to sneak out of than the front doors by the office.
"I skipped my last class. Gym is for losers anyway. Perks of not having parents, who are they gonna call if I don't show?" They brag, for basically being an orphan, they take it pretty well.
"Wait up!" Chris yells as he runs up to us, his sister walks behind him.
"What's with the rush? It's not like they're leaving without us!" Faith chimes in as she catches up to her brother.
"They might if you keep taking so long!" He replies.
"Relax, dude, we're still waiting on doxer and boom boy." Mars says, I laugh a bit at the nicknames.
"BOOM BOY COMIN IN HOT!" Cody screams as he runs and slides across the wet floor full speed. His body stops suddenly when it collides with mine, and he knocks us both over.
"Sorry, dude." He says, pulling me back up to my feet. October walks out of the library as we get to it, and we all head out the door, leaving a small rock in the doorframe to keep it from fully closing and locking us out.