Flightless Grounding (Gay)

First Flight

The loud noise of the door drew the attention of the two lone office staff in the attendence room. I gulped. Mrs. Kernan always said everything so politely. But there was no hiding the fact that every word that originated from her mouth was laced with poison. "Hey, uh, could I get a pass to class?"

Mrs. Kernan looked up once again from her computer desk but looked back down again once she had realized it was me. She nodded to the woman next to her. The teacher beside her was her exact opposite. Youthful skin, blonde hair and bright-eyed - probably new, I deduced. "How may I help you, young man?"

"A pass," I muttered. "To class," I added as an afterthought.

"Oh. Oh! Yes," realization seemed to dawn on her face. "Do you happen to have an excuse note?"

"No, look - I'll just take the detention and be done with it."

The blonde looked at me as if I'd come from another planet. Perhaps she had no experience dealing with teenagers. "U-um, yeah." She fumbled for a pass and the detention clipboard. "Here," she said, handing me the Sign-Your-Life-Away board of doom.

As the blonde filled out the slip she looked up. "Your name?"

"Deviin. D-e-v-i-i-n. Rowe. R-o-w-e," she had to squish in a second "i" to my first name and add an "e" to my last, as she had spelled my name phonetically upon hearing it. I averted my eyes to the clock. Damn. I wasn't late enough. I still had half an hour of English left.

The blonde pulled the slip from the pad and handed it to me with a smile. I smiled back, but not the way she probably wanted. I winked and made a call me motion with my hand. She turned around as if I'd just done some terrible deed. I had to keep myself from laughing. I gave a sarcastic smile as I waved out to Mrs. Kernan, who returned the gesture - sarcasm and all.

When I got out of the office I walked swiftly through yet another set of doors and then, finally out of teachers view, began walking ever so slowly to class. When I got to the door it turned out that all my concentration on walking so slow that most of class would have gone by, only amounted to five minutes. I still had twenty-five more to go in English.

I considered finding somplace to hang 'til class was over, but it was too late. A classmate whose name I couldn't remember saw me standing at the door and got up and opened it. I walked in, immediately feeling curious sets of eyes on me.

"How nice of you to join us today, Mister Rowe." Ms. Howard smiled but raised a contrasting brow. "Just take a seat, it's free work time."

Music to my ears. Free work time equalled free nap time in my book. As I approached the empty desk to the far right I was intercepted. By Jace. "Aye man, you gonna be at football practice today?"

"Nah, got detention." It wasn't a lie, but I wasn't going, so technically it was. Besides, who the heck does coach think he is, making us practice on a Friday night?

"Shit, man - I feel you, I have tutoring today after school." He went on to talk about some other things. I don't know what, I was just waiting for him to finish.

"Yeah," I glanced up at the clock. Only four minutes. Damn. That wasn't even enough time to doze off.

"So, what'd I miss - class-wise?"

"Hm," Jace took a moment to ponder. "Oh, we were just working on that poster about the American Dream."

"I finished that last class," I snickered. "Any homework?"

"Nah, we're off scot-free, luckily." Luckily indeed.

The bell rang and the class scattered for the door. There were a few stragglers, desperately trying to jam textbooks into their backpacks or zip bulging bags.

I walked over to Ms. Howard, handing her the slip. She nodded noncommittedly, took the paper and entered the information into the class attendence records.

As I turned around, I knocked right into some guy with a skater haircut and a single lip ring on the left side. Or was that his right? Whatever.

"C'mon Dev," my girlfriend, Alexa called from the hallway, peeking in. For a moment I thought about helping the guy out but the prospect of hanging out with Alexa was just far too great.

I walked out and Ms. Howard's jaw nearly hit the floor. She wasn't a very expressive teacher either. It was like she tried to drown out most of what she found out about students personal lives - who loudly gossiped it to their nearby friends, and overlooked foul language that tossed around here and there. But apparently my actions must have been a large affront to teenage society.

Ms. Howard shot me a look that actually made me feel bad and bent down to help.

"C'mon!" Alexa pulled my arm and then gave a slight giggle. "You do remember what today is, don't you?" I was at a crossroad. This is the one moment in life every guy dreads. Forgetting a date. What the hell was today supposed to be anyway? It wasn't like I kept a calendar marked with every event. Heck, I couldn't even remember what I ate for dinner last night.

But here was the real problem. If I lied I was screwed. If I told the truth...I was even more screwed. The only option? Bluff and hope it works. "Of course I remember what today is! How could I possibly forget?"

Alexa looked like she was going to say something until I pulled out my wallet and handed her two twenty dollar bills.

She took the money and smiled dimly. "'Ya know, something handmade would have been more special." At this, she pouted, her long brown hair falling into her face.

"I know."

She looked at me again, as if she wanted to say something important, but shook her head like she changed her mind. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah," I said, feeling dumb as I stood in the hallway full of students rushing past to get to class.

I was about to go to History, I really was. But then I remembered how boring the class was.