Juliana

12. Still have to work with her

"I can't believe you convinced Mr. S to let you switch partners." Aaron shook his head. "If I was him, I would've told you to suck it up and deal with it."

I laughed and opened up my binder, ready to take notes. "What can I say? Charm is a quality that God chose to bless me with."

"Well, it's making you look like a dumbass."

"So what? It'd be better for me to lie and act like everything is cool with Juliana?"

"No. You try and work it out with her. That's the correct thing to do, Robbie." He paused for a second. "You know you still gotta work on her with that worldwide competition you foolishly entered."

"Damn! I forgot about that."

"Who's the smart one now?" He clapped me on the back. "Not you. That's for sure."

"Robbie, Aaron. See me after class." Mr. Saltzstien said, looking us dead in the eye over the rim of his glasses.

***

"Yes, Sir?" I asked Mr. Saltzstien after walking up to his desk. Aaron was dead silent beside me. In fact, I didn't even know if he was still breathing.

"What were you two talking about earlier that was more important than learning about Electron Configuration?"

"Nothing. Sorry." I said, twiddling my thumbs.

"You should be because you both earned a detention after school today."

"What! We can't do that. We got football practice..." Aaron finally said something.

"And you can go after detention. It's been decided guys; there isn't anything you can say to change my mind."

I tapped my finger on his desk. "What if I slipped you a twenty?"

"Nope. The only thing I would even make me consider it would be if you could somehow get an autograph for my daughter from her favorite actor. Even then, it is still questionable."

I said a quick prayer that Mr. S's daughter's favorite actor was Sam. If he was, well, there probably wasn't going to be any detention for me! It was times like this that I loved having a famous actor for a brother.

"Who's her favorite actor?" Aaron asked, glaring at me a little bit.

"That new teenage guy all the girls are doting over—Sam Patterson is his name I believe..."

I nodded my head. "What if I could promise you an autograph tomorrow and a phone call some time in the near future?"

"You'd get yourself out of detention."

"Well, I can make that promise."

"Alright. You don't have detention today, but Aaron still does. If I don't have that autograph tomorrow, Robbie, you will have detention for the next week."

"Yes, Sir."

***

On my lunch break, I sent Sam a quick text.

Me: hey. wanna do your favorite older bro a favor?