Almost There

- 6 -

After their Chem class had wrapped up, Jacqui and Tess walked to their lockers together—but then Jacqui headed in the opposite direction, and Tess picked her way down the hall toward her English classroom to face what she knew would be the toughest part of her day.

Just as she arrived at the classroom, the bell rang. Tess was greeted at the door by a svelte woman in a mulberry blazer and skirt. She had a shock of gray in her chestnut hair, which was smoothed back into a sleek chignon, and she wore glasses that made Tess think of a librarian from the '50s.

"Don't worry," said the woman, "Everyone tends to run a bit behind on the first day. Come on in and choose a seat. I'm Ms. Keene."

Thankfully, Tess was not the last person to make it to class. As the last students settled in, Ms. Keene closed the classroom door and looked around with a smile. She spread her arms in a gesture that encompassed all of her students. "Look at all of you. What a beautiful sight: twenty-five bright and shining faces, all eager to learn. You've been waiting all summer for this moment, haven't you?"

There were a few chuckles. One student rolled his eyes.

"Now, Mr. Flynn, do not play the 'sardonic adolescent' card on me. I know a mind thirsting for knowledge when I see one. And I have just the thing for you all. Mystery...scandal...and sin!"

She turned to the board and picked up a dry erase marker with a flourish. In a quick, half-cursive hand, she wrote: "The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne - 1850." Then, she spun on her heel and pointed her marker at the student she'd called Mr. Flynn. "You, sir: as a sardonic adolescent, what do you know about The Scarlet Letter?"

"Um, I don't know. Something about a red letter A."

"A red letter A! Yes, that does happen to factor into the plot. Well done, Sam. Annie, how about you?"

"It's about Puritans, and the red letter A is for 'adulteress.'"

"Indeed. Although the novel was written in 1850, it tells the story of a woman in a 17th-century Puritan colony. Our dear Mr. Hawthorne set his story some two hundred years before he wrote it, which means, my friends, that you are about to read a riveting historical fiction. You, my dear—what's your name?"

Startled, Tess sat up a little straighter. "Tess Morrison."

"Tess. Would you be so kind as to pass out the books while I take down attendance?"

There was a stack of novels sitting on top of Ms. Keene's desk. Tess took up half the stack as Ms. Keene opened her attendance ledger and began to call names from the list. Passing out books was a simple task, but Tess felt like everyone was staring at her, and she wished she could do just one simple thing without blushing.

When all the students had a battered paperback copy of The Scarlet Letter in hand, Ms. Keene perched on the edge of her desk at the front of the class and opened the book. "This is the first of a few novels you'll read in my class, friends, and it will be an adventure. Let's dive right in, and we'll save the boring stuff, like the syllabus, for later. Any objections?"

Ms. Keene paused for a beat. Hearing no objections, she cleared her throat with a touch of melodrama and began to read. "Chapter one: The Prison-Door. A throng of bearded men in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes..."

Thus commenced Tess's English Literature class, and it was not a promising start; by the time the bell rang, Tess's head was swimming. She felt half asleep, and she had an assignment to read another torturous chapter that evening. It seemed that Ms. Keene didn't waste time getting into the hard work...which didn't bode well for Tess's final class of the day, Senior English.

Tess didn't know what the difference between the two classes would be, but she did have a small cause to celebrate: the teacher would be the same, which meant she could stay in her seat through the bells. She took a moment to stand up and stretch, and as she was sitting back down, she saw Jacqui coming in.

Jacqui grinned brightly when she saw Tess and snagged a seat right next to her. Her very presence seemed to lift Tess's mood.

"Hey, Jacqui."

"How's it going?" Jacqui flipped open her notebook and took out a pen.

"Um, well." Tess lowered her voice. "I have the same teacher for my Lit class, and it seems like it's gonna be intense."

Jacqui raised her eyebrows and looked around the room, as if she could find clues there as to what Senior English had in store. "Well," she said, "At least we're in this together."