Ralph Langley tended to refrain from using the word hate, but he was willing to make an exception for private school. His parents rejected his request to stay enrolled at Georgia Cyber Academy until graduation; insisting that he needed socialization and real learning experiences in his final year of middle school. The only choice he was given in the matter was whether he wanted to go to public East Point Middle School or the private Eastern Woodland Academy.
In Ralph's choice of the private school, he was hoping that the students would be more disciplined, and academically inclined. The uniforms would be respectable and the experience wouldn't be so drastically different from those he'd had in military school. It'd be less of a curveball, he assumed. But he was surprised to learn that most students were uptight, ignorant rich kids whose bedrooms were bigger than Ralph's entire house and the rest were delinquents whose parents hoped private school would whip them into shape. There seemed to be no in between, and Ralph didn't fit in with either crowd.
Sure, Jeffery made good money. But he was never a big spender. Ralph knew they had a substantial emergency fund in a bank account somewhere, a life insurance policy, and that even though their house was small, Jeffery owned it. His dad had always taught him that people put more value on money than it really had. What mattered to Jeffery Langley was family, community, safety, health, and sentiment. He wouldn't pay big bucks for a nice vehicle or a hot tub in the backyard, but a good education was something worth its salt.
What Ralph was genuinely looking forward to about returning to school was physical education or gym class. He had been used to a vigorous workout and training schedule back at the academy, and after five months and a whole summer free of any physical training, Ralph was more than ready to get back into the groove. He was expecting a high class program, but was surprised by the nonsense fitness tests and intro level sport games his gym classes were filled with. He was more hopeful about the prospect of training in the fitness centre at lunch and after school, but he quickly discovered that the gym 'belonged' to the junior and senior students, who don't take kindly to sharing the space with middle schoolers.
"How's 7th grade treating you guys?" Ralph asked the twins over the phone two weeks into the new semester.
"It's not bad" Sam replied simply. "We get hot lunch every Friday. And it's not gross cafeteria food like the other four days of the week. We get real good stuff like McDonalds and Pizza Hut."
"How's Grade 8 going?" Eric asked Ralph.
"Could be better. I'm not really loving my new school. I miss GCA" he admitted with a sigh.
"We heard Will and Tony and a couple others are back at the academy" Sam chimed in.
"As in Bainbridge?" Ralph questioned with surprise.
"Uh huh. I think Rapper is too" Eric added, and Sam nodded to him in confirmation.
"Wow. Did they say if they really wanted to or did their parents make them go?" Ralph wondered.
"Tony wanted to for sure" Sam confirmed. "I dunno about the others."
"It's not like anything bad happened to anyone at the academy. It was all after we left the campus, y'know. I don't think any of them are gonna be doing the international program though" Eric stated.
"That'd be crazy" Sam agreed.
"I guess that's true" Ralph considered. "It wasn't really the academy's fault, what happened to us."
"Did they ever find out why the plane went down? I just realized I never actually knew how that happened" Sam wondered aloud.
"It was never in the news" Eric said certainly.
"It's likely gonna be hard to determine without Captain Benson or the plane itself" Ralph assumed. "The data from the plane's signal wouldn't give them much to go on."
"So we're just never gonna know?" Sam questioned, his tone upset and shocked.
"I would guess not" Ralph predicted, much to the twins' disappointment.
The night of the festival, a few weeks back now, Jack had brought Ralph home and explained to Laurie that he'd gotten severe motion sickness. Ralph tried to downplay it, but of course his always frantic and concerned mother wouldn't have it. She thanked Jack profusely for looking out for her little boy and offered to let him stay. He'd insisted that he had to get back to Emma and wished Laurie and Ralph well before he went on his way.
"You never mentioned Jack had a girlfriend" Ralph's mom questioned her son.
"Oh, well I.. I didn't think it was important, I guess" Ralph shrugged it off tensely.
"How long has he been seeing her?" she asked curiously.
"Six months maybe, I don't know for sure" Ralph shrugged again, hyperfixated on the glass of water in front of him at the table.
"Six months? That's a long time, he's never mentioned her in the time that he's spent here either. Wonder if they're serious" his mom went on as she unloaded the clean dishes from the dishwasher.
"Couldn't tell you" Ralph awkwardly took a sip from his glass, though there were only a couple drops of water left in it.
Ralph couldn't admit to his mom that Emma was a touchy subject between him and Jack without telling her why. But what Ralph didn't realize was that his mother was very intuitive, especially when it came to her son, and she already knew that something was off; even if she wasn't exactly sure what it was.
Between the festival and the first couple weeks back in school, Ralph and Jack didn't talk at all. Despite Jack's insistence on taking Ralph home that night, both boys were still upset with each other. Jack living an hour and a half away made it easy for them to avoid each other without raising suspicion from parents and siblings. But some days, when Ralph was really miserable at school, he missed Jack. He missed all those days they'd spend together in military school, sitting by the night fire, talking past lights out, playing chess in the main hall, watching movies in Ralph and Simon's room until they fell asleep, working harder during training sessions to try and keep up with each other.
Ralph was certain that his longing for Jack and the academy was intensified by how much he disliked Eastern Woodland Academy. Sometimes, he'd watch the kids at recess, tackling each other and running around like wild chimps. He considered that maybe kids were savages whether they were trapped on a deserted island or not. But when the bell rang, and they all ran to line up at the door like a heard of Pavlov's dogs, Ralph realized how stupid that thought really was.
Ralph got off the bus on a windy Thursday afternoon, and trekked the half mile down his street to his house. When he got inside, his dad was pacing slowly around the living room talking on the phone.
"That's exciting! I didn't know they did that for middle schools" his father spoke enthusiastically. "I'm sure it will be, yes .... Well, remember it's all just for fun and there shouldn't be any pressure to do something you don't feel ready to do, right? ... Yes, exactly..."
Ralph stared as he let his backpack slide down his arm and onto the floor. When Jeffery saw his son, he smiled and waved at the boy before wrapping up his conversation, and hung up the phone.
"How was school?" he asked warmly.
"Uh, fine.. who was that?" Ralph fixated on the call.
"Jack, he was just talking about this dance thing happening at his school tomorrow" he answered casually as he set the phone back on its receiver.
"Did he ask for me?" Ralph wondered, trying to come off nonchalant about it.
"I don't think he mentioned it, I was the one who called them" his father confirmed.
"What for?" Ralph pressed.
"Just to check in. I worry about the family sometimes, you can understand why. Have you talked to Jack much lately?" he asked his son.
"Not so much. I'm busy with school" Ralph justified as he picked up his backpack and hung it up on the coat rack.
Jeffery just nodded simply, refraining from mentioning that Ralph was on the phone with Sam and Eric at least once a week.
"So Jack's going to a school dance?" Ralph asked attempting to suppress his obvious curiousity.
"It seems so. He's taking that girlfriend of his. Emily did he say her name was?"
"Emma" Ralph confirmed bitterly.
"So you do know of her" Jeffery concluded. "Neither of you have ever mentioned her before now."
"We don't talk about that stuff much" Ralph shrugged, trying to ignore the pounding in his chest.
"You got your eye on any girls in your class?" Jeffery asked his son in a teasing but still genuine tone.
"Gosh no" Ralph scoffed dismissively. "I don't have anything in common with them."
"Well, getting to know people is how you find things in common" his father pointed out.
"I don't need that kind of distraction" Ralph proclaimed as he grabbed an apple from the basket on the dining table. Jeffery laughed at his son's comment, willing to hold onto that version of Ralph for as long as he could. Ralph would likely be a moody teenager before he knew it. "Jack can grow up early and have all the girls he wants, but I'm more responsible than that. He just better not come crying to us when he gets one of 'em pregnant" Ralph sneered.
"Ralph!" Jeffery's voice shot up before he could catch himself. "There's no need to make comments like that. That isn't very responsible of you at all."
Ralph sighed heavily as he opened and tossed his apple into the garbage can beside the counter, only a couple bites taken out of it. "Okay fine, I'm sorry. Happy?" his tone was still tense and rather disrespectful as he left down the hallway without giving his father a chance to respond, closing his bedroom door behind him.
Moody teenager, Jeffery sighed to himself, maybe we're already there.