The warm cover my body had clung to was snatched away following Nonna's voice.
"Guess who's going to meet their teachers today?"
Grumbling, "Come on Nonna," then forming a fetal position.
"Oh no you don't, stayin' up until four wasn't such a good idea now was it?"
Only if she knew why.
Sighing, there was no way around this. "Alright Nonna I'm up, I'm up.
"Now if I come in here and you're not...."
Rising from the bed, "I'll be ready in fifteen, calm down." She gave me one last look of warning, eventually leaving.
Exhaling loudly, the clock read 9:09 a.m. Surprisingly I did sleep, thankfully with no interruptions sort of speak.
Both of my feet met the carpet once again. The chill that crept up my spine everytime I thought about it just wouldn't go away.
Grabbing a shirt that actually was clean seemed like a challenge. It had been a minute since Nonna and I took a stop at the local laundry mat.
So many things I had rather been doing than meeting some shitty biased people who only gave a damn about a paycheck (not my education).
Although, there was no doubt I couldn't have blamed myself. Somewhere deep down, I knew Nonna would never trust me the same after that. Seeing her eyes filled with fear as to what could've happened. Lack of trust would always be there.
After getting myself ready, nervouseness started to kick in and reluctance. All of it felt like a waste of time.
A knock bounced off of the walls in my tiny room, "Ace, are you ready?"
"Yeah, I'm coming," the effort to cover up my frustration was not made.
Opening the door, my grandmother looked ecstatic in her pink sweater and blue jeans. "Let's move out then."
I did not dress up and wore simply a black sweatshirt with black jeans. From a random person's point of view, my expression added on to my appearance, it'd seem like I was on a mission to kill someone.
Walking quickly to the door, Nonna made every attempt to lighten the mood. Did not happen. Her green Honda sat proudly in the parking lot ready to go, along with its owner.
She fumbled to reach the keys in her purse. It shocked me how excited she was for just conversing with lousy educators.
Getting in to the vehicle, we drove off immediately. Giving me no time to even put on the seat belt.
"Please be sure to be on your best behavior Ace. A first impression is everything."
"I'm not a kid Nonna, I'll respect them if they respect me."
Simply putting it, I refused to kiss ass to a whole bunch of stuck up snobs.
"Oh honey your going into this with a negative mindset. Give the school a chance, I'm sure you'll like it." Her voice filled with joy.
Mine darkened, "Do you really think they give a damn about me? Clearly you don't know how this educational system works."
The side of my head knocked, "Watch your language ragazzo. I expect the best from you now. Don't make this harder than it has to be, you've put this all on yourself."
Before a response was made, the school came into view.
The building showed to be a lot smaller than my previous one in New York. However, the campus stretched farther this time. Blue and white everwhere. Banners with support for their foortball team, the Confederates.
Robert Lee Highschool stood proudly with a blue strip of paint around the entire building.
"Jesus Nonna, the Confederates....really?" I breathed out.
She glanced in my direction, "It's just the name of the football team. And don't use the Lord's name in vein like that."
Sighing loudly, several cars were in the parking lot.
Saturday was when we decided to visit the school and people were actually there. They just needed something to keep them busy obviously. Unlike them, I have a life.
After parking near the middle of the mass of automobiles Nonna gave me a soft smile. "You'll do just fine."
I wasn't really nervous about the event. After her bringing it up, it didn't help much.
Arriving into the building, it looked a lot bigger inside with 'Go Confederates' posted everywhere.
Catching a glimpse of the gym to my right and the front office to my left. Opening the front door, Nonna entered in before me. Then greeted a secretary.
"Hello I'm Mrs. Coraline, how may I help you," she gave us a bright smile. The woman looked to be about in her early 40s with blonde hair and grey roots. She didn't have many wrinkles with pearly white teeth giving off a youthful glow.
"Hi I'm Ms. Graziani and this is my grandson Ace Valentino. I spoke with you on the phone and picked up school enrollment forms from here."
The lady typed on her keyboard searching for something, "Yes, here we are. You signed in yesterday, correct?"
"Correct."
Mrs. Coraline then told us to take a seat on an antique looking couch near the desk. Looking around it appeared the school embraced the football team like a god.
C-feds everywhere along with the wide entrance and images smothering the walls, students most likely painted them.
"Ms. Graziani the teachers seem to be off of their lunch break. I'll print out Ace's classes along with a map on the back to show you your way. If there are any questions—ask myself or the teachers, thank you for your patience." Her voice was sweet and simple.
The sound of typing stopped, a printer scanned a piece of paper. "Here you are, welcome to Robert Lee Highschool Ms. Graziani and Mr. Valentino."
"Thank you so much dear." We both left without another word. Nonna looked on the back to see a map with the whole layout of the school.
"Damn this campus is big," I said aloud. A little too loudly.
"Watch your mouth boy." Both of us took around twenty minutes to find the first room. Eventually the room number we were looking for appeared.
"Room 209....Science," groaning, my ignorance for anything to do with the subject did not help me at all the year before.
Nonna turned to me, licking her finger she tried to brush me off and fix my hair. Shooing her away, "Come on Nonna, I don't look like a complete bum."
"No you don't, just remember first impressions are everything ragazzo."
Rolling my eyes, I led the way to the door, shocked seeing a classroom with about ten students.
"And who do we have here?" An old lady with a gut the size of a bus and silver hair everywhere asked.
Nonna answered, "I'm sorry to have interrupted you, my grandson and I are just greeting teachers for his first day on Monday."
She looked at me with slight disapproval, "I see. Well I'm Ms. Granderson, I'm happy to see a new....student." Her tone gave me a bad vibe.
It took every bit of effort not to call her a blow hard frog mouth. However, I didn't stop myself from looking her up and down with distate either.
Nonna talked more, my attention was mainly focused on the students. Some gave me a glance, others blatantly stared and smirked.
Two guys in particular didn't favor me much. Getting the other's attention and pointing. They looked to be twins with with dark blue hoodies and beanies over their heads. Great.
Blonde girl in the front winked in my direction while filing her nails. Cleavage on full view with heaps of make up and mascara. Blue eye shadow painted everywhere. Yeah, not interested in barbies.
"Right now we are having Saturday school," the old hag announced.
Saturday school was something assigned in New York too. For students who had too many tardies or detentions. Every one they had, I skipped. Something told me Ms. Granderson wasn't going to let that happen.
The day carried on with us getting lost, finding our way, and students taking a peek at me—the new kid all day. Some teachers were alright, boring as hell. Not all of them had students though.
What caught my attention was the ISS room. Curly dark hair had me doing a double take.
"Let's see room 340 should be around here somewhere," Nonna rambled on. I paid no attention seeing as it had been Tony.
Rounding up to the door, I started waving my hands to catch his eye. Alyssa wasn't with him. What really surprised me overall is that he actually showed up to something like that and that he actually went to school. I expected him to be a drop-out.
There were very few seniors in the room, mostly freshman it seemed sleeping or throwing paper air planes. An old wrinkled up bag of bones sat at the desk snoring away.
Antonio looked deep in thought and sort of stressed with dark circles under his eyes. Running both hands through his dark brown hair.
"Ace! Get over here," Nonna whisper-yelled. My mind drew a blank, never had I ever seen Tony so bummed out.
Surely he'd figure whatever it was out...right?
"I'm comin' Nonna," both eyes still peered at the door. It had me puzzled because if even Antonio Alvarez showed up for that kind of bullshit, things around the school would be pretty tight on discipline. Not to mention how 'out of it' he was.
Over and over my mind kept asking, what the hell are you going to do?