Two Alive, стр. 31

Eryanna laughed for a second before noticing she had hit Johnathan with the door. “I’m sorry, old man.” she mumbled.

“Eryanna go sit down, sweetheart.” Francine jumped up from her desk when the brat tried to take off sprinting again. “And stop running!”

Eryanna obeyed and walked to her seat, apologizing again. Amber followed the little girl, chuckling to herself and telling Johnathan good morning. He said good morning back and looked to Francine and caught her hazel eyes looking back at him. Johnathan gave her a salute, two fingers to his forehead, and she gave him back the same. He backed out of the classroom and went back down the hall, headed for his office.

Students were starting to pour into the building and Eryanna wasn’t the only one who was running to class. Hector was on his way, speeding past Johnathan on short stumpy legs but giving the old man a high five as he went. Staff members were in tow, following their students and Johnathan made his way through the hall, greeting all the students that came by him. Shaking hands with some, fist bumping others and debating if the Warriors would win tonight with anyone who asked; student or staff member. Before Johnathan knew it, he saw Arthur making a b-line straight for him as he swung the corner to head to his office.

“Oh, sorry Johnathan. Change of plans. Uh…” Arthur went through a cycle of emotions, trying to find the words for what he wanted to say.

Johnathan just stared at him and folded his arms with a hurry-the-hell-up-and-get-on-with-it expression.

Arthur continued, hurriedly, “Oh, well, Antonio came to class today, and this is the only chance I’ll be able to get him all caught up with his IEP. Brandon and Rachel are taking the kids to the van now, because Jasmine is gonna have to take them to the movies now in order to get classroom 7 to their work on time. It sucks I won’t get to go with them, but I have to stay with Antonio.”

“Ok Arthur, why exactly are you telling me all this?” Johnathan was squeezing his eyes shut trying to blink away the migraine that was coming.

“I was hoping you could take Miles out to do some vocational with you so that he doesn’t get left in class alone. At least until Abby gets back. She’s still out picking up kids. But if you can’t I understand.”

Johnathan rolled his eyes and nodded his head. “Yeah sure Arthur. I got it. I’m free for the moment.”

“Oh, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Arthur smiled big.

Johnathan patted him on the shoulder and went with him to classroom 4, leading the way. Inside the class, many of the students were standing at the door already lined up and ready for their fieldtrip. They were all excited to see the old man but even more excited about going to the movies to see X-men: Apocalypse. Many of them were wearing X-men t-shirts and doing poses they saw in the commercials. A boy named Grant, who was tall and lanky with a bird’s nest for hair, was fussing and arguing about everything while the other boys antagonized him.

The eleven-year-old Miles was sitting at his desk at the back of the class, looking down, sad.

“Heyyy! What’s up Mr. Johnathan!” Antonio stood from his desk next to Miles and went to dap the old man.

“Antonio, you finally came to class today? Where you been man?” Johnathan shook hands with the seventeen-year-old and reminded him to pull up his sagging jeans. The puff coat Antonio wore smelled like marijuana, but Johnathan ignored the faint smell. He was happy to see the young man back in class after spending the week absent from school; no doubt with his older brother who lived in Las Vegas.

Antonio laughed, “I had a doctor’s appointment old man! Don’t trip!”

“I’m not trippin’. All that means is you can’t go to the movies today. You suck man.”

“Aw whatever, Mr. Johnathan. Mr. Arthur said I got my IEP today anyway. I could go to the movies whenever I want. I’m ballin’, old man.”

“Yeah whatever.”

“Ok Anto-nio.” Arthur spoke with a sing-songy baritone. “Let’s head over to the conference room. I got your folder and everything ready.”

Antonio’s shoulders sank and he reluctantly followed Arthur out of the classroom, just as a round woman, Rachel, was coming in.

“Ok guys, it’s time to go. The van is out front.” Rachel said, corralling the boys and telling them to straighten the line.

Brandon stood up from the computer at Arthur’s desk, finally making his presence known. “We gotta wait for Arthur to come back. We can’t leave Miles in here alone. Arthur went to do Antonio’s IEP.”

“Yeah, cuz Miles can’t go.” A round and pudgy boy pointed from the line at Miles and made an “ah-ha” laugh.

“Shut up!” Miles fired back with his lip poked out.

“Why would Arthur just leave without doing something with Miles?” Rachel put her hands on her full hips.

“It’s ok, guys. I came to ask Miles to come with me to take some boxes out to the dumpster.” Johnathan went to stand in front of Miles’ desk. “You wanna go do that, Miles?”

Miles smiled as big as his mouth and face would allow and started nodding and saying, “Yeah, yeah. I wanna go help Johnathan. I wanna help Mr. Johnathan.” Miles turned to Brandon at the teacher’s desk. “Mr. Brandon, since you my staff today, can I go with Mr. Old Man Johnathan?”

Brandon chuckled. “Yeah, go ahead Miles.” He moved around the desk and started towards the door. “Thanks old man.”

“Yeah, thank you, Johnathan.” Rachel said as she started ushering the boys out of the classroom. Brandon was right behind them.

“Ok, Miles. Let’s go get a radio too, in case somebody needs me for something else you