v7 Days in November, Part 18 (Tuesday)

When it came to schools, the group was divided down the middle; during the day, half of the group never saw the other. The division was there because that’s how it happened, and, despite this division, everything worked out fine. Furball never asked to go to a private school like Cherrywood; his parents insisted, just like Bryan’s parents insisted. Ty didn’t have a choice either: it was in her parents’ will that she attend a college prep school. There was a fund for her and everything. She didn’t like to talk about it much. The fund made her feel like someone she wasn’t, like the kids that got $50,000 cars on their 15th birthdays so they had something to practice on, the kids that could ask for anything and get it, the kids that vacationed in the Bahamas every year, and complained when they couldn’t. These were not Ty’s people.

Farly didn’t get to come to Cherrywood; the Unix family never had a fund for him. It wasn’t malicious, Ty had explained. They had loved Farly, too. They just never got around to it. That struck Furball as unfair, because he knew Farly would have done well in Cherrywood. The people may have sucked, but they respected success and intelligence, and the teachers were great. Farly wasn’t Rockcrest stock. And it wasn’t that Rockcrest was a bad school, and it wasn’t that it was in a bad neighborhood, because it was neither. Rockcrest was just unhealthy. Jon once told Furball about how he was stuck at school one day, late into the afternoon. He had started a conversation with one of the janitors, and she had referred to the school as the “Java Flats State Pen.” Jon asked why she called it that, and she said, “when they were getting ready to build the school, they didn’t want to pay for new plans, so they just got the blue prints from the state prison in Java Valley.” Seriously. It made Furball sick thinking about it.

Furball hefted the doors to the gym open, and made his way down the bleachers to the designated 9th grade section. There were no intercoms in Cherrywood, so morning announcements were made every morning in the gym. The calico put down his bag and crossed over to the 10th grade area, where Ty was. She sprawled out on her back, her bookbag still on, and she stared at one of the sports championship banners. When Furball sat down, he could see her eyes were heavy and irritated.

Ty yawned, then smiled a little, still looking at the banner. “Heya, kid.”

“You OK?”

“Not sleeping.”

“Rough night last night?”

“All week,” Ty said. Furball barely heard her over the chatter of the students trickling into the gym. He leaned back against the bleachers.

“Why not?”

Ty sat up and rubbed her eyes. She shrugged her bookbag off. “I dunno. Just worried about stuff.”

“Like what?”

Ty shifted her focus to the polished wood floor, and the school crest in the middle. “Just… people…”

Furball dropped his eyes to his hands. “Oh… who?”

Ty drew her mouth shut. Furball flinched. Ty didn’t say anything for a moment.

“Have you talked to Farly at all?” She asked.

“Me? No. He still mad at Bourbon?”

“I guess so. He’s the last of us, but I guess he would be, right? I think if Bryan did that I’d be super-pissed, too.”

“Yeah…”

“You doing OK?”

“Hmm?”

“How’re you doing this morning?”

Furball glanced at Ty. She watched him. He turned away. He felt his stomach sink. “I’m OK. I can’t complain, I guess.”

“Good.” Ty yawned again. “What are you doing tonight?”
 Furball shrugged.

“Nothing.”

“Bryan and I are going to hang out. You should come with us.”

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah, maybe. Like, down to the Strip, or we’ll drive around or something. Maybe Nowhere.”

Furball’s ears twitched. He’d heard of Nowhere, but he’d never been invited. It was the group’s hiding place, and they were very quiet about it. He hugged himself, and tried not to look exited.

Out in the hallway, the bell rang, and students began crowding into the gym.

Furball sighed and stood. “Have a good day.”

Ty smiled up at him. “You too, kid.”

The calico nodded and crossed the divide back to the ninth grade section. He sat down, hugged his bag, and waited for the day to be over.