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TUESDAY - 11.9.04

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Nick entered through the big wooden doors of his school along with a few big snowflakes at exactly 6:45 in the morning, shuddering. As soon as the doors closed quietness once again filled the halls of Xavier high school. Quickly, he made his way down the stairs to the basement to where the student council office and the locker rooms were located amongst other rooms such as the swimming pool, freshmen basketball court, the orchestra practice room, and various storage rooms. Walking into the opened student council office Nick headed over to his locker in the back and said hello to the other council members as he passed them.

"Mornin' Marsh, Rok, Scott," Nick greeted his friends. "How's it goin'?" Once at his locker, he began to remove his layers of clothing, starting with his beanie.

Marshall laughed. "It's too god damn early in the mornin' for anythin' to happen, dawg." Nick's scarf and gloves came off. "It's going slow, bro. Real slow."

"It's so frickin’ cold out!" Nick removed his coat.

"Uh huh, hence the slowness." Marshall snorted. "Everything's either sleeping or frozen!"

Brian snickered. "Ya don't say. Here I thought that it was so hot that everything turned into white powder and diamonds and moving at super fast speed."

Nick narrowed his eyes at him. "Not funny... and you wish." He took his wallet from the inside pocket of his coat and put it on top of his locker.

"Dude, your parents fucking drove you here. I, on the other hand, live in Brooklyn, a good forty to fifty minute train ride away. You wouldn't know cold if it came and bit you in the ass right now. So, don't fucking say anything, aight?" Marshall said as he poured himself some coffee from the tiny coffee/hot chocolate dispenser machine they had in their room. "And why the hell didn't you bring Nick with you anyway?"

"Whatever. Ya'll are just jealous that's all. 'Cause... I had to come here early to meet with my guidance counselor and he didn't... wanted to sleep in a bit more."

"Uh huh. Why couldn't they cancel school or close down the joint like all the public schools. It just isn't fair." Came Nick's muffled statement as he removed his two sweaters.

"Oh Nick, Mr. Richardson came down here earlier and slipped a message for you in your locker." Scott said as he walked back into the room fixing his tie and his jacket.

Nick sighed. "Thanks." He removed the clothes he'd just placed in there and found the note. Placing the note between his lips Nick sat down on a chair and removed his snow boots before taking his school shoes out and wearing them. He also grabbed his school tie, sweater, and jacket and put them on. Once he was in school uniform he grabbed the books he needed, placed his casual/winter gear neatly back in his locker, locked it, took his wallet, and joined the others at the circular table where his hot chocolate was waiting for him.

Nick smiled at Brian as he held the warm cup in his cold hands. "Thanks, you're a life saver." He blew on the hot liquid before taking a little sip and instantly feeling the warmth travel down his throat and into his stomach. He was getting warmer.

"What's the message about?" Brian asked curiously nodding at the white folded paper beside Nick on the table.

Oh yeah, the note. Nick opened it, read it, frowned, sighed, and told Marshall, Brian, and Scott that he'd have to leave the meeting early that afternoon.

* * * * * * * * * *

Justin walked into the resource center and took his usual seat by the back wall like he had every Tuesday since the third week of school. He sat at the table and glanced at his watch, 2:36 P.M. Justin frowned. His homeroom advisor had excused him from P.M. homeroom so that he could get to the resource center for his tutoring session early.

One thing that was different about the New York City's educational system was that it was a bit more intense and faster in pace than other schools in other states but that's nothing compared to its private schools. Just a few months ago his mother had re-married to a Wall Street businessman causing for all of them to pack their things and move from the small town in Memphis to a big city like Manhattan. When they had finally settled in during the summer his stepfather had suggested that Justin enroll in one of the nation's best Catholic private school for all boys. At first Justin cringed at the idea. Why in the world would he want to attend an all boy school? Okay, backtrack. He would just absolutely love it BUT he didn't know just how welcoming the students would be to homosexuality. He's heard one too many stories about homophobic people and what they did to homosexuals, hell, even bisexuals... come to think of it... people that they THOUGHT were homosexual but in reality weren't. Justin was scared.

Xavier high school is said to be the most competitive and prestigious all boy high school in New York, if not, America. When he had heard it, he didn't believe it but just to appease his parents he took the entrance examination and found the questions to be border lining on impossibly difficult. He'd even done some research and found out that even though the school occupied four of the city's blocks [two of which was the actual school building while the other two consisted of a baseball, football, soccer, and hockey fields], standing three stories tall it only had at the most 1,000 students, Justin was astonished. If he didn't believe it then, he sure as hell believed it now. After doing the research and giving it some more thought, Justin had made his decision.

The first day Justin attended class he noticed that all the research he'd done on it was the truth. Like, for example, the school was big on technology. Justin's speculations were confirmed. Literally. The attendance was not done the old fashioned way by roll calling but rather with their ID's. Basically there was a machine installed in the wall by the entrance of each classroom. On this machine was a little slot where the student's ID would be inserted. The machine scans the bar code on the card and bam attendance is automatically taken. Justin was amazed.

Another thing Justin noticed is that all the teachers really cared about their students and were compassionate about teaching, again just like his research had told him. They did whatever they could to get their boys into the best colleges in the world. With the exception of biology and algebra, Justin was surprisingly doing well with his other freshmen classes. He wasn't failing math or biology by any means; it's just that his grades, so far with one quiz in both classes, weren't meeting the requirements that he needed if he wanted to be in the intramural basketball team. And Justin really wanted to be on that team. So, he had a talk with his guidance counselor and they both agreed that it'd be best that Justin get a tutor.

In one month Justin went through six tutors. His first tutor was a junior who knew the math well but didn't know just how to explain it to Justin. His second tutor explained everything in precise detail but Justin didn't understand a single word the French foreign exchange student had said to him. The third tutor never showed up for the session. The fourth tutor kept getting distracted by always talking about sports, chicks, and this awesome new game his father had given him. The fifth and sixth tutors had bailed out because it interfered with their after school activities and personal life.

Now, here Justin was, on the first Tuesday of November, sitting alone at the table in the resource center waiting for his seventh tutor. Maybe this is his lucky seven-th tutor. Justin prayed that it was. Midterms were coming up soon and he had to make up two tests in both his classes... so you see the dire need for this tutor to be the one for Justin. As soon as he looked at his watch his hopes slowly began to diminish. 2:49 P.M. He frowned. He knew that the seniors didn't have a P.M. homeroom and had the privilege to leave right after their last class of the day. Usually their last class would end at 2:30 but some seniors don't have a class last period sometimes even the last two periods, so they get to leave early. The juniors also have that privilege but only for the second half of the year. But considering it's mid-November... the juniors' P.M. homeroom ended at 2:40. Maybe his tutor was a sophomore? Maybe. Because if his tutor was a sophomore then he'd be getting out at 2:50. Justin didn't know. He'd always thought that it was only the juniors and seniors that were allowed to be tutors since all his previous tutors were either juniors or seniors. Maybe he'll wait until 3, just in case. He took out his textbooks, notebooks, calculator, pencil case, a blank note book, and arranged everything neatly on the table. Then he took out Up the down staircase, a book all freshmen were currently reading in English, American Literature, class, figuring he might as well read the assigned chapter while he waited.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Next," Marshall said.

"Next we have the Thanksgiving mother/son dinner and dance event to get ready for," Scott said as he looked down at his list.

"How much money do we have for that event?" Marshall asked.

Nick looked down at the papers in his hands. "We have about $548."

"Hmm, I don't think we need that much." Brian pondered. "I mean, last year I remember we only used about $320 so if we have money left over we could put it into the Christmas play or gifts for the faculty or something of that sort."

Marshall nodded his head. "Mmm hmm, I agree. But we'll see how things go and Nick keep that in mind, okay?" Nick nodded and began taking notes in his council notebook. Marshall continued. "We need to get people to help us with the mural for the walls in the gym. Uh... is it going to be held in the gym?"

"Yes and no. The dance is in the gym but the dinner would be in the cafeteria but first thing's first. We need to come up with a theme," Scott piped in.

"Yeah. Why don't we do like an A.M. homeroom survey or something? Give it to all the homerooms and have them vote on the options or if they want give some ideas" Nick said and then glanced at the clock, 2:56 P.M. He gasped and quickly got up startling the others. "Shiiii," he started to say but by looking around at the startled faces, he ended up with, "-kens." Grabbing his student council folder and notebook he said, "I'm sorry for scaring you guys but I'm late." He walked over to his locker and opened it, quickly placing all the papers and documents in his book bag; he locked it, and stopped at the table. "I'm sorry for this. I'll try and finish early and come back down here. Rok, catch me up on everything, okay? See you guys later."

As he was leaving he heard Brian say, "All he's missing is a bushy white tail, a big gold pocket watch, two buck teeth, long ears, and he'll be all set."

"Ha ha that's so funny. The next Jim Carrey everyone," Nick said sarcastically peeking his head back into the room.

He heard laughter coming from the room as he ran up the stairs to the first floor. Walking towards the staircase at the end of hall he ran up the steps skipping two at a time to the second floor, and jogged across the hall towards the resource center. He took out his ID to show it to the nun sitting behind the big oak desk inside by the door. Sister Bernadette or Sister Powell, Nick didn't know. He could never tell the difference, no matter how hard he tried. All the nuns looked the same to him. Old, white, wrinkled, and gray haired women wearing habits that made them look like gigantic penguins. The majority of them were shaped like a ball; having no figure whatsoever, not that Nick was checking them out or anything. Eww!

"Excuse me, Sister?" He asked slightly out of breath. "Is there a student here to be tutored or did anyone come here at all?"

* * * * * * * * * *

Justin finished reading the assigned chapter and closed the book. He looked at the time and sighed. 3:04. Damn it. Why was this happening to him? Justin didn't know. He just wished he could go back home to Tennessee. He missed all his friends and his small town. Everyone knew each other and everyone was willing to help and do things for one another. New York City was so not like his little town but definitely not what he had expected it to be... since all he knew about the city was from movies and stereotypes. But still, he wanted to cry and go back home.

He began to place his books back in to his book bag. "...tutored or did anyone come here at all?" Justin stopped what he was doing as he heard someone asking someone else. He looked up and could see someone talking with the resource center nun that was on duty. Maybe the world wasn't after him after all, Justin thought. Before he knew it he was walking towards the main desk. Please, let him be a nice guy, a smart guy, just someone who'd fucking help him for crying out loud, Justin wished, hoped, and prayed.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Give me your ID son, and let me have a look here to see just who it is." Nick gave his ID card over and watched as the nun inserted the card into the small box that was hooked up to the computer. A few seconds later there were three soft taps on his shoulder. He turned around and furrowed his brows in confusion before smiling quickly.