NaNoWriMo Day 16- The Shoes of Baltimore

The alarm was ringing way too early for Jamie. He fell asleep at his usual time, but he tossed and turned the whole night. He would wake up what seemed like every hour, thinking there was someone poking a gun in his back. He could steel feel it, even though he knew there was no one there and he was in his bed after he collected his bearings. He tried to sleep in just for a little bit, but his mom interrupted his attempts.

“Rise and shine,” she said.

They had a deal that he would at least get to school on time. She installed in him that he needed to show up on time no matter the size of the commitment or responsibility. Big or small, he needed to show up when he was supposed.

He wanted to argue that most of the people at school didn’t show up on time, but he know that argument wouldn’t hold water. His mom didn’t want Jamie comparing himself to anyone else.

He popped in some instant oatmeal and started cutting up a banana. He didn’t feel like taking the time to make more of a breakfast.

That was another thing Jamie’s mom always made him do as well. He always had to make his own breakfast and lunch for school if he wanted any at all. She would make dinner, but he had to help out. She didn’t want him to think women were only meant to make him food. She wanted him to be able to do it on his own.

He pulled out some peanut butter and jelly and bread. He started spreading the peanut butter on the sandwich.

He wondered if Trevor Gatz found out who his friends were. They didn’t fill out the real information on that fake survey, but Trevor Gatz still would easily be able to figure out who they were if the stories about Trevor Gatz were true. And so far, the stories did seem to be true.

Jamie didn’t like that he had basically threatened him by mentioning his mom’s name. He had to figure out how to make sure she didn’t figure out what he was doing and keep her out of it as best he could. As he spread the jelly, he started to think of places he could hide the gun Trevor would give him when he needed it.

Maybe my locker, Jamie said to himself.

“What about your locker,” Jamie’s mom said.

Jamie was startled. “Nothing. I just think I left my calculator there. I didn’t see it when I checked my bag this morning. I didn’t have math homework last night, so I really wouldn’t have needed it anyways. That’s probably why I didn’t notice.”

“Double check when you get there,” Jamie’s mom warned. “You know that thing isn’t cheap.”

“I know. I will. I’m like 99.9% sure it’s in my locker. I’ll shoot you a text at lunch so you know I’ve found it. I don’t want you worrying all day.”

“I’m not going to worry all day. But I just want to make sure that you understand that it wasn’t cheap. You need to take responsibility and make sure that you keep track of your possessions. If you lost that calculator, I’m not going to be able to get you another one.”

“I know. I’m sure it’s there. And yes, I’ll take more time next time to make sure I know where everything is. I’m just replaying it in my head now. I have math first period, so I’m sure it’s just sitting in the my math binder.”

Jamie was smart and could think on his feet. If his smarts failed him, he could generally find a way to talk himself out of trouble. However, his mother always knew when he was trying to pull a fast one. But this seemed innocent enough that there really wasn’t any reason to question what Jamie was talking about any further. So she let it go.

“How are you doing in math, by the way?”

“Good,” he said. It was true. He had struggled with it in the beginning of the year, getting his first C+ ever. But he buckled down, got some tutoring after school, and pulled it up to a B+.

“I’m sitting at a B+ right now. I think I might even be able to swing it to an A- by the end of the semester. There’s this extra credit project we can go that can boost our overall grade by two points.

“You’re doing it, right?”

“Yea. It’s a lot of work. It’s supposed to be a 2,000-word paper about this math theory. But that’s just time, that isn’t really hard work. That to me just seems like two free points.”

His mom smiled.

She looked over at the clock. “All right. Finish up making that lunch. You need to start heading off soon. I’ll be back tonight around 6 and we can make those noodles we tried out last time that you liked last time.”

Jamie snapped his fingers. “Tight,” he said.

He threw his lunch into a paper bag and headed out the door. He closed it behind him. He reached into his pockets, pulled out his headphones, and put them in his old iPod.

He got teased because it was so old, but it had all of Jamie’s favorite songs over the past three years. He didn’t see why he needed to listen to anything else.

He met up with Rodney and DeSean at lunch. They all slapped hands.

“It’s going to be hard eating this shit today after that fancy desert last night,” DeSean said, pointing to the rubbery looking Jello on his plate. “I’m still dreaming about that dessert..”

“Yea man, that was it right there. I don’t even know if I can have anything from this damn cafeteria every again,” Rodney said.

Jamie smiled and yawned. He cupped his hands and put his face in it. He rubbed his eyes to try and wake up.”

“You okay dude?”

Jamie looked up and saw DeSean and Rodney starring at him.

“Why you so tired?” Rodney asked.

“You go off and get some more money out of cars after we were done last night?” DeSean was joking, but he was always just skeptical. That was his nature. He had thought maybe Jamie was holding out on them last night, that maybe he had taken more money than he had let on. Jamie had never given a reason for them to distrust him, but DeSean was always just distrustful.

“Na man. I couldn’t get to sleep last night. Bunch of damn frat boys yelling outside. Getting in fights. Puking all over the place. They just choose to be loud as hell on purpose it seems like to get attention. It’s like you can go out and get drunk. We don’t give a shit. But you don’t have to be screaming at 3 in the morning. Just go inside your own place and do that. Or if you can’t handle your shit, just don’t drink that much.”

“For real,” Rodney said.

DeSean nodded in agreement.

“What’s happening tonight? Anything?” DeSean asked.

“Nothing I can think of. You guys want to check out if any of those coffee places got an open night thing? We can clown those people.”

They all laughed. They had been kicked out a few times for booing and making fun of the people who performed at a few of the open readings and poetry nights. Some of the workers remembered them and wouldn’t let them through the door. Other places didn’t, and they normally just made fun of the first person who went on and bolted. Sometimes they would make paper airplanes ahead of time and just run out as fast as they could after throwing them.

Jamie was about to say that was a great idea, but he remembered that he had to meet up with Trevor Gatz’s people tonight.

“Ah man, my mom has me doing some BS project around the house. She thinks she’s going to try and turn the place into something fancy. But we live in a basic ass townhome in Baltimore. She needs to get over it.”

“That is some BS,” DeSean said. “You think you can get out later or what? Like, she’s not going to have you do that till 10 at night, right?”

Jamie couldn’t tell if DeSean was just being suspicious or if generally wanted to know if he could go out. It was hard to tell.

“I dunno man. I don’t know how long this is going to take. But she’s talking about I have to sand stuff. I have to put new coats of paint on things. I have to reprint things. It sounds like it’s going to be a pain in my ass. She told me I’m going to be soar after doing all that. I remember doing that house renovation for Rodney’s uncle. You guys remember that?”

Rodney nodded. “Yea man. I don’t know how he does that day in and day out. I was sore as hell for like a whole month after that. Hopefully she isn’t going to put you through the wringer like he did with us. I forget how much he gave us, but it wasn’t worth it. Man, I don’t envy you tonight.”

“But you aren’t going to get it all done in one night. It’s got to be something she keeps making you work on. Right?” DeSean was still pushing for some information he wanted to hear or maybe he was trying to get Jamie to slip up.

“I mean, I think it’s going to be a couple of weeks. You just work on one part at a time. It’s not something that needs to be super rushed. That house is so old anyway, it doesn’t matter if the walls just have on pain of coat and it looks bad. We never have any people over anyways. Every holiday, it’s always someone else’s spot because that place is just too small. Plus, I think my mom’s embarrassed of it. So I dunno. Maybe she’s trying to clean it up and we’re gonna start having people over.”