Future YA story excerpt

Future YA story excerpt

“My father is an adulterer, can I lie down?”

Nurse Fowler, with her stony expression and severe haircut, was not the sort of person any student would want staring at them. But she put her pen down, looked up, and turned her laser beams on Seb. “What?”

Seb froze, horrorstruck, and could only stare back at her. That wasn’t what he’d rehearsed at all. When he explained it to Scott, his best friend, Scott had wisely informed him to just make something up.

Why did he always forget about lying at the worst times? He had forgotten about it during the National Spelling Bee, too. It only occurred to him that he could purposefully misspell a word after he had already lost for real.

“I have a stomachache!” Seb blurted out.

Nurse Fowler raised a thin eyebrow. “That wasn’t what you said the first time, Mr. Tyler,” she said.

“I did,” Seb begged, hoping he looked very sick. “I said I had a stomachache, so can I lie down?”

“I’m surprised at you, Mr. Tyler,” Nurse Fowler sighed, standing up. “I have had many students feign illness to skip class, but I never would have counted you among them.”

“I’m not,” Seb said, hunching his shoulders high as the rest of his shrunk towards the floor. “I have a really bad stomachache.”

“That’s quite enough.” She moved towards the door with a sniff. “I have to go to the office. I’ll allow you five minutes to collect yourself, but when I return, you’ll be going back to class.” Muttering to herself, she exited.

Seb stumbled past the locked cabinet of students’ prescriptions and lurched onto one of the taupe-colored cots, sprawling across the scratchy quilt. This was terrible. Five minutes wasn’t nearly enough time; he’d return right in the middle of math! He couldn’t go to math. He’d sooner walk home, though he lived seven miles from the school.

That’s it, he thought, staring up at the starched-white ceiling. I’ll just go home! Though he knew it was impossible for him. Seb never skipped school.

“The excuse was too melodramatic, is your problem.”

Seb sat up so quickly that his head spun, and he looked over to the next cot. He had thought the girl lying there was asleep. But she sat up, throwing her straight, dark hair over her back. He didn’t recognize her from class: she was plump, dark-skinned, and wore a Sweeney Todd T-shirt.

“You can’t get too flashy,” the girl continued, nodding as she talked. “Subtlety is the key when getting yourself sent home. And if you get too desperate, Fowler knows you’re lying.” When Seb didn’t answer, she frowned. “What’s the matter? Oh, you don’t want him to hear?” She jerked her head at the boy on the cot next to her. “Don’t worry. He has a blood sugar thing. He slips into a coma every time he misses lunch.”

“No, I…” Seb didn’t know why it mattered, but it did. “It’s the truth.”

“… really.” Her eyes widened a fraction, but otherwise, her expression did not waver. “That sucks. Do you know who the other woman is?”

Miss Sparks, the math teacher. Seb felt a real stomachache coming on. “I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“How appalling,” she mused, twirling her hair. “Did you know that in Louisiana, if a woman catches her husband committing adultery, she can shoot both his kneecaps? Well, it might just be a rumor, but it’s worth checking out, right?” She didn’t give Seb time to react before saying, “I’m sorry, that was too blunt, wasn’t it?”

Though the comment took him by surprise, he shook his head. After all the sympathy, shock, and outrage that had come with the deluge of calls from his extended family, the girl’s cavalier attitude was almost refreshing.

“Good.” She looked at him approvingly. “I’m often told that I’m too blunt, but I think people are just overly sensitive. That’s why I’m in here now, you know. Had I known Billy Pace was so sensitive, I wouldn’t have said anything. He is stupid, though. My dog, problems with depth perception aside, could get better grades than him. But the truth does funny things to people sometimes. Like make them swear to kick your ass after school.”

Seb wanted to giggle at this, but thought that it might be rude. So he merely sat, listening. The corners of her mouth twitched. “Have I scared you?”

“W-What?” He sat up a little straighter. “No! I’m sorry… I’m… um… always like this,” he mumbled, his voice growing quieter as he went on.

“I won’t bite. I promise.” Fully smiling now, she extended her arm towards him. “I’m Nia Kassis.”

He took the hand, and shook it. “Se-”

“Sebastian Tyler, right?” Nia said, releasing his hand and leaning back again. “I watched you on the spelling bee last year. My mother and I were rooting for you. What was the word you got out on, again?”

“Syssarcosis,” he almost said. What he said was, “I go by Seb.”

Nia’s smile widened. “All right, Seb.”

They jerked apart and lay down again as Nurse Fowler re-entered the room. “Miss Kassis, your mother is waiting for you in the office.”

Instantly, Nia’s demeanor changed. She gave the nurse a weak smile and an even weaker, “Thank you, Ms. Fowler,” and she stood sluggishly, making her way towards the door. “Ms. Fowler,” she suddenly said, “you should let Sebastian stay. He’s really sick.”

Nurse Fowler’s thin eyebrows rose even higher, but evidently, she trusted Nia more than she trusted Seb. “I will ascertain that for myself, thank you Miss Kassis.”

Nia nodded as she trudged past Seb. Without turning to him, she muttered, “Remember: Louisiana,” before moving around Nurse Fowler and out of the nurse’s office.

It took every bit of restraint he possessed for Seb to stop himself from smiling. Nia was a much better liar than he was.