They found the address of their new home, and April set up a contract with the mobile home park’s owner. April had learned that by adding just a little more cash to a deal, it closed out faster. A quick smile from the lovely blonde didn’t hurt either.
The family’s new home was furnished with a refrigerator, a stove, and a television set. The set picked up only three stations, and the boys had already learned the ancient sibling fighting style known as channel battles. One liked station three and the other five, so it had been a battle for supremacy for most of the night before. Connor won the majority of the battles, but Matthew held his own a couple of times. The time in front of the television was useful for the boys. They practiced their pronunciation and tried to copy the mannerisms they saw on the various shows.
The home was exactly what the family needed. A decent-size living room was right next to the kitchen, still decked out in seventies swag. Two small bedrooms and a small bathroom divided the house between the boys and April. There was a nice shed located just behind the home, back in a wooded area of the lot. The owner of the property told April that she could use the lawn equipment stored there anytime she wanted. He gave her a key to it. The home was secluded enough to keep nosey neighbors at bay but close enough to town that the Chance family could execute their plans.
Connor asked, “Is there anything we should take with us to school, April?” April frowned at Connor. He cleared his throat and said. “I mean Mom.”
April replied, “You’ll probably need a pen and some paper. Back home, the school already had all of the things you needed.”
Matthew said, “I saw some pencils and paper in one of the drawers in the kitchen.” He went to fetch some supplies. Connor walked to the corner of the kitchen and grabbed one of the three backpacks.
He made it to the front door before April grabbed the bag. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Connor replied, “We may need some of this stuff. You never know what we may run into.”
April took the bag from him. “These gadgets of Walter’s are only to be used in emergency situations, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think we should use them at all.” She took the bag into her bedroom and threw it under her bed.
On her way back to the door she snatched the two empty bags. “Here, take these to hold whatever books or supplies they give you at school.”
Matthew took the bag and asked, “Don’t you think Walter would want us to keep the gadgets with us at all times? What if someone breaks in and steals them?”
April replied, “Who would break in?”
Matthew pointed to the television. “I don’t know, but it seems to happen a lot on TV.”
April chuckled and said, “I’ll keep an eye on them. I promise.”
The family loaded into the car, but April didn’t start the engine. She turned to the boys and said, “I know that I’ve put a lot of pressure on both of you, but I’m only doing it to keep us safe, so you must do as I tell you. Walter has trusted us to do a job, and we’re going to do it and get home as fast as we can. This school is nothing like what you’re used to. These kids will be nothing like you’re used to.”
April started the car and pulled onto the street. Matthew asked his mother, “What will you be doing while we’re at school?”
“I’m gonna check out the town and see what I can find out about the Curry family, especially Amanda.”
Connor patted April on the shoulder. “Great idea! We need all the help that we can get.” He leaned back. “Of course, I figure she’ll be putty in my hands once she meets me. I’ll probably have the Hathmec charm before the end of the day.”
Matthew rolled his eyes and asked, “Do you think we look OK? I mean, are we dressed right for this?”
April based her answer on what she had learned from her reading. “I think you both look great. Based on what Walter said, blue jeans and T-shirts are the way to go. I’ll go out and get you some more clothes while you’re at school.” Both of the boys wore T-shirts depicting various hair bands of the day, as well as a certain style of tennis shoe with no laces.
The family pulled into the local high school’s parking lot. Connor read the sign hanging over the top of the front entrance: “Eastview High School.” Matthew noticed the glass windows that greeted them and spotted paintings of a man on a horse. He carried a javelin and shield. He read the captions under them: “The Fighting Chargers.”
He asked, “What the heck is a Charger?”
Connor pointed at the painting on the window and said, “I guess that is.”
April motioned to the boys and said, “Come on, we have to go to the main office to register you two.”
As the boys entered in the main lobby, they were bombarded with the extreme visuals of the time. On one side, they saw large boys huddled in a corner pushing each other back and forth and growling about the hit they saw last week. Each of them wore a jacket with an E sewn onto the front of it. Connor quipped, “Some sort of gang maybe?”
On another side of the lobby, a group of smaller statured boys looked through books and held calculators. Matthew heard one of them say, “You have to use the Pythagorean theorem, stupid.” They wore buttoned-up shirts and tan slacks.
Matthew looked to Connor. “Those must be the brains of the school.”
The Chance family had entered a strange domain that seemed devoid of purpose or clarity. The lobby reeked of dirty sweat socks and overused aftershave. The sanitary regulations of 2185 were nowhere to be seen and no magazine or instruction manual could prepare the boys for what they were about to embark on.
April opened the door to the main office, and the boys filed in behind her. There sat a rather aged woman, perhaps in her sixties or seventies. April stood silent for a moment and expected the secretary to acknowledge her existence, but it wasn’t working. April cleared her throat to see if she could force a response. Still nothing; it was as if the woman was in another dimension.
“Excuse me, is this where I need to register my boys for classes?”
The secretary picked her head up from her work and said, “Yes, sweetie, this is the place.”
She studied the boys. “Let me guess—a freshman and a senior?”
April knew that her boys had to pull off sixteen so she blurted out, “No, ma’am, my boys are both sixteen and should be sophomores. See, I have paperwork to prove it.”
The old secretary said with a chuckle, “OK, I believe you; that one just looks younger than sixteen to me. Let’s see those transcripts.”
Matthew leaned into his mother’s ear and whispered, “Real subtle there, Mom.”
The paperwork that Walter had sent was working perfectly. No one had a clue that Matthew and Connor wouldn’t be born for another two hundred years. The boys watched the kids in the lobby while April finished up. They were focused on what the boys in the hall were doing until they looked over to a door that was labeled “Girl’s Restroom.” As if a gateway of angels had been released, the door opened and a sea of pretty young ladies poured out of it.
Both Matthew and Connor were mesmerized by the big hair, short skirts, and jeweled bodies that skipped out. Matthew asked, “Why would anyone want to stop girls from dressing like that?”
Connor replied, “How is it possible that every girl in this school looks better than any girl we’ve ever met?”
Connor and Matthew hadn’t realized that they were ogling the majority of the school’s cheerleading squad. That wasn’t a fair representation of the school’s overall cuteness factor. The boys were about to drool on the door to the office, but they were interrupted by the entrance of an older gentleman wearing a gray suit and tie.
“It’s not polite to stare, boys.” The older gentleman spoke with a deep baritone and in a militaristic style.
Connor divulged his true feelings. “Can you blame us? Those are some really good-looking
girls over there.”
The gentleman responded, “I do not like to think of them like that boys, especially since that one there is my granddaughter.”
Matthew took his hand and put it over his face in embarrassment. Connor stuck with the honest approach and said, “Congratulations, sir. You should be proud.”
“Who exactly are you boys? I don’t believe I have ever seen you at my school before.”
Matthew asked, “Your school, sir?”
“Yes, my name is Phillip Baxter, or Principal Baxter, as my students call me.”
April darted over to the door. “Oh, Principal Baxter, it is so nice to meet you. My name is April Chance and these are my sons Connor and Matthew.” She extended her hand and said, “They’re starting classes today.”
Principal Baxter reached his hand toward April’s and said, “Well, we are glad to have you here, and I am sure the boys are going to do just fine, as long as they spend their time on their work and not staring at my granddaughter and her friends all day.”
April giggled and responded, “Oh, don’t you worry; my boys are very serious about the work they need to get done. You won’t have any problems out of them.”
Principal Baxter popped both of the boys on the back and began to walk away. “See that I don’t. I won’t tolerate troublemakers at my school.” He disappeared into an office behind the front desk and closed his door.
April glared a hole into each of the boys. They both mouthed the word “sorry.” The secretary held up a couple of pieces of paper and called for the boys. “These are your schedules, boys. It’s pretty strange that you both have the exact same schedules, but that’s how they came out of the computer, so it must be OK.” The elderly secretary pulled out a small map of the school and started to point out the important locations within the school.
The layout of the school was pretty simple. All of the classrooms were in the outside loop of a big circular building, with a library in the center of it. A large gymnasium was on the far north side of the structure, and the building held about six hundred students. This building was much smaller than the district school the boys had gone to back home, so getting around was not going to be an issue.
The secretary went on describing every nook and cranny of the school. The boys were ready to move on when Matthew picked up the intoxicating scent of strawberries and cinnamon. It overpowered all other smells in the office, but it was wonderful.
Matthew turned his head and saw a gorgeous young lady walking to the desk just to the side of him. She wore a short blue jean skirt, a pink flowing top, and white tennis shoes. She accessorized with hoop earrings and several bracelets on her wrists. Her beautiful blond hair was teased out all over her head. She was wearing makeup, but not so much that you couldn’t tell she was beautiful without it. Connor turned to see the girl and then copied Matthew’s stupid grin from earlier in the morning.
The secretary continued to explain the layout of the school, correcting herself more than once. She didn’t notice that the boys were not paying any attention to her. April punched Matthew in the arm. “What?”
April whispered, “That’s her, that’s Amanda.” The girl was talking to another secretary in the office about seeing Principal Baxter later in the day. She was about to leave the office when April cried out, “Wait!”
The girl turned around with curious eyes. “Yeah, can I help you with somethin’?”
April didn’t know what to say and looked to her boys. They were both incapable of speech, so April said, “My boys here are new to the school and starting classes today. It looks like you have been here for a while.”
The girl responded, “Yeah, this is my second year, so I kinda know my way around.” The boys were drawn in by the girl’s country twang. It was quirky, but hypnotizing.
The secretary looked up from her map and said, “That’s a wonderful idea, Ms. Chance. I’m sure that Amanda can show your boys to their first class.”
April asked, “Your name is Amanda?”
“Yes, ma’am, Amanda Curry.”
April exclaimed, “That’s great! You can show the boys to their first class.”
Amanda didn’t look thrilled to get stuck with two new guys, so she tried to make up an excuse to get out of it. “Well, actually I’m really late for English with Mrs. Greir, so I’m not sure if I’ve got time to show these fellas around.”
Matthew reviewed his schedule and saw that he and Connor also had English with Mrs. Greir for first period. “That’s perfect! We have English with Mrs. Greir first this morning, too.”
Amanda shook her head and said, “I guess it makes sense for me to walk with you to class then. Grab your stuff and let’s go.”
Connor looked to April. “See you this afternoon.”
The boys followed Amanda out the door, and April thanked the secretary for her help. She watched the boys disappear down the hall and said a quick prayer to herself. “Please, god, help them.”
“So, you guys are both sophomores?” Matthew started to answer Amanda, but a sudden wave of fear engulfed him. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing. Maybe he just didn’t want to sound stupid.
Connor stepped in. “Yeah, we’re both sixteen, so we’re sophomores.”
Amanda looked at both of them as they started to round the library and said, “You look sixteen, but I’m not so sure about your brother.” She looked at Matthew and said, “You don’t look much bigger than my little brother.”
Matthew replied, “Well, I’m just as old as my brother here and a whole lot smarter.”
“Where are you guys from?”
Matthew replied, “Georgia—we’re from Georgia.”
Amanda squinted her eyes and said, “Really? You don’t sound like you’re from Georgia. Where’s your accent?”
Matthew explained that Georgia was full of many different accents. Their accent was just muted compared to a Tennessee accent.
She replied, “I’ve never heard that before, but if you say so.”
Amanda stopped at a locker. “I need to grab a book out of here; did you get locker numbers when you registered?”
Connor rummaged through some papers and asked, “Is this it, 102B?”
Amanda looked at his sheet and said, “Well, that’s right here next to mine.”
Connor smiled. “Well, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other then.”
“You better get a lock before you put anything in there. The guys around here will take anything that isn’t locked down.”
Matthew found the number on his sheets and said, “My number is 509B.”
Amanda took the sheet from Matthew and said, “That’s on the other side of the building. You can go find it after class.”
Connor finished up a little happy dance by his locker, as it seemed that he would have the most access to Amanda going forward.
Amanda glanced at Matthew’s schedule and said, “This is really weird. You guys have all of the same classes that I have.”
Matthew took the schedule back and replied, “Wow, that is weird. I guess we’ll just have to become good friends taking all these classes together.”
Amanda pursed her lips and said, “Kind of jumping the gun there, aren’t you? Besides, who says that either one of you is even worth my time.” She walked into a classroom and motioned for the boys. As they entered the room she whispered to both of them, “I already have a lot of friends.”
“Where have you been, Ms. Curry? I thought I was going to have to send out a search party.”
“Sorry, Mrs. Greir. I was asked to bring you these two new fresh minds to mold.”
Mrs. Greir looked over the boys and said, “Well, let’s see your schedules.” Mrs. Greir was a younger teacher, but she had no style to speak of. She hobbled over to the boys due to a damaged heel on her right shoe. Her thickly rimmed glasses took nothing away fr
om the wreck of a hairdo she modeled.
“It looks like we have brothers joining our journey to learn the proper use of the English language. Class, please welcome Matthew and Connor.”
The class didn’t seem overly enthused to meet Matthew or Connor. The boys in the class looked like they wanted to throw something at them. Mrs. Greir motioned the boys to two empty seats and said, “Go ahead and take a seat, boys; we have a lot of work to do.”
The boys listened as Mrs. Greir reviewed the use of capitalization for the names of people, cities, states, etc. The boys tried to pay attention to the teacher, but they were busier looking around the room at the different types of kids who stared back at them. Some kids were wearing shorts, some jeans, some skirts, some boots, and some tennis shoes.
The girls in the room ranged from Amanda, who was just possibly the most gorgeous person either of the boys had ever seen, to girls who looked like they didn’t own a mirror. There was girl in the corner with stringy hair, big glasses, and shabby sneakers. This was similar to what the boys had seen in the city. Such differences from person to person!
“Mr. Chance, Mr. Chance, are you paying attention to me?” Both Connor and Matthew snapped back to the present and saw Mrs. Greir staring at them.
Connor answered first, “Yes, ma’am, I’m paying attention.”
She formed a sarcastic smirk and said, “Good, then you can give me an example of a city name to finish out this sentence that is both a city name and a person’s name.”
Connor looked to Matthew first and then blurted out the first thing that came to his mind: “Hathmec.”
Mrs. Greir looked to her new student and asked, “Hathmec? Who or what is a Hathmec?”
Matthew looked to Connor with worried eyes. Connor realized that Supreme Leader Hathmec, Hathmec Hall, and all the other things named after him didn’t exist in 1984. Mrs. Greir asked again, “Well, Mr. Chance, what are you talking about?” Matthew sensed that Connor had no idea what to say.
Last Chance Page 13