Any sexual activity is between 18+ year olds.
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Ch. 01 - New Kid
It's tough, always being the new kid in school. It's even worse when you're not even starting the first day of the term. But that's the life when you grow up in the military. It's better now than it used to be, but the needs of the service still outweigh the needs of the family. And so, nearly 3 weeks into the fall semester of his senior year of high school, Jeremy Halperin found himself walking the halls of Winfield Senior High School, Home of the Cyclones. It probably wasn't much different than New World Technical, his most recent stop along the academic road, except for one thing: it was coeducational. The "NeWT School," as it is known, is a boys-only magnet school for science and technology. Naturally, as a typical teenager of the male variety, Jeremy was looking forward to seeing real, live girls in his classes. Still, the main point in favor of WSHS, and why he really wasn't all that concerned, was that it was the last stop. Come spring, he'd be a high school graduate, ready to head off to college or whatever. He was hoping that he'd at least have enough time before graduating to make a few friends. Otherwise, it could be a long school year.
He wasn't necessarily looking forward to having learn new names and faces again, but he was used to it; that didn't make it easier, though. He'd been fortunate that they'd stayed at the last duty station for longer than usual, nearly 5 years. The tradeoff had been that he'd made some good friends there, just in time to say goodbye. Oh, his buddies had thrown him a going away "party," but they mostly just sat around and played video games like always, with the addition of some bitching about the injustice of it. And now he was having to start all over, again.
Jeremy's father, Samuel, had just finished up a distinguished Army career. He wasn't a war hero, but he'd volunteered and trained to be one; he'd done some overseas time, but hadn't seen any significant action. Now, after shuffling from post to post about every 42 months over his 26 years of service, dragging his wife and son with him, he was tired. He just wanted to go back to where he'd grown up, reestablish his roots, and focus on his family. Hard as it had been moving so often growing up, often wondering if he'd see his father alive again, Jeremy was looking forward to the promised stability.
Jeremy remembered where the school office was after coming in last week for enrollment. He made his way there to check in and get his course schedule. The woman behind the counter looked up as he walked in. "Can I help you?"
"Yes ma'am, my name's Jeremy Halperin. My family just moved here and I'm supposed to start school today. They said I needed to check in here to get my schedule?"
"Oh, so polite! Most of the boys can barely mumble out their name, much less look me in the eye. Maybe there's hope for your generation yet." She shuffled a few papers around and said, "Ah, here we go. This is your student ID. Make sure you take care of that. Every student has a spending account tied to their ID card. It will work for the vending machines, as well as to pay for lunch. Says here that your parents put $100 on it last week, so you don't want to lose it.
Here's your student handbook, make sure you read that over in the next few weeks. And, finally, here's your schedule. It looks like you have Classical Fiction with Mrs. Walker in room 201 to start the day. Do you remember well enough from your tour how to find it, or would you like me to walk you down?"
"I'm pretty sure I can find it, thanks."
"Here's your check-in form; give that to Mrs. Walker when you get there. Before you go, I better give you a pass. The bell's about to ring and she's a stickler for punctuality." She scribbled something down on a pad, tore it off and handed it to him. "Welcome to WSHS, Jeremy. We're glad to have you here."
He thanked her as he took the pass, then hoisted his backpack and headed off to meet his fate. As he'd suspected, it was no trouble finding the classroom. But he was still 3 classrooms away when the last bell rang. "Oh joy!" he thought. "This means I get to see everyone's happy, friendly faces all at the same time when I walk in late." Sure enough, opening the door caused all the students' faces to swing his direction like they were watching a tennis match. It was a little humorous, if you hadn't seen it several times before.
The teacher looked at him expectantly. "Yes?"
"Uh, Mrs. Walker? My name's Jeremy Halperin. I just transferred here and I believe I'm in your class this period." He started towards her to hand her his check-in form, but on his second step he caught a shoelace and stumbled; he barely managed to avoid face-planting, but the damage was already done. His face was crimson and his ears were ringing with the snickers of his new classmates. He could see a little smile on Mrs. Walker's face, too.
Jeremy had learned long ago that a little self-deprecating humor went a long way, so he sheepishly grinned as he handed her the form and his tardy slip. He said, "Sorry, I just got these feet and they're not quite broken in."
"I see," said his teacher, as his classmates broke down. "Well, tread carefully and find a vacant seat so we can get started."
Scanning the rows, Jeremy spied an open seat near the windows and made his way over there. Gathering his supplies, he made eye contact with a studious looking girl next to him. He gave her a smile, which she returned before directing her attention to the teacher.
Settling in, he started a little game he'd developed over the years, seeing if he could guess the names of students based on their appearance. He'd never actually gotten it right, but it was surprising how close he got. The big preppy jock guys usually fell into one of two categories: either a pretentious name like "Holden" or "Maxwell", or some bro moniker like "Chip." Likewise, the girls were "Buffy" or "Cassandra" or some such thing. The nerds seemed to have strong, but common names, like "William" or "Cynthia." And it never failed that the nondescript kids who didn't fit easily into a category had equally nondescript names like "John."
He didn't know what that said about himself, since he didn't think "Jeremy" was particularly pretentious, or serious, but it wasn't as common as John. Of course, matching the name was only the first stage in categorizing the other students. There was a second stage, too. Kids don't have a choice about the name they start off with. But when they figure out who they want to be, and the name didn't match that self-image, they'd change it. Those were the kids Jeremy found the most interesting. It was like a metaphor about knowing yourself, something that his dad had always stressed.
"You're going to run into a lot of people in your life, Jeremy, from all walks. You'll meet people who look like you, who look nothing like you, and everything in between. There will be rich people and poor people, people who will be friends and people who will be enemies. Those differences are what make life interesting. But no matter how much you think you know about someone, they'll always have secrets, things that will surprise you. That makes them variables. Not inherently untrustworthy, but still unknowns.
When you have goals in your life, someplace you want to be, the only certainty you have is yourself. You know your thoughts, your emotions, your capabilities, and you have a better idea than anyone how you'll react when the pressure is on. Too few people spend time getting to know themselves that way, and it makes the path so much harder to walk."
