The 2015 R.L. Mathewson Chronicles Collection Read online

  “Thanks, Dad,” he said as he sat back as he stared out the window, wondering just how bad this was going to be.

  *-*-*-*

  Very bad as it turned out….

  “Class, please give a warm welcome to the new students that I told you about last week, Sebastian and Johnny Bradford,” Mrs. Thompson said with a large smile that looked practiced as she gestured to the two of them.

  When the students just stared at them, Mrs. Thompson cleared her throat in an attempt to break the awkward silence. “Perhaps Johnny and Sebastian, you’d like to tell the class something about yourselves?”

  “No,” Sebastian simply said as Johnny walked past the teacher, pausing only long enough to grab one of the chemistry textbooks off her desk and headed towards the back of the class.

  “They don’t look nine,” one of girls whispered while the rest of the class continued to watch their every move until Mrs. Thompson cleared her throat and drew their attention back to the front of the class.

  “Please open your books to chapter three.”

  “I should have offered to pay mom to continue homeschooling us,” Sebastian grumbled as he opened his book.

  “I offered her twenty bucks a week,” he muttered, turning to chapter three and barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes. They were only up to the basics of the Periodic Table.

  “And she didn’t take it?” Sebastian asked with a frown.

  “Nope,” he said, making the word pop on a sigh, wondering if it was possible to die from boredom, something that he was sure that he was going to find out soon.

  “Gold digger,” Sebastian said with a shake of his head, making Johnny chuckle as he reached into his bag and pulled out the leather-bond journal that Grandma Blaine had given him.

  “What time’s lunch?” he asked, wishing that he hadn’t turned down his father’s offer to buy muffins this morning.

  “Not soon enough,” Sebastian said, pulling out-

  “Isn’t that Grandpa’s iPhone?” he asked, glancing up in time to see Mrs. Thompson explain that each element was numbered.

  “Yeah,” Sebastian said, bypassing the security code and broke into the phone. “I needed it and Dad is refusing to buy me one. I just needed it to keep an eye on a stock that I’m interested in. I’ll give it back to him tonight.”

  “The tech stock?” he asked, as he turned back a few pages to read through what he’d written last night.

  “Yeah, it’s a startup, but they have a firm grasp on light-weight alloy metal conductors that look promising.”

  “Do you need to borrow my stash?” he asked, risking another glance up and rolling his eyes when he realized that Mrs. Thompson was now trying to explain the difference between a solid and a gas.

  “They should have placed us in the advanced class,” Sebastian pointed out with a snort of disgust, voicing his thoughts exactly.

  “No kidding,” he said, shaking his head as he returned his attention to the story he was working on.

  “How much do you have saved?”

  “A hundred a fifty,” he said, crossing out a section that wasn’t working in his story.

  “You still saving up for an iPad?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then save it. I’ll find another way to buy this stock.”

  “Do you think that we’ll have any classes with Cole this year?” he asked, hoping that they’d have at least one class with their cousin.

  Sebastian shrugged. “If we don’t, we can always break into the system and fix that.”

  “True,” he murmured in agreement, wondering if they shouldn’t just go ahead and do that anyway so they could switch out of this class.

  “Would someone like to volunteer to help me demonstrate how to turn this ice cube from a solid to a gas?”

  He looked up just as Mrs. Thompson was turning on a Bunsen burner and smiled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his brother raise his hand.

  “We would love to help, Mrs. Thompson,” he said, already getting to his feet as he considered several different ways to make this experiment more interesting.

  Part II

  “I-I don’t understand how this happened,” Mrs. Thompson said in a daze as she stared down at what was left of her experiment.

  Johnny sighed heavily from her right. “These things happen.”

  “There was no way to stop it,” Sebastian said from her left, shaking his head in sympathy.

  “B-but it was just a simple experiment,” she said, glancing up at the damage the steam had created. “I don’t understand how this happened. It was just steam.”

  “It’s a mystery,” he said, grabbing her arm just as Johnny grabbed her other arm and as one, they stepped back, taking her with them just as a section of the ceiling in the shape of a perfect circle suddenly fell.

  “How am I going to explain this?” she mumbled to herself as she stared down at the floor, probably not expecting them to answer her so they didn’t.

  “What’s our next class?” Johnny asked as they returned to their seats and grabbed their bags, ignoring the horrified stares that followed their every move.

  “Computers and Technology,” he said, sharing a smile with his brother as they headed for the door.

  “Excellent,” Johnny said, chuckling as they walked past the small group forming around Mrs. Thompson and what was left of their experiment.

  *-*-*-*

  “Sebastian and Johnny, why don’t you take the last lab table,” Mrs. Spring said as she handed them each a thick packet. “We’ve been working on this for the past week. Don’t worry about catching up. You can take it home and work on it.”

  “Thanks,” he said absently as he took the packet and looked down at it with a frown.

  “You can use the computer to help you find the answers,” she said with a smile as she gestured for them to take their seats, but he couldn’t move.

  He just stood there staring down at the first question, wondering if this was a joke. He looked up in time to catch Johnny’s questioning look, probably wondering the same thing. Hoping that he’d misread the first question, he looked back down at the first question and felt his stomach drop.

  What is a computer?

  This could not be happening. It just couldn’t. He glanced down at the second question, hoping against hope that it would be more of a challenge only to discover that the second question was even more frightening than the last.

  How do you turn on a computer?

  Hoping that this was a mistake, he reached into his back pocked and pulled out the small piece of paper the front office had given him this morning. He looked down at the paper, hoping that they’d accidentally placed them in the remedial class, but no, there had been no mistake.

  This was the Honors class.

  When they’d told him that he was going to skip grades and go straight into middle school, he’d been excited. He’d been looking forward to all the new classes, hoping to finally take a class that he enjoyed. He’d always hated school, hated sitting there, struggling to stay awake while the teacher went on and on about something that he’d learned when he was two.

  “This class is going to be a waste of time,” Johnny grumbled as he walked past him.

  He didn’t say anything as he followed his brother, because there wasn’t any point. They were going to be stuck here for three more, depressing, years. Man, he wished that they were still back in elementary school. At least there they could put their heads down when they were bored and take a nap.

  “Are you going to do this?” Johnny asked, absently flicking a hand towards the packet as he turned on the computer

  “No,” he said with a chuckle as he turned on his computer and sent up a silent thank you when he saw the modem, a T1 connection. “I’ll give Matthew ten bucks to do it for me.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Johnny murmured in agreement as they both glanced up to make sure the teacher was still at the front of the class. When they spotted her sitting at her desk, reading a ne
wspaper they decided to see what they could learn about their new school.

  Hours Later…

  “Cole Bradford?”

  “Yes?” he said, trying not to fidget in his chair while his cousins sat beside him, looking bored.

  “Your parents are here,” Mrs. Benet said, still looking just as furious as she had an hour ago when she’d been forced to call every available teacher to clear the cafeteria while the police stepped in with the EMTs and tried to talk the cafeteria staff into leaving the walk-in freezer where they’d barricaded themselves once things had gone….south.

  “Think mom will homeschool us this time or do you think they’ll hire us a tutor?” Sebastian asked, sounding unconcerned as Cole sat there, wondering how things had gone so bad, so fast.

  “They might have Aunt Jodi tutor us,” Jonathan said, sounding hopeful, most likely because she loved to cook and it usually didn’t take much prompting or pouting to get her to whip them up something delicious to eat.

  “She’s got the twins to take care of,” Sebastian pointed out with a shrug.

  “We could help,” Jonathan said, pulling out what Cole already recognized as his grandfather’s iPhone.

  “That’s true,” Sebastian agreed with an absent nod as he leaned over to look at whatever it was that his twin was looking at while Cole sat there, staring at his cousins in horror, wondering why they weren’t panicking.

  They were seconds away from getting grounded for the rest of their lives and his cousins were sitting there, looking bored as they checked out stock quotes. Slowly exhaling and wishing that he’d never invited his cousins to join him at his lunch table, he dropped his head in his hands as he struggled not to pass out.

  How was he going to explain this to his father?

  Oh, God…

  How was he going to explain this to his mother? His father would get angry, probably yell at him, threaten to lock him up in his room for the rest of his life, but his mother…

  She would just look at him through those sad eyes as she slowly pushed her glasses up, her little chin trembling as she stood there, trying to give him one of her reassuring smiles to let him know that everything would be okay and that they’d work through this when they both knew the truth.

  There was no fixing this.

  He’d been expelled.

  For the first time in his life he was in real trouble and sadly, he couldn’t put all the blame on his cousins. It had only been a matter of time before this happened, but he never expected it to happen so soon or for SWAT to have to be called in.

  “Get up,” he heard his father say tightly, sounding angrier than he’d ever heard him before.

  Swallowing hard, Cole stood up as he fisted his hands by his sides, digging his nails into his palms as he struggled not to pass out. His legs actually trembled as he stood up, threatening to drop him on his butt as he looked up, risking a glance and immediately wishing that he hadn’t.

  His parents and Uncle Trevor stood in front of them, looking angrier than he’d ever seen them before and considering some of the stupid things that he’d done along with his cousins, that was saying a lot.

  “D-Dad,” he started to say, hating the way that his voice broke, but he couldn’t help it.

  “Don’t,” his father said firmly as he gestured with a simple nod of his head for them to move their butts.

  Swallowing hard, he nodded jerkily and did just that as his cousins both yawned, looking seriously bored as they walked past him and headed for the double glass doors that would take them away from this school for the last time. Somehow he managed to make his legs move and take him through those doors, but it was difficult when all he wanted to do was to turn around and apologize, and beg his father not to kill him, but he stood firm and continued walking, pretending that he wasn’t struggling not to puke or pass out.

  “Which one of you boys is responsible for this?” Uncle Trevor asked, making his stomach flip over, because in about ten seconds his father was going to kill him.

  Taking a deep breath, he admitted, “I-it was me.”

  “I see,” his father murmured, sounding thoughtful as Cole focused on his father’s truck and forced his legs to take him there. He was barely twenty feet away from the truck when he felt his father’s hand come to rest on his shoulder.

  Before he could say anything, he felt his mother’s small hand wrap around his and give it a reassuring squeeze.

  “I’m proud of you,” his father said, giving his shoulder a squeeze as he looked up and met the eyes of Martin, the little boy that the cafeteria staff had refused to give any food because his account showed that he owed more than five dollars, who was standing next to his parents still crying while his father mouthed, “Thank you,” to them.

  They’d refused to give him anything to eat, even the bread and cheese sandwich that they usually gave the kids who didn’t have lunch money. When the little boy had started to cry, he’d just lost it…

  His cousins had as well, but not like him.

  For two years he’d been forced to watched as kids whose parents could barely afford to send them to school in clean clothes had to go through the embarrassment of being placed at the table in the corner and given two slices of bread with a piece of cheese slapped between them, a milk and an apple, which was bad enough, but not as bad as everyone knowing exactly what sitting at that table meant. It meant that their parents were too poor to send them to school with lunch money, but not poor enough to qualify for free lunch.

  Seeing that little boy cry had been the final straw, one that he wished that he could regret, but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t. He was fortunate, he knew that, because he’d never had to go a single day of his life worrying about where his next meal was going to come from, but those kids forced at that table every day…

  Weren’t.

  He should have never involved his cousins and wished like crazy that he hadn’t dragged them into this, but now they were all in this together.

  What Happens at a Buffet…

  Part I

  “Where are you going?” Trevor asked, biting back a smile as Zoe froze, mid-step, and mid-text by the look of it, and slowly, ever so slowly, turned around to face him.

  Worrying her bottom lip, she quickly shoved her phone in her back pocket and said, “Nowhere?”

  “Then why are you standing next to your car with your keys out?” he asked, folding his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the old oak tree and waited for the woman that he loved more than anything to betray him.

  “Umm, I was, umm,” she said, swallowing nervously, “just getting home?”

  “I see,” he murmured thoughtfully as he watched her shift closer to her car. “Where did you go?”

  “Where did I go?” she asked, appearing confused by this line of questioning.

  “Mmmhmm, where did you go?”

  “I was, umm, just driving around in case the school called?” she said, giving him one of her sweet little smiles that usually managed to wrap him around her little finger.

  “Because of their first day at school?” he asked, deciding to toy with her a little bit and let her believe that he was buying into this bullshit story.

  “Yes,” she quickly agreed with a nod, “that’s exactly it. I was worried that the school would call about one of the boys and I wanted to be close by in case they needed me.”

  “Then why did you come back?”

  “Why did I come back?” she asked, shifting nervously.

  “Mmmhmm.”

  “I, umm,” she said, swallowing nervously as she looked around their front yard for inspiration. When her gaze landed on him, she straightened with a relieved smile. “I came home to spend time with you?”

  “And how were you planning on doing that since I was supposed to be at work today?” he asked, biting back a smile when she nibbled on her bottom as she struggled to come up with another lie to save her beautiful ass from the spanking that she deserved.

  “Well, I, um
,” she started to explain as she looked back at her car and shifted closer to it, “I’d planned on texting you to come home later when I was ready?”

  “Ready?” he asked, pushing away from the tree and moved closer to her as she continued to edge closer to her car.

  She nodded even as she took another back. “For the sex.”

  “The sex?” he repeated, feeling his lips twitch with amusement.

  “Yes, the sex,” she said with a nod as she licked her lips and blindly reached back for the handle of the car door. “To, um, celebrate the boys returning to school and having the house to ourselves for a few hours?”