Later on that day, Isaac began to rummage through all of the newly bought items. “Pencils, pen, notebook paper, binder...” he muttered to himself. He could hear Taylor’s new Counting Crows cd defeaning Taylor at the moment; Isaac was in the living room. Isaac just shook his head; how could Taylor even get the pitch right when he was halfway deaf?
Nonetheless, the day continued and the boys sorted out all of the things they had bought; their mom writing neatly their names on everything. When Taylor saw her doing that he groaned. A million girls would go berserk of he left it anywhere. “So much for being irresponsible,” he muttered to himself, becoming sick of his vocabulary.
Zac, meanwhile, was looking forward to it. School meant people, people meant fun. Zac was definitely a people-person. Mean people meant practical jokes and nice people meant well...nice people to Zac. At the moment though, Zac wasn’t concerned. He was intensely studying a math problem since his mother had instructed him to practice so he would be ready for school.
The next day Taylor surveyed all of their school supplies that were lying in a row in their bedroom. He growled. He didn’t want to go to school while his younger brothers and sisters stayed here. Christ, he wouldn’t even be there for all of those things his friends talked about like parties, assemblies, competitions, etc. So why even bother going to be griped at by somebody he didn’t know for seven hours? He groaned and, suddenly inspired, began to write a song.
A few moments later Zac walked into the room, looking puzzled. Taylor motioned for his little brother to sit down. “What’s up, Zac?” “Well...you know Kandy from across the street?” Taylor nodded. He didn’t quite see where this was going. He had only seen Kandy but he knew that she was a girl Zac’s age that went to the school Zac was going to attend. “Well, she said she’d ‘hook me up’ with the ‘in’ crowd at school. But I don’t like anybody she mentioned. They’re all snobs that think they’re better than everybody.” Zac sighed. He liked Kandy okay, but the others all got on his nerves.
Taylor blinked, not having to deal with this problem for fifteen years. He shrugged and told Zac, “Well, I know about as much as you know about this junk, Zac, so maybe you should go along with Kandy. It might keep you out of trouble.” Looking at Zac, Taylor didn’t really want to have to tell him what kind of ‘trouble’ he could get into if he strayed out of the in crowd. Maybe Taylor hadn’t gone to a school before but he had heard and seen all of the examples of outcasts who were once a part of the ‘in’ crowd or popular crowd.
Zac muttered something under his breath that Taylor didn’t catch but he had no doubt that one member of this ‘in’ crowd was Jyson. Jyson was about a month younger than Zac, and now, a good four inches shorter. He was constantly harassing Zac about his long hair and “girly” voice and trying to get Zac to fight. He never had before, but now he was going to be with him seven hours a day. Not good.
Zac turned and left the room. Taylor turned toward the open journal on the desk and wrote down, “If Zac’s going to have to deal with that, Lord only knows what Ike and I will have to. We’re older and the kids are stronger and they don’t make threats and not follow through with them.”
