Her mom started looking through a stack of schedules and said, “I was gonna give it to you before we left. I guess there’s a compelling reason why you want it now.”
“Mom!” she said again as she snatched the paper from her mother’s hand. She took a quick look at the classes: AP Calculus, AP history, AP chemistry. When she got to chemistry she closed one eye then looked next to it for the teacher’s name. If it said ‘Craig’… She saw G-a-r-v-i- and n. Yes!
“Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re the best mom ever!” she squealed as she hugged her mother.
“I put you in there before I knew the new teacher was Dr. Dreamy.” That’s what they called the handsome doctor on a popular TV show that had been on for years.
“He is dreamy,” Shay agreed.
After an hour or so, Shay noticed another student behind the tables where no student should be. He walked over to Mr. Garvin and said, “So how’s business, Adam?”
“Not too bad, Cam. And it’s Mr. Garvin at school, okay?”
Erin and Shay were both looking at the new kid and this time it was Erin who whispered, “Oh, my God! Who is that? He’s as dreamy as Dr.—Mr. Dreamy.”
“Mom…you’re a regular perv. What’s gotten into you lately?” Shay teased.
Erin wanted to badly to say, “Nothing’s gotten into me lately and that’s the problem.” Instead, she just enjoyed the view.
Erin said, “Adam? Who’s this young man?”
“Oh, sorry. Erin, this is my younger brother, Cameron. We mostly call him Cam. Cam, this is one of our guidance counselors, Ms. Kimball, and to her left is her daughter, Shay, who’s also a senior this year.”
“Nice to meet you Ms. Kimball. He peeked around her head and looked at Shay and said, “Hi, Shay.”
Shay was dying to know who these handsome brothers were, where they were from, as well as how and why they’d ended up here. She didn’t have to wait long for the answer.
“Cam and I have mostly been on our own since our parents were killed by a drunk driver five years ago. I’m not only his brother but his legal guardian. We have a middle brother who just graduated from West Point and who’s learning to fly helicopters. So it’s really just the two of us. Mutt and Jeff, Calvin and Hobbes.”
Cam spoke and said, “What he means by guardian is he’s the warden.” Cameron smiled so everyone knew it was meant as a joke. “Naw, he’s actually a pretty decent guy. You know, for a chemistry geek. He won’t tell you this, but he earned a masters in chemistry in less time than it takes most people to get a BS. But did he use it to make any decent money? Oh, no. He went into teaching. No offense, Ms. Kimball, but teaching isn’t exactly a moneymaker.”
“Guilty as charged,” Adam said. “I do love chemistry, but I don’t much love corporations and the way they rape people and the environment. I want to do something to help people, not just make money.”
Shay craned her neck around her mom and said, “Well, I think that’s very admirable, Mr. Garvin. I love chemistry, too, and hope to do something with it to make a difference and it won’t be by working for some corporation, either.”