Welcome To Carlsonton Academy

Chapter IX

"Oh my god, she what?!"

I slammed my locker shut and turned to face my two best friends. It was the first day of school after the summer, and I was telling Peyton and James about the whole situation with my family.

"Tell me about it." I snorted.

"I cannot believe she would do that!" said Peyton, referring to my mother's behaviour.

"Wait," said James, "you told your parents that I might be their future son-in-law?"

I glared at him. "Out of the whole fiasco, that's the part you're freaking out about? I mean, Denise came to my house for dinner, and I screwed it up as usual, and my parents want to murder me, and you care about the fact that you could be my potential husband."

"Uh, yeah."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, I doesn't matter. My parents probably hate me too much to plan my wedding anyway."

"What did they do to you?" asked Peyton, as we made our way to English Literature.

I sighed. "Well, I locked myself in my room and didn't come out except to eat, and every time we were in the same room together, they'd give me the look. Let's just say I'm happy to be back."

We took our seats just as the bell rang. We had a new teacher and damn, he was hot.

He was a young, black haired man, probably in his early thirties. He looked like a younger version of Seth Macfarlane, and sounded like him too, with his deep voice.

"Welcome class. I am your new English Literature professor, Mr. Cummings. Today, we'll learn about the most famous poets in literature history. Can you please name some?"

My hand and James' shot up in unison.
Mr. Cummings made a face of discomfort. He looked at our names on the list. "Ugh. Miss Valentine and Mr. Callahan. They warned me about the two of you."

We exchanged perturbed looks. Warned?

I knew better than to question a teacher, so I quietly retracted my arm. He nodded in approval. He asked the rest of the class for answers, but they were indifferent and obviously didn't care.

The be rang soon enough and I quickly left the classroom. I had history next. I could hardly concentrate on what the teacher was teaching. I zoned out and counted the number of times the birds outside chirped in a minute. It was thirty two.

Once class was over, I headed to the cafeteria for lunch. Phoebe, April, and Ryan were already there when I joined them. Peyton sat down next to me with her tray of food.

"Hey, Peyt," said Phoebe, "did you do something to your hair? It looks good."

Peyton turned bright red and nodded slowly. It was unusual to see her blush because of a complement.

"So, how was everyone's summer?"

As it turns out, everybody had a great time except me. April and Isaac had spent the summer together in Cali, and Phoebe and Shane had visited India. I was the only one who'd managed to permanently damage my relationship with my parents.

"Has anyone seen the new English professor?" said Peyton. "He's so hot."

"He's gay," said Phoebe quickly.

I raised my eyebrow. "And you know this how?"

"Uh, I saw him in a video. With a guy. Online."

April wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Hey, it's my brother's influence!" cried Phoebe defensively.