He chuckled, his eyes dancing. “Of all the analogies to use, you use that one.”
I shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a rebel without a cause. I’ve never been one to conform. I don’t think any one of them will appreciate it and no one would want to teach me.”
He shook his head and smiled. “I agree that many of the board members and teachers there are extremely traditional and unyielding, but I know personally that there are several members of the faculty that would love to be considered one of your teachers. You’re a student that doesn’t need teaching. You will have more of an impact on most of them than they will ever have on you.”
I blushed at his compliment. I wish I had the same confidence in myself that he did. “Thanks,” I murmured.
“Now,” he drawled out. “I heard you joined a band.”
I groaned and buried my head in my hands. “Jemmy has such a big mouth.”
He laughed. “Jemmy and Jax. That’s why I was surprised that Jax kept you a secret for so long. Now, what video am I searching?”
“No,” I shook my head. “Nuh uh.”
He looked at me with a raised brow. “I can text either one of them and they will tell me.”
I took a sip of my coffee and glared at him. “I can’t even remember half the songs I sang that night.”
“But you are aware of at least one song that went viral,” he pushed.
“Ugh!” I groaned. “Fine. Fine. Search: “The Highway Don’t Care,” Ben and Blake.”
He sat there and watched the video for a few minutes. When it was over, he looked over at me. “You changed the arrangement. It’s better than the original.”
I shrugged, unsure how to react. I didn’t have to ask him how he knew I was the one who changed it. He had seen me through a lot of my musical journey, enough to know by now my style.
“So, when’s the first band practice?” He teased.
I groaned once more. “Tomorrow. I don’t even know how Jemmy pushes me into these situations, are we sure that she can only manipulate electronics?”
He chuckled. “I met Jemmy when she was nine years old. She has always been able to wrap people around her finger. Girls, boys, men, and women.”
“At least Ben gets paid gigs and I don’t have to perform every song with them. I’m just adding some estrogen to their testosterone fest.” I took another bite of my muffin.
“Sounds like you’re going to be busy this year. Two college classes, gifts training, physical training, the band, working, the music program. Make sure you don’t burn yourself out.” He said with some concern.
I smiled ruefully. “For the last year, I took care of my sister, went to school full time, worked full time, and took care of a household. I think I can do this.”
He reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I don’t doubt your ability to do whatever you set your mind to, but I don’t want to see you get hurt in doing so.”
I smiled at him, knowing he wouldn’t voice his concerns if he didn’t care for me. He was no longer my meddlesome teacher. He was now my caring connected.
Chapter 21
I was already told that they felt physical education was important to the gifted. They felt a physically fit body helped protect us not only physically, but emotionally, and mentally as well. When I thought of phys ed, I thought of the gym classes from my old school. There was never anything physically demanding to them. I never even had to take a shower after them. We played dodgeball, maybe soccer, and sometimes basketball. We weren’t even required to participate. We just had to show up. I showed up most days, letting the jocks and the meat heads dominate the court. They always ran us little peons over anyways.
I no longer had the luxury of just showing up anymore. My first day of class consisted of a three-mile run and an obstacle course. I wasn’t given a break because it was my first day. I was expected to participate even though I felt like I was dying. I might have a small frame, but I knew it wasn’t because I worked out, it was because of my fast metabolism. It was no surprise I was the last to cross the finish line.
The faster you ran, the longer time you had to rest before you had to do the obstacle course. I had no time to rest. I was required to immediately climb up the ropes, army crawl under a rope, use a rope to walk up an inclined wall, balance on a beam five feet off the ground (if you fell you had to start the course all over again), leap over logs, and then carry a log equal to or greater than my own weight. I had been weighed and ‘banded.’ All the logs were color coded depending on your weight class. I had the lightest one, but it was still no joke.
The reward for finishing the obstacle course early was a hot shower. If you were near the end of the course, you would be guaranteed to have a cold shower. I was physically shaken and sore as I stood under my freezing cold shower. My main goal was to just wash my body. There was no way I was sticking my head under the ice-cold blast, and I didn’t want to have my curly hair back today.
I was thankful I had lunch after phys ed. I needed the time to decompress after a stressful audition, college physics class, college calculus class, and then that physical torture class they were trying to pass off as phys ed.
I didn’t have to look hard to find Jax or Jemmy. They were waiting for me by the entrance closest to the phys ed building.
“Kill me now,” I groaned as I drew closer to them.