He laid twisted on the cold ground, his left arm snapped at an angle, blood running down from the corner of his gaped open mouth. The drifting snow glittered red and blue in the air as blaring sirens drew closer.
Nobody was talking, but he still heard voices.
Roughly eight hours before.
Seconds crawled by like minutes. Nate's textbook was open on his desk, but his eyes were fixed on the clock.
"Alright, well, before we all go, let's do one last question." Speaking from the front of the classroom, Mrs. Miller began to scrawl something on the whiteboard. Twenty teens sat in rows, some of them looking at their phones, some of them scribbling in their notebooks, all of them various degrees of bored.
"Nathan, have you gone yet?" Mrs. Miller asked. Nate wanted to say that he had, but he hadn't, so he didn't. He shook his head, and Mrs. Miller looked at him expectantly.
Nate sucked at math, but somehow he always ended up in the higher level courses. This was pre-calc, last period, the day before winter break. He tore his eyes away from the ticking second hand for just a moment, reading the board. More letters there than numbers. The worst kind of problem.
Sighing internally, Nate read the question again and rolled it around in his head, his hands moving to the calculator on his desk. How did you find the endpoints of the major axis for an ellipse again? It took him about three seconds to give up.
"Yeah, I-" he flipped through his notebook to at least look like he was trying. "Yeah, I... forget how to do this."
Mrs. Miller rolled her eyes and didn't even try to hide it. "Maybe look at the equations sheet?"
Nate pulled his backpack into his lap and started to dig through it - like math, organization wasn't his strong suit. The bag was like a rat's nest, and he shoved aside papers from all his classes, loose pencils, and worn-down folders he'd had since he was a freshman. By the time the equations sheet was in his hand, the bell had rung and students had already started to file out the door. He looked at Mrs. Miller, gave her a shrug, and rose up to join them. But of course she had to stop him.
"Nathan, I'd like you to come here for a second." She was sat behind her desk, and after he zipped his bag back up and slung it over his shoulder, he walked up in front of it.
"What's up?" Nate said, rubbing his eyes. The teacher didn't answer as she turned to her computer, tapping away at the keyboard. She was pulling up his grades.
"You're not doing too well. Did you know that?" she rotated the bulky old monitor to face him. The last semester he had gotten a C, but now, he had a 52% average. "That's an F," she said, as if it wasn't obvious.
"Uhhh." he scratched his chin. "I'll try and bring that up with the test?"
Mrs. Miller stared back at him, unamused. "You're too smart for an F, Nathan... you're an adult, I know that, but if you don't start doing better I might have to call your parents about this. Got that?"
"Yeah." Nate said. "Got it." He could see on her face that she was unsatisfied, but she must've wanted to get to her own winter break as much as she did, so she let him go.
On his way out, Nate noticed a head half-peeking around the doorway. It was David DeMarchi, one of the popular guys in his grade - not a jock, just the charismatic kind of person other people were magnetized to. How long had he been standing there, Nate wondered? David said hi when he walked by him, but Nate didn't respond. He didn't know the guy too well, but he knew he loved to gossip. Soon everyone was gonna know about his F, he bet.
"Told you, shoulda signed up for track C."
Emmy Zhao was working on getting her locker open, Nate leaning up against the one next to hers. She could never get the number of spins right, even on the second or third try. She tried to pull it open, but the door was still locked.
"Well, I want my college application to look good." he said. Emmy snorted.
The courses at Richmond High School were split into three different tracks: A, the upper level classes, B, the classes for average students, and C, the classes for students that had a harder time in school. AKA, the stupid kids. Emmy always talked about how great being in track C was. Nate thought it was wasted potential. He knew she was bright ever since they met back in elementary.
"I don't even have to try, it's easy." she said as she chewed on a stick of cherry gum. A few girls passed by, waving and calling out her name. Emmy smiled and replied in turn, Nate just stood there with his hands in his pockets. She had always had more friends than he did, and Nate was pretty sure she'd be hanging out with them later. "Like, it's, it's middle school stuff. One plus one equals two. I haven't gotten less than a 90 yet."
"So?"
"What looks better, all A's or all D's? They look at the letters, not the classes." Nate was almost absolutely sure she was wrong, but decided not to push it. Emmy spun the dial around, lined the numbers up again, and pulled it back. Metal clanged against metal... yep, still locked. "Crap. I hate these things."
Nate stepped in to help her, getting it open on his first attempt. She thanked him and pulled out her gym clothes, giving them a sniff before cramming them into her backpack. Like Nate, she didn't care if things were organized or not.
"Seriously, sign up for track C next year. They just let you do it, y'know."
"Well, with how my grades are going, I probably won't need to sign up." Nate said, running a hand through his shaggy hair. Emmy studied her friend's face.
"Jeez, nobody's gonna care that you have an F, Nate. David just probably had to talk to miss whats-her-face or something." She pulled out her gum and stuck it on the inside of her locker door before shutting it and spinning the lock. "Besides, trust me, nobody talks about you at all anyways."
Nate didn't know if she was trying to reassure him or poke fun at him. She had a way of doing both at once. Either way, Emmy brushed it off fast.
"So, are you gonna be back in time to come to New Year's?" She asked. Nate's mouth bent into a frown.
"No, I wont." Nate said. "I'm still gonna be in the Poconos then."
"Sucks you're gonna be up in the mountains all winter break, huh?" she said. Both of them were now making their way to the parking lot. Emmy had her car there, and Nate didn't have his license yet so he relied on her for rides. A junior like him wouldn't be caught dead taking the bus on the day break started. "A week long ski trip? Do you even know how to ski?"
"No." he said, shaking his head.
The trip was his mom's boyfriend's idea, whose two sons just loved skiing, snowboarding, and all the other kinds of physical activity Nate hated. He had begged his mom to let him stay home and do something worthwhile with his time, but she refused every time. Apparently, it would be "good exercise" and "a bonding activity." Nate didn't know why he had to bond with her boyfriend though, considering she went through them like tissue paper.
"Well, maybe you'll meet a girl there, or something. Like Troy and Gabriella in High School Musical."
Nate laughed. "Did they meet on a ski trip or something?"
"Wait, you've never seen that movie?" Emmy's eyes opened wide. "Okay, it's on Netflix, we need to-"
"I am not watching High School Musical."
The conversation continued much the same as they pushed through the doors to the parking lot, chilly wind quickly rushing over them. Nate pulled his arms around his chest. Tiny bits of powder snow drifted in the breeze, and Nate remembered that it was supposed to get a lot worse later today.
