The rest of the afternoon had flown by for Max. He had spent most of his Pre-Cal class completely lost in thinking about Seth and the incredible blowjob that he had experienced at the end of his study period. The teacher didn’t seem to think that Max had much to offer the class, which was fine with Max, at least today. Normally he was very focused in math, but today it seemed like his mind was miles away, so he was grateful that the teacher hadn’t called on him to work any problems.
He had a bit of a hiccup in his Advanced Robotics course, as he felt clumsy with his larger body and kept struggling to follow the instructions on building the basic battery that the class was working on. Eventually, his partner, Elizabeth Martin had given upon him helping and just proceeded to do the whole thing herself, ignoring Max whenever he tried to suggest something. He eventually ignored her and wandered around looking at the other things around the class, but then he got in trouble with the teacher and was forced to sit in his chair until class dismissed.
Then he breezed through AP American History by writing down more guys that he would need to recruit for the lacrosse team instead of taking notes on the Battle of Yorktown. At some point he remembered going to the nurse’s office to drop off a loaner shirt on a favor for Coach Chase, but he couldn’t remember the details…He remembered the Coach talking to him about someone with the school nurse needed the shirt, but he couldn’t remember who it was or why. A feeling in the back of his mind made him think it was important, but he quickly lost focus as he prepared for the final class of the day and another one that he shared with Seth: Brit Lit.
As he walked into his Brit Lit class, he realized that he was one of the first to arrive and sat down at his normal desk towards the back of the class. As he got his book out for his class, he realized there was something else he was trying to remember. Something important about this class…However, he was distracted by Seth entering the room.
Seth swaggered down the aisle with his typical jock assurance, nodding and smiling to several of their classmates as he made his way to his seat. Most of the studious members of the class gave him a polite smile and nod, although Max could slightly perceive that they definitely looked down at him. It caused Max to seethe slightly in his mind. His boyfriend was amazing and had incredible potential. Just because he wasn’t the best in school didn’t give any of the rest of these arrogant intellects the right to look down on him. Max had completely forgotten that he shared some of those same thoughts just the previous day.
Seth sat down next to Max with a grin on his face. “Hey Bae! How was your afternoon?” he asked.
“It was pretty relaxing, I guess,” Max said with a shrug. “I don’t think I really paid attention in most of my afternoon classes, but at the same time, I still feel like I learned some stuff. You know, through osmoises or whatever it’s called.”
“That’s cool,” Seth replied. “Do you think we’re going to be ready for our presentation today?”
“What presentation?” Max asked.
“You know, on that David Copperfield guy. The one we were supposed to work on last night…You came over to my place, and we were going to type it up, but I ended up watching the movie while you played around on the computer, and then we made out for a bit before Brian got home…”
“Shit!” Max said, perhaps a bit too loudly as some of their classmates turned to look at them with disdain. He lowered his voice and continued. “I completely forgot about that. I was supposed to work on that during my study period, but I got distracted recruiting guys for lacrosse.”
“It’s all good, man,” Seth replied. “I can handle most of it. I saw the movie, and you know for those boring lit books, those movies are pretty much the same.”
“No, you don’t have to,” Max said quickly. “I’ve read David Copperfield before. I’m sure of it. Just fill in on any part I might forget.” He felt confident that he could present the book from memory.
Before Seth could object further, the second bell rang and their teacher, Mrs. Reynolds, got up from her desk and began discussing their presentations.
Seth leaned over to Max. “Are you sure you want to take the lead on this?” he whispered.
“I got this,” Max whispered back with a reassuring smile. “By the way, I had something weird happen earlier today with Coach and the nurse’s office…”
“Mr. Danton! Mr. Warner!” Mrs. Reynolds said from the front, interrupting Max’s conversation with Seth. “Since you feel the need to carry on a conversation while I’m teaching, I can only presume that you are discussing the fine points for your presentation on David Copperfield today. Are you ready to present?”
“Uh…yeah,” Max said, embarrassed a bit by being caught by the teacher. He and Seth got up and made their way to the front of the classroom. A couple of the students wrinkled their noses as they passed by. Max realized that the two of them probably didn’t smell the freshest, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. Another thought made him realize that he didn’t care what any of these nerds thought about him. Seth liked his scent, and that was all that mattered.
They got to the front of the class and faced the rest of their classmates. “Where is your paper?” Mrs. Reynolds asked.
“Oh, the paper!” Max said. “I typed it up last night at my house, but I forgot to print it out and bring it in. Can I just email it to you tonight or bring it to school on Monday?”
“You typed up the entire paper last night?” Mrs. Reynolds said, raising an eyebrow.
“He means, we finished it last night,” Seth interjected. “He came over to my house and we wrote the ending together, and then he, like, reviewed it over and everything.”
“Uh-huh,” Mrs. Reynolds said, a look of annoyance across her face. “Well, you can email it to me as soon as possible. Anyways, let’s hear your presentation.”
“Right!” Max said, looking at his classmates. “So, David Copperfield….he….uh….well, I mean, you know, you’ve probably heard of him, right? He like does magic tricks and stuff like that. But there was a book written about him, and uh….he’s a lot older than you think he is…” Max was getting nervous. His mind was completely blank. He knew he had read this before. Hadn’t he finished it just last week? Written his half of the paper about it? Why couldn’t he remember anything?! Max looked over to Seth nervously.
Seth caught his boyfriend’s eye and smiled reassuringly. “What Max is trying to say,” he joined in, “Is David Copperfield is about his childhood. He had like a crazy aunt who thought he was going to be a girl and she was all mad when he wasn’t, and then he went away with his family’s maid and while he was gone, his mom married some jerk guy who beat him, and then he ran away, and moved in with his aunt, and then…” Seth paused to try to remember what all had happened in the movie. He had tried to pay attention, but it had been super long and boring and he only remembered bits and pieces. “And then he ends up being called Trot and falls in love with a girl named Dora.” That all seemed accurate in Seth’s mind.
Mrs. Reynolds stood at the side of the class, her arms across her chest a stern look across her face. “Is there anything else that the two of you would wish to enlighten the class with your obviously incredible in-depth presentation on the themes that were present throughout the book?” Several people in the class giggled at this question.
“Ummm….well, you know,” Max started. “I mean, it would suck to have a childhood like that, But I think that David Copperfield is an inspiration to all of us, because he was able to overcome all of that and still be able to become famous!” Seth nodded in agreement.
Mrs. Reynolds sighed at the response. “Well, that was very illuminating. Thank you, gentlemen. Take your seats.”
Max and Seth walked back to their seats. “Thanks for covering for me,” Max whispered to Seth. “You totally saved my butt there…”
“No problem, Bae!” Seth whispered back. “You know I’ve always got your back.” Both boys were hopelessly ignorant of the fact that they had completely butchered their presentation.
“Janie and Steve, would you like to present on Jane Eyre?” Mrs. Reynolds asked some other of their classmates.
As the next two students began to present on their book, Max found himself completely unfocused as he looked around the classroom. It was as if the world had faded away, and he was in a world of his own, picturing himself as captain of the school lacrosse team as they beat all the other schools in the district.
“Mr. Warner!” a loud voice called out to him, distracting him from his daydream. He realized that Mrs. Reynolds had just called his name. Seth kicked Max gently under their desks.
“I’m sorry, what?” Max asked.
“Mrs. Comstock just called on the phone. You and Mr. Danton need to make you way to her office immediately. There seem to be some changes in your schedule that I think will benefit all of us…” Mrs. Reynolds responded, looking at the two jocks disdainfully. “Gather your things and make your way to her office.”
Max was confused. He had remembered Seth saying that he was getting his schedule changed, but he didn’t understand why he was meeting with Mrs. Comstock again. He hadn’t done anything wrong, and he got good grades in school. He was smart! It was just stage fright that had made him forget about what he had read for his class. *It was a dumb book anyways,* he thought as he gathered his items and walked out of the classroom with Seth.
Once they were out of the classroom, Seth wrapped his arm around Max, which caused Max to catch a whiff of his armpit BO. Max found the smell strangely intoxicating, and he felt his dick harden in his shorts. “Man, this is nice!” Seth was saying as they walked down the hall. “I hope that our schedules are aligned and we get to have more classes together! Wouldn’t that be great?”
“But, I need those AP courses,” Max said in response. “They’re going to help me get into a good college.”
“Bae, you are an incredible running back and a stellar lacrosse player. You’ll probably get a full-ride scholarship to any college you want. Haven’t you already had a few colleges scout you out?”
“Yeah, but I’m really good at school, too!” Max said. Part of him was sure of this. Albeit a part of him that was mostly lost and forgotten, but he was really struggling to hold onto that last little bit of his old nerdy self. “Like, I remember getting all A’s and everything.”
“Really? When did you get all A’s?” Seth said, a confused look on his face.
Max tried to remember. He was sure he had gotten the honor roll. Hadn’t his mom taken him out to a nice dinner last year because of it? Or was it because his club lacrosse team made it into the local playoffs…His mind was starting to play tricks on him again…
“Ugh, I don’t remember when, but I’m sure it happened…” The two of them had made it down the hall of the southern wing and entered Mrs. Comstock’s office. Max stopped again when he saw the Whoppers in the candy bowl. He remembered the counselor had gotten them specifically for him. How had she known that he liked them?
“Gotta grab some of these Whoppers,” he told Seth. Seth reached out and grabbed a package of Skittles.
“Hello boys,” Mrs. Comstock said as she looked up from her computer. “Go ahead and take a seat.” She motioned at two of the chairs across from her desk.
The boys sat down as they nibbled on their candy.
“Now, I’ve heard from several of your teachers that you are struggling to keep up with your classes. Is that right?”
Max shook his head. “I feel like I’ve been doing really well,” he responded.
Mrs. Comstock cocked her head slightly. “Is that why you didn’t show up at your C++ class after our meeting this morning? Or why you were daydreaming in both your Pre-Calculus and American History classes?”
Max blushed when he realized that he had not been paying attention in those classes. “I’ve just been distracted today. You know, we talked about it this morning.”
“I know, Max, and if you’ll recall, I also discussed that we would need to further discuss this in your next IEP session, which I originally had scheduled for Monday afternoon, but I think it would be good to focus on now.”
“Um….yeah, what’s an IEP session?” Max asked.
Mrs. Comstock smiled patiently. “You don’t remember? It’s an Individualized Education Program. It’s what we’ve been doing to help you with your classes the past two years. With your dyslexia and ADHD, it helps us keep you focused on remedial education so that you can keep up with everything. Just like I was doing with JJ this morning.”
“I’ve never done that before!” Max said, somewhat uncertainly.
Mrs. Comstock raised an eyebrow at Max uncertainly. She picked up her tablet from the desk, which she gave to Max. It had a list of all of his grades. He was failing every course on the list with the exception of PE. “Again, I’m not entirely sure how you got signed up for these classes, as I know we had a different schedule planned,” Mrs. Comstock said, taking the tablet from the bewildered teen. “My only guess is that there was some sort of clerical error over the summer that didn’t get fixed until now. Still, I think I have a new schedule that I think both of you boys will be excited about.”
She pulled up a new tab on her computer and turned the monitor to face both boys. It showed a list of remedial courses for Math, English, Science, and Social Studies. “We can try to get you two boys to have a similar schedule; however, I will need you to have separate IEP periods with me so that we can go over anything that you are unable to finish in your remedial courses.”
Max felt his anger rising. He wasn’t an idiot; he knew he was smart. Wasn’t he? He tried to remember taking any advanced courses…he tried to think of advanced math or science concepts…but his mind was coming up blank. He couldn’t even think of different kinds of butterflies, other than the fact that they were different colors… “No!! I’m not an idiot!!”
Seth put his hand on Max’s shoulders. “You’re not an idiot, Bae! You’re really smart! I know you are! And you’re really athletic and talented! It’s just that some of this book stuff comes a bit harder for you.”
Mrs. Comstock nodded. “Seth is right, you know,” she said. “You are smart, Max, and you have a lot of talents in your own way. But you also have learning disabilities that prevent you from using your smart brain the way that it should, and it’s my job to help navigate you through that. Do you understand?”
Max looked up, a pained expression across his face. “Yeah, I guess so,” he mumbled. He still wasn’t pleased with the turn of events, but he wasn’t sure what else to do or say about it. He hoped his mom would understand…
“Now, you boys can keep your same PE course, as I see no reason to change that; however, are there any elective courses that you would like to take? I know you’ve both expressed an interest in shop…” She handed them her tablet with a list of available electives.
“Yes!” Seth said excitedly. “I want to take Shop! That would be awesome! Don’t you agree, Bae?”
Max remembered the excitement that he had seeing the shop class earlier…The familiarity of the room, the smell, the tools…it FELT right… “Yeah, Shop would be good,” he replied.
Seth scrolled through the list. “What about Art?” he asked.
“I can definitely sign you up for Art, if that’s what you’d like. What about you, Max? Do you want to do Art as well?”
“Actually, if you don’t mind, would it be possible for me to be put into Home Ec? 2nd period?” Max asked, remembering the fun he had with Renee that morning.
Mrs. Comstock looked at Max’s schedule on the computer. “I think I can make that work,” she said with a smile. She made a few more changes to their schedules, then waited while they printed out at the printer on her desk. Once both schedules were printed out, she handed one to both teens. “There you go. I’ll inform the teachers that you will be transferring first thing Monday.”
Max looked at his schedule and frowned and the large number of remedial courses on it. He knew he was smarter than this, and he didn’t like the fact that he was being forced into the remedial classes. But as he tried to focus on his schoolwork, he felt his mind drifting…Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad…and he would get to have a lot more classes with Seth…his dick hardened at that thought. He tried to clear his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was throw a boner in front of his guidance counselor!
The final bell rang, signaling the end of the school day. “Well, if you boys don’t have any other questions, I believe you need to make it to the bus to get on your way to the game at Baycliff High tonight. You ready for it?”
“Oh yeah!” Seth said with a grin, grabbing his backpack from the floor. “We’re going to crush them! We’ve been practicing like crazy lately, and our team this year is really fantastic. Don’t you agree, Bae?”
“What?” Max said, looking around confused. Baycliff High School…he had a football game tonight! It was a simple warmup game for the season, and they had a history of trouncing their opponents regularly in football. How had he known that?! But it just came second nature to them. “Yep! Baycliff is a guaranteed win. Their football team has really been struggling the past couple of years, and from what I’ve heard, this year is going to be no different!”
“Well, then, I’ll let you boys get to it! Let me know if you have any problems with your new schedule!” Mrs. Comstock said, dismissing the boys from her office.