Ghost Program by Marion Desaulniers Page B

for my next class.  Mel met up with me in the hall.  She was a pretty blonde with a bubbly personality.
       “Hi!” she said.  “Going to math?”
       “Yeah,” I said, bending down to take my Ritz crackers from the vending machine I had stopped at for a snack.
       “I’ll walk with you,” she said.  “Did you hear about the quiz?”
       “Yesterday’s?”
       “You were the only one that passed.”
       “How do you know?”
       “I went to Mr. Lake’s office hours this morning to get help with the homework, and I asked him about it.  He mentioned your exceptional score.”
       I smiled.  Brent’s tutoring had paid off.  No wonder I always thought so highly of him.  I wondered how he was doing in Seattle and if he would really call.  I hoped so, I longed to hear his voice.  “I’ve always enjoyed acceleration rate problems....must be my forté,” I replied.
       “Well, you’re the only one...I failed.  I hope the homework this week brings my grade up, otherwise I’m doomed.”
       “It will.  He always gives us 100% on assignments.  It’s the final I’m worried about.”
       “How about the storm last night?  Wasn’t that wild?” she asked.  “We lost power.”
       “I think the whole town did,” I said.  “We were almost killed by a falling tree.”
       “What!?” she exclaimed.
       “It’s true.  On the highway last evening, it fell inches from the car.”
       “My God.  You were with your parents?”
       “No, my....my boyfriend,” I said.  It dawned on me at that moment that I was no longer single.
       “Sam, you’ve been holding back on me.  When did you get a boyfriend?”
       “He’s a student at UW.  And I wasn’t holding back.  He only asked me out yesterday.”
       “Well, did you go out ?”
       “We sure as hell almost died tryin’, didn’t we?”
       “I’m going to have to meet this mystery man.”
       “I’m going to move in with him in two weeks.  He’s got an apartment in Seattle.”
       “Sam, uh...are you 19 or 35?  What’s all this?  You’re too young for marriage.”
       I giggled.  “I’m transferring for summer quarter.  It’s just till I get my own place.”
       “And what does your mother think about this...hmmm?” she asked.  “Are you gonna tell her?”
       “Of course.  I mean, I already have.”
       Mel frowned a little.  “Our yard is a mess, all tore up.  We lost our pretty rose bushes.  All gone, and they were mother’s pride and joy.”
       “Mom said people died yesterday.  She said there were car wrecks and falling trees everywhere.  Hell, me and Brent almost landed at St. Peter’s gates.  Be glad you just lost a couple bushes.”
       “We’ll probably hear it on the news tonight.  Oh, we’re here.”  She giggled again.  “You’ll have to tell me all about Brent .”  She said his name as if it were a silly joke.
       “He was my calculus tutor.”
       “No wonder you do so well in math.  A girl gets a handsome teacher, of course she’s going to pay attention.”
       “We’re here,” I said. 
       We turned a corner and entered the classroom door.
       “Let’s find two seats together,” she said.  “Then we can compare notes on the homework.  I’d hate to get a wrong answer on one and get marked down.”
       “Okay.”  I pulled out my sheet of lined paper and we compared notes together, making sure that our answers were all the same. 
     
       Satisfied, we put our homework away and pulled out our calculators and notebooks to prepare for the lecture.  Mel pulled a pair of glasses out of her purse; she was near-sighted and couldn’t see the overhead projector without them.
       “I hope the lecture’s good,” she said.  I had to strain to listen to her over the guy behind me talking about his hot girlfriend, loudly, as if to brag to everyone in the room.
       “I hope I can understand