Chapter 4
The future…
June 18, 2020
It was finally the last day of school for Rory Rhodes—not just before summer vacation, but forever. He sat in the back of the classroom, on his desk. Reclining against a bookcase, slowly swinging his legs, his dirty Keds cut the air with a blur of blue and white as he hummed “The Long and Winding Road” by The Beatles, and thumb stroked the smooth head of the 8th Grade Science class’s pet snake, Max . Damn—how Jacob preferred John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and tunes from that era to Britney, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, or Kanye.
“Rory?”
“Yeah, Mr. W.?”
“D’ya pass your math final?”
“Got a hundred,” the nearly-twenty-year-old stated apathetically.
“Far out! Then come and get it.” Jacob was rushing things this time, to get to the part that would hop
