The Better Clan

I

FIVE-TEN

I smile and pat myself on the back for growing an inch. Even though it was equal to almost nothing, it was still an achievement and a step closer to the ever anticipated six-foot mark.

Five-Ten

I try not to get too psyched about it, but standing here in line with a bunch of five-six and five-eight footers made it seem really difficult, like skipping dessert—which on my difficulty scale of 1-10 would earn a 9.9999999999999.

Perhaps if I were at school it wouldn’t be this hard, being among the few five-footers there is certainly not something to be proud of; having to crane your neck almost all the time was definitely humiliating. But standing here, well that was totally the complete opposite! I so badly wanted to stand beside everyone and make it obvious that I was taller, or even stand in their way—wait a minute, I was already doing that.

To be honest I don’t even know where I am. My dad’s co-worker Greg picked me up way too early from school and dropped me off here, leaving word that Mom and Dad would be here any minute.

“Raymie!”

I sharply turn my head in the direction of the voice, my eyes spot my parents and my big sister frantically waving and grinning obnoxiously, her jade-color eyes squinting behind big glasses.

“Finally, people I know!” I cry out and run in their direction.

“Hi shorty!” I wave at Danielle when I approach, furtively sizing her up.

“Being taller than me doesn’t change a thing,” She rolled her eyes. “I’m still your older sister.”

“Whatever. You’re joining the line too?” I point behind me, some freckled-face kids had started to sneer and point their fat fingers. I didn’t care what they thought though; I wasn’t really a family person, but I had been here long enough without talking to anyone, and I felt my sanity crumbling. The only thing keeping it intact was the sense of my newly-attained height‒

“Mom, Dad! Guess what?!” I yelled, not waiting for Danielle’s answer anymore.

“You like your new school?” My dad offered. He wasn’t really good with guessing.

“No! I grew taller—Wait what?!”

“Your new school!” Mom said enthusiastically, flailing her arms like she was talking to a kindergartner.

I pause for a sec. “You’re joking, right?”

“Look. Son, this may be happening too fast and all of a sudden, but we’ve decided that you’ll have to continue your education with your sister. It’d be a lot safer that way.” Dad said, clamping his hand down on my shoulder.

For the first time since I’d joined that line I took a glance at the sign up front: Admissions: New Students. And immediately I grasped the reason why I’d been whisked away from my school on the third day of the new semester and tucked in that line for what seemed like forever.

“But I like my school,” I begin, “It’s… it’s uh….”

“Exactly!” Danielle remarked.

I scowl at her before trying my puppy eyes on Mom and Dad, but they just turn away, looking for some other thing to focus on.

Great. Turns out I wasn’t cute anymore.

Danielle took a look at the long lines of people waiting to be enrolled. “You sure we’ll make it?” She looked over at Mom, rather expectant.

“We won’t know by just standing here, would we?” She tried to shove us back to the line with the freckled-faced kids.

“I’m not going back there.” I fold my arms and sulk.

“Oh look on the bright side,” Danielle begun. “At least you’ve got me here to look after you, and you wouldn’t have to worry about skipping dessert when we have ice-cream.” She shrugged.

“Now, now Danielle, take it slowly to him.” Mom chided. And then my head spins at realizing what that meant.

“I have to be a boarder?”

It was bad enough that I had to switch schools in the middle of middle school—pun unintended—but now I had Danielle to meddle in school, as if her meddling at home wasn’t enough.

“Sweetie, it’s for the best.” Mom said, trying to look reassuring.

“I can’t believe you guys!” I said, exasperated. “And what kind of school has facilities for both middle and high school kids?”

“Actually, they also have facilities for kindergarten and elementary school as well, those aren’t boarding schools though.” Dad chirped in.

As if that had any ability to make up for all of this.

Danielle just looked down, her face constantly switching from elated to expressionless. I follow her gaze and notice suitcases lying around; blue for me and red for her. For someone who had an extremely large number of friends at her (old) high school, she seemed really happy about our sudden change. I on the other hand was slowly losing my mind; I had just been transferred from a school I had no problems with and dumped in one full of fat freckled-faced dumbos! And yet all I could do was turn red-faced and stutter!!

“Why can’t we just be normal day students?” I plead.

Dad came closer and ruffled my hair. “We don’t have enough time to explain, son. But I promise we’ll give you the lowdown when you get home for the hols.”

“Can I at least say goodbye to my friends?”

“I’m afraid that wouldn’t be possible,” Dad scratched his beard “today’s the last day for entries.”

“Figures,” I said, trying to sound angry. “I’m transferred to another school in the blink of an eye and I can’t even say good bye.”

Dad pulled away. A bit of silence followed, and then…

“Fifty-five more minutes till end of admissions. Repeat: fifty-five more minutes till end of admission.” A male voice rang from a speaker.

At that Mom sprang into action, instantly lifting my two suitcases she’d brought from home. “We’d best hurry now.”

I wink at Danielle, expecting her to find some way to stall until the time elapsed.

“Got something in your eye?” She said while lifting her bags and walking over to the back of the line, leaving me to wonder if she couldn’t understand or she was just being plain stupid.

We queued up at a different line since my spot was taken when I had left it to go receive the bad news, I hoped that the line would be too long so we wouldn’t get to be enrolled before the time was up, we could all go home and continue our normal lives then.

No such luck, for a line that lengthy, they were extremely fast. It wasn’t long before it was my turn. The lady behind the front desk took a quick glance at me and then ducked her head again to face the computer.

“Name?”

Charlie Puth I wanted to say, but my tongue was already in motion. “Raymond Fletcher, uh… Raymie for short.”

Mom punched me in the arm, making the lady suppress the smile on her face. “Age?” more of a statement than a question.

“12; and I’m five-foot ten just in case that bit’s needed too.” I say as-a-matter-of-factly.

“It is.” She replied, grinning from ear to ear now.

Great! Here I was trying to sound as dumb as I could so I could escape being enrolled in this hell-hole, and the woman was probably thinking I was the cutest naïve person she’d met. Life could be cruel.

Signing-in took forever; they asked a lot of unrelated details like my temperament type and all the schools I’ve ever been to. I had even begun to wonder how they were so fast, by the time I and Danielle were done, they still had fifty minutes left, and the only reason I know is because there was a man always stating it, like he had no other things to do than yell into a microphone.

I and Danielle were handed our uniforms in a plastic bag and brown files that were rather bulgy. “What’s in this thing?” I poke it.

Danielle looked at hers, raising it to her face. “Probably the usual stuff, school rosters, locker numbers, our timetables, library cards…”

I feel around it and discover there was more than that in there, I was sure I felt a medium sized hard-cover book and some crayons.

“What did you mean by sofa Mom?” I said, tugging her sleeves.

“It’s Sofer Mahir. S-O-F-E-R.” she wrote the letters on air like she always did when she was spelling out stuff. “Plus it’s nothing peculiar, you’ll find out soon.” She replied nervously.

Back to the present, Dad kept nudging Mom’s arm, while she shot him wary looks. After a while it began to get embarrassing, Danielle just swallowed everything up and moved on.

“Okay you two,” I turn to face them. Besides hating chores, I was known for being the bold one too. “What’s the matter? Whatever’s making the two of you act like kindergarteners, spill it!”

Dad cleared his throat, “Um… Danielle, Raymond; kids… your mother has something to tell you.” He stepped back, looking at Mom like he was trying to coax her.

“Well if it’s that important, why don’t we let the man of the house say it then?” She replied, not taking her eyes off Dad, her facial expression saying: I dare you!

Dad cleared his throat again, rather unnecessarily this time, “Well, we’d like to let you know that we’ve brought you here so that you can‒”

“Study harder and get better grades, also make new friends along the way!” Mom cut in hurriedly, almost covering her husband’s mouth.

I raise an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

“Yeah.” She answered before Dad could speak.

“Well then have no fear, Danielle’ll do all the studying and good grades-getting. I on the other hand will try to make friends, though I doubt that’ll happen.”

“Well that’s settled then,” Mom said, not letting Dad talk anymore.

“Yeah.” I and Danielle chorus.

“Good luck! We have to go now.” She said, and then gripping Dad’s arm, she turned around and increased their pace, almost running.

“And good luck to your sheets.” I said, tipping an imaginary hat.

They both turned sharply, shooting me puzzled looks. I grabbed Danielle’s arm and swung around, whistling some campfire song that had just popped up in my brain.

“Don’t you just looooooove country music?” I nudge her; she just kept a straight face, shrugging me off.

I pinch her when I’d made certain they’d gone a long way off. “You smell a rat?”

“Ow!!” She let out, rubbing her arm and finally paying me attention. “No! And was the pinch necessary?”

“Not literally,” I said, ignoring the second question. “I mean between Mom and Dad.”

“Well they can be silly sometimes, I think that was meant as a joke.” she said, running forward with her two suitcases.

“You know your way around?” I call out.

That got her to pause. “Not really.” She muttered.

“Impressive!” I sigh and open the file—which was more of a lunch bag to be honest—and pull out my timetable. “I’ve got a Ms. Rachel for homeroom, room 173.” I said.

“How’d you learn to read Roman numerals?” Danielle asked, frowning at the paper that held her timetable.

“Easy. I pay attention in class, which is ironical because you’re the nerd.” I reply. “In other news, I don’t even think we’re in the actual school yet.” I look around for emphasis.

“And you were teasing me about not knowing my way around.” Danielle snickered.

And so began day one in… Drat! I didn’t even know the school’s name.