who always took any extra credit opportunities when they were presented. I didn’t need the extra points that the assignments were designed to provide, but Connor Loche didn’t like it when I didn’t have homework. He used to tell me that a hardworking man was always working, and he taught me that I should never turn down an opportunity to gain favor.
None of that was worth explaining to this kid whose name I didn’t even know. I ignored his question and scanned the list for each of The Royal Court members, one-by-one. I was most concerned about Colette and Avery, followed closely by Kyle and Alistair. Both Kyle and Alistair had taken on some extra weight that they didn’t deserve in this second half of the year as they tried to keep Avery and Colette afloat after things went to shit.
To my surprise and total delight, as I scanned the list, I saw that everyone’s grades were above average, either near or at 4.0. Somehow, Colette and Avery had managed to claw out of their depression enough to get their GPAs back to perfect, and Kyle’s was at 4.0 as well. Alistair, Nikita, and Jaxon were all sitting nicely between 3.5 and 4.0 and were all on track not only to graduate but graduate with honors like those at the top of the pack.
As I looked the list over, a few other names jumped out at me. The first was Deon Keane. He had a dismal but still surprising 1.1 next to his name. It wasn’t a GPA worthy of graduation, not that it mattered, but it was indicative of the fact that before he went on the run to find my dad, he was doing pretty good in school. If my father and I hadn’t interfered with his life the way we had, he might have been that rare story of a reformed convict who recovers and does something with their lives.
Add yet another person to the list of lives I’d ruined.
Sicily was doing pretty good with a 3.4. He probably wouldn’t eke out honors, but he’d graduate even though he had to hold up Deon for the first half of his senior year and Cherri the second half. In the back of my mind, I was prepared to exercise my resources to bump him up if he needed it. He unintentionally ended up being the cleaner for The Royal Court’s mess and was certainly worthy of some gratitude.
The last name that called out to me on the list was the one that also made whatever illness I was battling double in severity. My stomach flipped as I moved down the list to Cherri’s name. Next to her name was a horrendous 1.8 GPA, which was only slightly above her boyfriend’s GPA, a guy who hadn’t been at school since October. I knew she was skipping and generally ignoring school, but Cherri had to have had a very similar grade point average to mine before Deon died. She must not have done anything in the time between then and now, given just how far she had fallen.
That wasn’t good.
I thought about Nikita and all the advice I’d been getting to stop worrying about Cherri so much, but I also had a brother who was expecting me to take care of her. Despite everything that we’d been through these past few months, I couldn’t just let her fall like that, not after all that I’d put her through.
As quietly as I could, I slipped from the middle of the group of students and slid into the front office. The receptionist looked up and prepared to greet whoever was there, but then he saw it was me and looked back down. I couldn’t blame him. I very rarely came into the office for anything that wasn’t untoward. Having some deniability just in case only made him a smart man. I slunk along the wall to the right and down to the last office on the left. The door was open, so I knocked a couple of times and then entered, closing the door behind me.
“Nathan. Congratulations on getting top of your class. That’s very exciting.”
D.J. Motley was our school guidance counselor and the only person who had unimpeded access to each students’ grades and progress reports. Though she saw students from all four grades, her specific job was to aid seniors in reaching graduation, so her next few weeks would be packed with helping anyone who was falling below the mark.
“Thanks,”