Chapter 2

Our homeroom teacher, Mr. Wayner, came in, dumped his books on a chair and said “Yo guys! How was your weekend?”
Yes, I know homeroom teachers are not supposed to be like that, they need to be strict, horribly dressed old people. But Mr. Wayner was not like that. He was really young, wore the latest clothes, rode a Harley and insisted that we call him ‘W-Dawg’… Oh yeah, he also never taught us anything in class, we just told horror stories.

Anyway, we all replied in the usual way we wish our teachers. “Yo Dawg!”
“No, no, no! Why the symphony? Where’s the rock band man? Why you whining?” he said, shaking his head.
We all laughed and settled down after a while. Mr. Wayner sat down behind his desk and cleared his voice. He opened his mouth and out came the best imitation of our principal anyone had ever heard.
“Class, we have a new student with us today.” He said and everybody turned to look at the new guy. It was Mr. Attitude. He got up and walked to the front of the class.

“Hi. I’m Jason. Jason Grace. I just moved to New York a week ago, from Miami.” He told as he looked around the class.
“Thank you Jason, now, please go back to your seat.” nodded Mr. Wayner.
Jason walked back and as he passed me, he winked at me. I turned around and looked at Sam. “He’s lobbering at ya.” He grinned.
(Lobbering is a word that means winking. Sam and I made up some words and claimed them to be Shakespearean words when we were in 7th grade. )

I made a face at him and got up as the bell rang. I waited for Sam at the door and we both walked to my locker (his is right next to mine). As I was walking, Jason came in front of me. “You’re Alex, right?” he asked me.
“Oh, so the table told you my name, did it?” I said and walked past him. He caught my hand. “Leave-My-Hand!” I said, still not looking at him. H refused to let go of it.
“Hear me out first.” He said.
I looked at Sam. He nodded.
“Fine. I’ll listen, but you have to leave my hand.” I told him. He nodded and dropped my hand. Man his grip was tight! I turned to face him. “Get over with it. I have a class.” I told him. He said:
“Look, I was a jerk in the morning, (Well, hello!) and I’m sorry. (Like that’ll help) I didn’t want to start my year out like that, (no kidding!) and I want us to be friends. (Is that an order?)”

I took a sip of water and looked over at Sam, trying to control my laughter.
“Why do you keep looking at him? Is he your boyfriend?” Jason asked me.
I nearly spat out the water in my mouth. I gulped the water and said, “No, but we know each other since 3rd grade, we’re best friends, and we’re outta here.” I told him and grabbed Sam’s hand. “Let’s go to class.” I told him. “After you, milady.” He grinned.