Chapter 15: Trouble Is Coming
Galveston County High School
3:00 PM
The last bell rang and science class ended.
Mr. Givens gathered his papers, shot a final withering look at Sheldon, and walked out without a word.
"So, Sheldon," Adam said, as the four of them regrouped near the door. "How was your first day of science class?"
Sheldon tilted his head and considered the question genuinely.
"Fantastic, actually. Best science class I've had in years."
High school science — physics, chemistry, biology, earth science — was supposed to give students a solid foundation in scientific thinking and methodology. For a nine-year-old who had been independently reading graduate-level physics papers for fun, it was essentially a victory lap.
"Pretty sure Mr. Givens had the exact opposite experience," Adam said.
"Completely opposite," Juno agreed, smiling. "Honestly, Sheldon, if you weren't nine years old, I think he would have physically removed you from the building. He was holding himself together by a thread."
"Why?" Sheldon frowned. "What did I do?"
"You really don't know?" Emmett stared at him. "Every teacher today looked exactly like Mr. Givens by the time you were done with them. You have a gift, Sheldon. Not a good gift, but a gift."
"All of them?"
Sheldon seemed genuinely puzzled by this.
"Let's go through it," Adam said. "First period — you told Ms. Eliot she needed to address her upper lip situation."
"Second period," Juno continued, "you questioned whether Mr. Ingram's teaching credentials were current."
"And then science class," Emmett said, shaking his head slowly. "You told Mr. Givens he smelled unusual and was in violation of workplace hygiene standards. Then you suggested that since your understanding of the material exceeded his, it might be more efficient if you took over the lesson."
"Was any of that inaccurate?" Sheldon asked.
The three of them paused.
The frustrating thing was that it wasn't inaccurate. The teachers at a public high school in a small Texas town were not operating at the level that Sheldon Cooper required, and Sheldon Cooper had no mechanism for pretending otherwise. He wasn't being cruel. He was being a nine-year-old with the social awareness of a field manual and the intelligence of a research institution.
"This is America," Sheldon added, matter-of-factly. "Freedom of speech is a constitutional right."
Adam, Juno, and Emmett all looked at each other and started laughing despite themselves.
They were sixteen, fifteen, and fifteen respectively. None of them had fully collided with the reality that constitutional rights and social consequences were two different categories of problem. Sheldon was going to learn that lesson, but not today.
The classroom door swung open hard.
A group of guys walked in like they owned the hallway, the room, and everything adjacent to both.
Emmett immediately found something interesting to look at on the floor.
"Adam Duncan."
"Cash Goodman."
Adam recognized him without difficulty. Cash was the front man of Emotion, the other rock band at County High — older, taller, with the kind of effortless confidence that came from being good-looking and knowing it. Emotion had always been the more established band around school, though somehow Adam's predecessor had consistently outranked Cash in the social hierarchy purely through charisma, which had never sat well with Cash.
After Adam had reformed — stopped cycling through girlfriends, dropped the drama, started actually studying — the friction between them had mostly faded. There hadn't been enough contact to sustain it.
Apparently that was over now.
Adam's eyes moved to the girl beside Cash — the same girl from first period who'd been on the receiving end of Sheldon's dress code observation — and understood the situation immediately.
"Is that kid with you?" Cash nodded at Sheldon, jaw set.
"Yes," Adam said simply.
"Then you owe me an explanation. He humiliated my girlfriend in front of the whole class this morning."
"Cash, drop it." The girl frowned and touched his arm. "He's literally nine."
"Stay out of it." Cash didn't look at her. "This isn't about you anymore, it's about principle."
His eyes moved briefly to Juno, then back to Adam. Juno caught it. Adam caught it. They exchanged a glance.
The actual situation was becoming clearer. Cash's girlfriend being embarrassed was the excuse. Adam's recent closeness with Juno was the real problem.
Juno's particular social position was complicated. She was considered odd by most of the school, kept to herself, had no real friend group to speak of. On the surface that translated to mockery from certain crowds. Underneath that surface, a considerable number of guys found her genuinely interesting and attractive, and none of them were willing to admit it because the cheerleader contingent had made it socially expensive to say so out loud.
Cash was not immune to this. And watching his rival spend significant time with someone he privately noticed was its own specific kind of irritating.
So here they were.
"What exactly do you want?" Adam said flatly. "You're not going to put your hands on a nine-year-old."
"Obviously not." Cash smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "He's your problem, so it's your responsibility. Homecoming's this weekend. Both bands perform. Whoever loses has to streak ten laps around the school in front of everyone."
Adam stared at him.
This guy.
Even if Hard Candy won — which Adam was fairly confident they would — this was a no-win situation. Accept and risk the consequence. Decline and look scared. Cash had designed it that way.
"We'll do it."
Adam turned. Juno had stepped forward, arms loose at her sides, expression completely calm, like she'd just agreed to a study session.
Adam looked at her.
"What?" she said.
End of Chapter 15
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