Jeisson let out a long sigh when he found 05 D-wing and discovered Quinn and Karolina lounging on a couch in the common area in front of the entrance. He could ignore them and try and proceed to find what he needed, while knowing next to nothing. Or, he could ask them for help. Karolina was clearly open to breaking the rules. And as much as Quinn loved his top GPA status, he didn't necessarily strike Jeisson as a goody two-shoes. He had a feeling neither of them would tell on him if he asked them.

He decided to approach them.

"Hey," he said with a nod.

Quinn smirked up at him. "Hey, honorary Nerdlinger."

Jeisson smiled, unfazed. "Yep, that's me."

"This is my girlfriend, Karolina," Quinn said, motioning to her in a grand sweep with his hand as if to say, look at all that's mine. 

Karolina held out her hand. "Hi. Nice to meet you."

So this is how they were playing it. Jeisson shook her hand as she smiled sweetly at him. "I'm Jeisson."

"How'd you break your arm, Jeisson?" Quinn asked. 

"Shark attack. Hey, do either of you know where I can find some D-wing guys who are holding?"

"Whoa," Quinn said, putting his hand to his chest in mock offense. "A Nerdlinger who breaks the rules? You know they'll kick you out of the Mathletes for such behavior."

"I'm not a Mathlete. Do you know, or not?"

"His name's Paxton. Room 23," Karolina said, as she tapped at her phone, hardly paying attention to them anymore.

"Look, some advice," Quinn said, pulling his arm off of Karolina and standing, "you can do way better than hanging out with those nerds, okay? I mean, come on. I know who your dad is. That kind of connection could get you really far here. You could hang with our crowd even."

Jeisson bristled, and took a step back instinctively. How on earth did this asshole know who his father was? He resisted the urge to run out of the room. He didn't want Quinn to know how rattled he was, even though it might have shown on his face. 

"Yeah, thanks, but no thanks, Draco," Jeisson said, more intensely than he had meant to sound.

Karolina snorted out another one of her loud laughs, and Quinn frowned down at her. Jeisson did not like how good it made him feel that she had laughed, but it did. It eased him a bit.

"Thanks for the help," Jeisson said with a salute. He used his key fob to get into D-wing. It worked. Apparently it could get him into any of the boy's common rooms. But you still needed an RA's permission to enter anyone's room. And you had to keep the door open. 

Jeisson found room 23 and gave the door two firm knocks. "Come in!" a male voice shouted from inside.

Jeisson turned the knob, it was unlocked. He entered into a room that was way more cozy than his and Remington's. Large tie-dye tapestries adorned the two largest wall spaces, along with band posters. The place was messy, but not in a gross way. It just seemed more lived-in. There was a kid sprawled out on one of the beds, his air pods in. He was bopping his head to whatever music he was listening to while scrolling on his phone. This must have been Paxton.

"Do I know you?" he asked. Not accusingly, more just curious. He had a half-smile on his face.

"I heard you can hook me up?" Jeisson said, stepping into the room. He wasn't sure how to proceed. He assumed he should close the door, but that was apparently against the rules.

"You can close it," Paxton said, sensing his hesitation. "Just gotta be a careful an RA isn't walking down the hall to catch you. And you gotta talk kinda quiet. You new?"

"Yeah, I'm Jeisson."

"Oh, right. The senator's kid."

Jeisson bristled again. Was everyone talking about it? How did they know? "He's not a senator," he said immediately. But that wasn't really what he wanted to say. He wanted to say something more like, "he's not my father," even though he'd by lying.

"Well, whatever. A once-upon-a-time almost senator."

It figured that the kids here would be into politics. Stupid kiss-asses with their fancy parents and brown nosing habits. Jeisson realized his heart was pounding against his chest. When had that started? He really needed some weed.

"So, can you help me out, or what?" Jeisson asked.

Paxton pulled the air pods out of his ears and stood, that little half-smile still on his face. It was like it was a permanent part of him. "What do you need?"

"Marijuana."

"Sure. You want pre-rolled joints?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Bless this kid.

"How much?"

"I can give you one gram, split into four joints, for fifteen."

That wasn't too bad. Jeisson took out his wallet and checked his cash. He had eighteen dollars left. And no way of replenishing it. He had the emergency credit card from his mom as well, but he wouldn't use that. He'd never use that.

"Okay, I'll take it."

Paxton crouched by his bed and lifted up the mattress with one hand while reaching beneath it with the other. He finally pulled out a Ziploc bag filled with joints. He counted out four of them and put them in a new Ziploc bag to give to Jeisson.

"Let me know if you ever want anything else. If I don't have it, I can get it. I got all the hook ups." Paxton seemed so proud of himself. 

Jeisson put the new joints deep into his pocket. "What if it was something else? Like, say, homework or essays?"

"You want to buy homework?"

"Theoretically."

Paxton throws himself down on his bed and puts his air pods back in. "Knew a kid who sold stuff like that, but he graduated last year."

Could Jeisson be so lucky? "Did he get a lot of clients?"

Paxton nodded thoughtfully. "Did alright, I think. Kids get scared here, to do things like cheat. Cause if they get caught, it's a hefty penalty. But... kids also get desperate here, sometimes." He looked up at Jeisson knowingly, still rocking that smile. "Wait a minute, you don't want to buy. You want to sell, eh?"

Jeisson gave a noncommittal shrug. 

"Alright. Well, if I hear of anyone reaching that desperate and not-too-scared phase, I'll kick 'em your way. Jeisson Broderick, right?"

"Walker," Jeisson said quickly, feeling his pulse pick up again. Just when it was starting to calm down. "It's Jeisson Walker."

"Ah." Paxton nodded knowingly. "Want to distance yourself from your dad. Make your own path. I feel you."

Jeisson left without another word. He found Paxton kind of baffling. He seemed like someone he could get along with while at the same time someone he wanted to strangle. But no matter. He had what he needed, and he had a possible way into setting up shop in this God-forsaken school. Things were looking up. 

Except for the fact that apparently everyone knew about his dad. Jeisson hated that. No one at his old school had known. Either that or they hadn't cared. Not even Kelly knew. 

Jeisson left 05 and headed back to the baseball dugouts. There were some kids playing tennis but no one was out on the soccer fields or baseball field, which were the only places you could see into the dugout. He lit up a joint and took a deep drag, holding the smoke in his lungs. 

After a while he let it out with a happy sigh. Finally. He was feeling better already. 

Jeisson stayed out there for awhile, although he only allowed himself to smoke one of the joints. He skipped dinner. When he went back to his room, Remington was in there, studying.

"Oh, right," Jeisson said, more to himself than to Remington. "Study hours."

"Yeah," Remington said, surprising Jeisson. "And you might want to actually start observing them because Adam does do random spot checks."

"Where are your headphones?" Jeisson asked, noticing for the first time that Remington wasn't wearing them.

"I'm on to the second phase of my test," he said, as if this were obvious. 

"Oh. Okay." Jeisson plopped down onto his bed. "Can I ask you something?"

"Make it quick. This Microbiology homework is due Wednesday and I want time to look it over tomorrow too."

Jeisson resisted the urge to make fun of him. "Do you know who my dad is?" Even just asking the question sobered Jeisson up immediately. 

"No, why would I?"

Jeisson let out a breath. "Good. You know, I like you, Remington."

"Yeah, right," Remington said. "You think I'm a loser who does math in my free time."

Jeisson sat up, facing Remington. "I mean,  you are a loser who does math in your free time. But I like you. You're honest. And straightforward. And I like that."

Remington, much to Jeisson's surprise, actually tore his eyes away from his homework and turned to him. "You're messing with me. You don't even know me."

"I know enough," Jeisson said.

"Does this mean you'll join the Mathletes?"

Jeisson barked out a laugh and laid back down. "Yeah, no way in hell."

Remington grumbled something that Jeisson couldn't make out and got back to work. Jeisson fell asleep in minutes.

***

"Wake up!"

Jeisson jolted out of bed, startled. "What? What's going on?"

Remington was kneeling beside his bed. "Man, you were sleeping deep. I had to shout a few times."

"Why are you shouting at all?" Jeisson asked, irritation taking over the shock of being so rudely awakened. "What time is it?"

"Six. Come on."

Remington rose and went to the door. He turned back when he realized Jeisson wasn't following him. "Aren't you coming?" he asked.

"Why the hell would I go anywhere with you right now? Why did you wake me up?"

"I want to show you something," Remington said. 

Jeisson let out a sigh and begrudgingly got out of bed. He followed Remington out and downstairs into the common room, where Kyle was sitting on the couch. He had coffee and donuts (they were gluten- and-somehow-sugar-free from the cafeteria, Jeisson was sure) laid out on the table. The TV was on, a computer plugged into it. Jeisson didn't even think that old TV was capable of hooking up to a computer. To be fair, the computer had two different adapters sticking out of it to make it work.

"What the hell, guys?" Jeisson said.

"Sit, sit, have a donut," Kyle said, smiling wide. But it wasn't his normal, nervous, carefree smile. He seemed more like a salesman.

Jeisson sat and took a mug of coffee, ignoring the donuts.

"We present to you," Kyle said, standing with a flourish, "a new and improved Mathletes team!" He leaned over and clicked the trackpad on his laptop. The TV displayed something that looked suspiciously like a Powerpoint presentation with a graphically busy Mathletes sign. It was trying way to hard to be cool, with crazy fonts and colors.

"Hell, no," Jeisson said. "It is way too early for this."

"There's been lots of research on the benefits of early rising and morning productivity," Remington said. "It's stated that-- where are you going?"

Jeisson was already up and headed back to the stairs.

"You said presentation was the problem!" Kyle shouted to Remington. "I worked three hours on this stupid Powerpoint last night. He doesn't care at all."

"Maybe we should have presented it at lunch," Remington said in response.

Jeisson shook his head and gave a grunt of frustration, tuning the rest of their conversation out as he headed up the stairs. 

Although Jeisson tried, he wasn't able to get any more sleep before he had to be up for classes anyway. His classes today were just as strange as his ones the day before. He wondered if he would ever get used to it. He also resented that it was significantly harder to get away with doing nothing here. The teachers actually wanted you to pay attention. They cared if you were falling asleep or slacking off. Jeisson missed the likes Coach Carter, who always let him do whatever he wanted, every gym class.

Apparently you were allowed three absences in each class throughout the semester, according to the rules. But they alerted your parents whenever you did. And Jeisson needed June to think he was doing well, at least for now. 

At lunch, Jeisson found the Mathletes crew gathered around the bulletin board in front of the cafeteria. Quinn and his Debate team pals surrounded them. But Karolina wasn't there. Jeisson took a beat, trying to decide if he should avoid them and go on to lunch, but then Kyle caught his eye and waved at him.

Jeisson approached the board. 

"How do you expect us to recruit anyone with our sign like this?" Alice was saying, her arms crossed over her chest. She looked pissed, but it was hard to take the look seriously, she was so small and adorable. 

"How do you expect to recruit anyone with that face?" one of Quinn's friends said. The rest of them laughed like it was the best insult ever. One of them knocked Shang's school book out of his hand, but he just picked it up and kept reading, unperturbed.

"I thought this would improve your chances of getting someone to join," Quinn said with an innocent shrug. "I was doing you a favor. It looks much more interesting now."

Jeisson looked at the board to see a Mathletes recruitment sign-up sheet. It had lewd pictures drawn on it with thick, black marker. He let out a laugh.

"See, he thinks it's funny," Quinn said smugly.

Nat rounded on Jeisson, looking like she was about to slug him. She actually made a fist.

"Yeah," Jeisson said. "Because it's so anatomically incorrect. Clearly whoever drew this has never actually seen a naked woman."

Kyle snorted out a laugh, and Nat released her fist. 

"Shut up, Nerdlinger!" Quinn said, his cheeks turning rosy red. He had that British skin, quick to flush. "My girlfriend is super hot naked."

"And this is your incredibly small penis here, I suppose?" Jeisson said, pointing to the poorly drawn figure on the sheet.

Remington and Kyle both laughed that time. Dr. Fleming, Jeisson's math teacher, walked by then. She stopped, clocking the tension. "Something wrong here?"

Alice quickly pulled down the sheet. "Nope, nothing."

"Well, break it up, you all look suspicious. Go to lunch or something."

"Sure thing, Dr. Fleming," Quinn said with a good-boy smile. 

Dr. Fleming walked on and Quinn rounded on the Mathletes, glaring at them, his eyes coming to rest on Remington. "This isn't over. I'm coming for you, Second Place."

Remington balked as Quinn and his friends walked away. "What? I didn't even say anything!"

"Don't worry about it," Jeisson said. "He can't actually do anything to hurt you. You know that, right?"

"He can beat me up!" Remington said, his voice scared.

"He's not going to beat you up," Jeisson said. "You need to grow a pair. Learn from your friend Nat here. Don't take his shit."

Nat gave a sort of proud smile. 

"Thanks for your help," Alice said. 

Jeisson shrugged. "Why are you so into recruiting anyway?"

"Well, we wanted to recruit you because you're good," Nat said. "But we found out this morning that we're actually short one member. We need someone else to join the team to even be able to compete."

It seemed that all at once, all five of them were staring at him hopefully. Even Shang had looked up from his book.

"Still not doing it," Jeisson said. "But if I hear of anyone who has any interest, I'll send them your way."

The Mathletes wilted with disappointment. But just because Jeisson didn't want to see them ruthlessly (and needlessly) bullied by Quinn and his gang didn't mean he wanted to join them. He went on to the cafeteria, leaving the Mathletes behind.

***

"John Winthrop said that 'liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it.' This was his vision of the American government, what it could and should be."

Jeisson was in his American History class, listening to Dr. Skinner lecture. He was a bird-like man who actually perched on his desk, balanced in a crouch, and drummed his fingers together in front of him like an evil villain as he spoke. He had a great, gray head of hair and kept making way too much eye contact with the students.

When his eyes were engaged with another student, Jeisson leaned over his desk to whisper to Kyle, who shared the class with him. "So what's with the beef between Remington and Quinn? It's more than just the Mathletes thing, right? He seems to have it out for him in particular."

"I think Quinn is threatened by him," Kyle whispered back, but his eyes were locked onto Dr. Skinner's. And he spoke quickly, like he wanted to get it over with before he got in trouble. "Remington is only a thousandth of a point behind him with his GPA."

"Insecure asshole bully. Should have guessed."

Kyle turned to Jeisson then, forgetting about Dr. Skinner for a moment. His forehead creased with worry. "Sometimes I think Remington purposefully does worse on assignments so that he doesn't beat Quinn and invite his full wrath."

"Mr. Shuman!"

Kyle flinched in his seat, his attention brought back to Dr. Skinner as he jumped down from his perch and approached his desk. "Care to share your riveting thoughts with the class?"

Kyle stammered, not saying any real words. Jeisson took pity on him. "He was just telling me that he thought Winthrop's "city on a hill" assertion actually devalued his views on liberty, as it implied a sort of predestined fate that didn't seem to go hand in hand with the idea of liberty and freedom, or in another sense, free will."

Dr. Skinner raised an eyebrow. "Really now? He said all that?"

"Yep," Jeisson said. "Right, Kyle?"

Kyle gulped visibly and Jeisson wanted to smack the kid. He was trying to help him and Kyle was going to blow it. But then Kyle gave a nod. "Yeah, I think that Roger William's thoughts on separating church and state was a much better basis for our government, and despite the current turbulence in our country, seemed to be the idea that won out. Wouldn't you say, Doctor?"

Dr. Skinner smiled suddenly, and rushed back to perch on his desk. "Precisely. Roger Williams. Let's talk more about him."

Kyle let out a shaky breath and mouthed a "thank you" to Jeisson. Jeisson gave him a small salute and a wink, which made Kyle turn as red as Quinn had been before.

***

A/N: Hope you all enjoyed this one. It's been fun to revisit my high school days through this story, and I hope you're having fun as well!