“Wrong?” he repeated.
“I moved around a lot so I went to a few different schools,” I explained. “The place I attended for the second half of ninth grade didn’t offer any advanced classes, but the place I started in tenth grade did offer an upper-level track. But I wasn’t in it. I had to do something to fix that.”
“How? Did it involve breaking into the lab at night?”
“I got straight As on the first two tests and I met with my teacher, the head of the science department, the vice-principal, and the principal. I wrote emails and I went to a school board meeting. I didn’t get my turn to talk because everyone was arguing over artificial turf on the soccer field, though.”
“What happened? Did they move you to the good class?”
“Yes,” I said, and felt an echo of the rush of triumph I’d also felt when I was fifteen. Of course, I’d left that school two months later so I hadn’t gotten much opportunity to benefit from the advanced class, anyway.
“I think I understand what you’re trying to tell me,” Ronan said. “You want me to advocate for more student participation in the public comment periods at school board meetings. Also, you think I should be more ambitious.”
“Why don’t you want to be a Woodsmen?” I asked.
“I did, at one point,” he said. “I was in college hoping to get drafted onto any team in the Confederation, but it didn’t happen. I went to play in Canada and then I got the chance to come here to the Juniors, and I was still thinking that I’d have a chance to move up. But do you know how difficult that would be?” he asked me. “Do you know how good they are? Do you know how unlikely it is that someone could even get to the place where I am right now?”
He sounded very serious, not joking at all. “I wasn’t trying to say…I wasn’t trying to diminish…” I stumbled over the words. “I’m sorry.”
“I know you didn’t mean it like that. It’s ok,” he told me.
We drove the last mile in silence, though, so maybe it wasn’t ok. “I better go find Ed,” he said as we walked toward the building. “He’s up on the roof in the rain? I don’t love that idea.”
I got a little concerned, too. “I didn’t tell him to do it,” I defended myself.
“Yeah, he takes on too much all on his own. He’s trying to fix everything, keep it clean, evict the rats.”
That was something else that I needed to add to my report: Ed needed help here. I frowned.
“I don’t think they’ll hire someone else,” I mentioned.
“To replace him?”
“No, just to give him a hand,” I said irritably. I wasn’t trying to get him fired! Somehow, this whole conversation had gone sideways from the moment I’d gotten into the truck/car.
“Ok, good,” Ronan told me, and he also sounded a little irritated. Of course he didn’t like that I had insulted him and threatened his friend’s job. We were silent again as we walked under my umbrella to the door, which was locked.
“There’s nobody here to open it,” I pointed out. “If you’re worried about Ed being up on the roof, then you shouldn’t call him. It could make him fall.”
“Yeah, I’ll come by again another time. Come on, I’ll drive you back.”
“No, you don’t need to. I’ll walk around the building.”
“Don’t be silly,” he said.
His palm on my back got me moving towards the parking lot but I kept arguing. “You don’t need to drive me. I don’t know why I got in the car with you, anyway,” I told him, and then he smiled.
“Because you didn’t want to miss the pleasure of my company. Obviously,” he said. “Did you have lunch?”
I shook my head.
“There’s a burger place out here, not too far away. They stay in business because of the Woodsmen preseason, with what those guys eat and their fans hanging out there to get a glimpse of them. Want to go?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Are you a vegetarian? They have french fries,” he told me.
“No, I’m not sure because we’re arguing,” I explained. Obviously.
