Heat floods my entire body as I lean forward and clench my fists. “Coming from someone who needs a group project to get a passing grade.”
His smirk falters, but I just turn and grab my worksheet, then head to the front of the room before he can respond.
I hold out my paper to Mr.?Bell. “You know Silas didn’t start that, right?”
He takes it from me and gives me a tired look. “Then he could have walked away or asked me for help.”
Like that would do any good.
I turn to head back to my seat, but he stops me.
“Levi, wait a moment.”
Mr. Bell looks over the answers on my worksheet. “What are you thinking you want to do after high school?”
I shrug. “I don’t really know yet.
He nods slowly and sets the sheet aside. “You should think about the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme for Grades? eleven and twelve.”
My eyes widen, and I take a step closer. Ihavebeen thinking about it. “Really?”
He nods with a small smile. “You’re at the top of your grade, and it’ll prepare you for university—assuming that’s where you’re headed?”
He gives me a look like he dares me to say no, and I nod. Idowant to go to university. I just don’t know for what yet.
“Good,” he says. “You already have the grades and prerequisite classes for IB. And you’ll need a teacher recommendation for the application, which I’m more than happy to write for you.”
My insides buzz with excitement, and I have to keep myself from jumping up and down as I smile widely and nod.
Mr.?Bell chuckles and clicks at his computer. “There’s an information session next week. I’ll send the details to your parents.”
“Thank you,” I say with a smile. “That sounds awesome.”
He eyes me as he taps on his keyboard. “You’ll have to decide what you want to take at university, so you pick the right courses over the next two years.”
“I will,” I promise, and mean it.
He nods towards my desk for me to return to my seat, and as I make my way back, my mind is already running a mile a minute.
I’ve been trying to decide what it is I want to do, and what I want to be, but every time I think I’ve narrowed it down, something new pulls me in. Math makes sense in a way nothing else does, but technology also really excites me. Designing and problem-solving in computer science was so fun this year… but environmental science was just as fascinating. And economics is coming next year, which I already know I’m going to love.
I just want to do it all. I want everything.
How am I ever supposed to decide?
“Argh.”
Silas scrubs at his page with the eraser as his brow creases, dragging it so hard across the paper that it almost tears.
“That looked good,” I say, lowering my book to glance over at him.
He’s been drawing the view of the sunset over the water from up here in the lighthouse. His drawings have shifted more to landscapes lately, and he’sreallygood. He draws shorelines, fields, farms—everything. And each one is amazing.
But today, he’s being extra hard on himself. And I know it’s because of everything that went down in school this afternoon.
He slides down the wall beside me, dropping the drawing on the floor. “It’s shit,” he mumbles.
I reach over and pick it up. It’s anything but.
