Catnip Read Free Page B

“Just
what did you do?” he asked.
    “I made something.”
    “Tell me.”
    Harry took a deep breath. “It’s a combination
of okra, rose hips and Mucuna pruriens. ”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It’s itching powder.”
    Harry got suspended for a week and then the
junior high assessment came ‘round along with the meeting with the
guidance counselor. He listened to the conversation and it made him
smile. “His scores are perfect, and he has a knack for chemistry,”
Mrs. McNamara said.
    Talk about irony! Whatever made them think
that? It took them only ten years to figure it out. “So what do you
suggest?” his mother asked.
    Mrs. McNamara cleared her throat. “Home
schooling would be best if you can’t afford a private school. His
scores are way beyond anything I’ve ever seen.”
    It was time to smile. Home schooling—yes, I
can have it all, he thought, and after his mother came outside, he
stared at her expectantly. “Well, is it okay?”
    His mother nodded. “You’ve been
eavesdropping?”
    “Yeah, I have. I don’t want to go to a
special school.”
    Mrs. Goldman faced her son with a wry smile
playing around her lips. In spite of their jobs, the Goldman’s were
not rich, and Harry didn’t want to go to a private school. He’d
visited one once and found the kids too snobbish. While he might
have had nothing in common with regular school kids, he had even
less in common with the other so-called prodigies. “You’re…you’re
not gonna send me to a private school, are you, Mom?”
    His mother shook her head in resignation. “Do
the homework. You’ll bring it in once a week and the rest of the
time is yours.”
    Isolation might have sucked to anyone else,
but Harry relished it. The way he rationalized the whole thing,
sure, he lost out on some potential friendships, but he didn’t have
much in common with anyone at his ex-school, and outside of his
parents, nothing much in common with anyone else.
    He had made one friend, Jason Parham, in his
first year at junior high. Tall and sort of geeky looking with a
mop of dark hair and plain features marred by adolescent acne,
Parham was an avid gamer, anime fan, and all-around nerd. For some
unknown reason—perhaps because they were outcasts in their own,
unique way—they clicked as friends, but had totally different views
on life. While Harry left junior high to pursue knowledge, Jason
continued on with the humdrum school routine.
    After reaching high school, his best and only
friend moved with his family to New York and continued to get
average grades. They sent mail to each other on a regular basis.
Parham filled Harry in on who was doing what and with whom and
served as his lifeline to the world outside.
    Jason existed only to play his games, connect
with the various anime and fan-boy clubs around the world, and live
for the here and now. You gotta live in the moment, man, he
wrote one day. It’s the only way to have fun.
    As if Harry knew what the term fun meant. When he got the message, he was in the middle of perusing a
biology text. To him, studying ribosomes was fun. However, Jason
was a pretty decent guy, although his tastes in pastimes shifted
from one week to the next. I got my moment in front of me, he texted back. I’m studying.
    Jason’s reply was typical. He sent an
eye-roll emoticon, his way of saying Harry was taking things way too seriously. Lighten up, man, he wrote. Hey,
I’m into Princess Yasuda now. You know about her?
    Harry quickly checked her name on his
computer, found out she looked like every other anime he’d ever
seen—long legs and arms, round eyes, narrow, pointy chin, and tiny
skirt—and figured his friend had lost it. Living in the now
doesn’t have to involve make-believe characters.
    At least I haven’t given up on reality, Jason replied. What do you do? You study all
day, don’t talk to anyone, and stay inside. I go to school, man, go
to the shows and comic conferences…I meet people.
    The truth hurt,