Straight Punch Read Free Page A

hello to Tessa Something-or-Other.”
    Randy licked the sweat off his upper lip. “Hi,” he said. “How ’bout we”—he paused—“we shake hands when I’m not all sweaty?”
    â€œSure.” My voice came out higher than usual. I was sure he’d seen me admiring his pecs.
    â€œI gotta shower,” Randy said. “Miss Lebrun”—he paused again—“she gets pissed if we’re late.”
    â€œMiss Lebrun?” Did the secretary take attendance at New Directions?
    â€œYeah,” said Jasmine. “You met her upstairs. She’s pretty strict about attendance and stuff, but don’t worry. Miss Lebrun’s okay.”
    So, I thought, my new teacher looks like she’s in her early twenties, and my boxing coach is so fat he can hardly move. What could be next?
    Next came when I followed Jasmine back upstairs and into the grade-eleven classroom.
    Miss Lebrun, who was standing by the blackboard, gestured for me to take a seat at the front.
    The boy slumped in the desk next to mine had his head turned away from me, so I couldn’t see his face.
    But I recognized the turquoise boa.
    What was Pretty Boy doing here?

Chapter Two
    Miss Lebrun eyed the clock over the classroom door. “It’s eight fifteen—time to get started. For those of you who were with me last year, welcome back. It’s nice to see you. I hope you didn’t get into too much trouble over the summer.”
    Jasmine and a couple of other students sitting at the back snickered.
    Pretty Boy turned his head so that he was facing me. His eyebrows (one of them was pierced) lifted in surprise when he saw me. “You!” he said, mouthing the word so Miss Lebrun wouldn’t hear.
    â€œI also want to welcome a new student, Tessa McPhail.” Miss Lebrun turned to me. “Tessa, it’s good to have you with us. We hope our school will be a great experience for you, that it’ll take you in new—”
    Miss Lebrun paused—for effect, I figured—and Pretty Boy finished her sentence. “Directions,” he muttered. He reminded me of the dormouse in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland . He’d probably been up late tagging. I remembered his drawing of the butterfly with the old man’s face.
    The multicolored caterpillar I’d noticed on one of the lockers downstairs made sense now. It was Pretty Boy’s.
    â€œThat’s right, Percy. New directions. Like all of you, Tessa is here because she’s journeying in a new direction.”
    My face got hot as I felt six pairs of eyes on me, sizing me up. They were trying to figure out what journey had landed me here. I knew that because I was wondering the same thing about them.
    â€œLet’s start with a quick review of the basic rules. Percy, I’m not interrupting your morning nap, am I?”
    Without lifting his head from his desk, Pretty Boy met Miss Lebrun’s eyes. “I haven’t missed a word you said, Miss L. But can’t you call me Pretty Boy this year?”
    â€œIt says Percy on this list from the Ministry of Education,” Miss Lebrun said, waving her attendance sheet in the air. “So that’s the name we’ll be using in this classroom.”
    Pretty Boy sighed. I felt bad for him. Imagine getting saddled with a name like Percy.
    â€œWe call him a lot of names besides Percy,” the guy who’d been smoking on the porch called from the back of the room. He had a raspy voice.
    â€œI’m sure you do, William. All right, then, let’s talk about rules. As most of you already know, punctuality matters at New Directions. I expect you to get to class on time and I expect your assignments to be turned in on time too. No bathroom breaks during class except in case of emergency, phones off, no texting, nothing of that sort. Most of all, I expect all of you to be respectful, to me and to one another.” Miss Lebrun looked