Chapter 5

       If there was one thing I hated about my high school, besides the people and the teachers and pretty much everything, it had to be that every grade had one day of sex-ed.

       From freshmen to seniors, there was that one day where someone came in to give a lesson.

       Come on, stop at freshmen. They didn't have to come in for us juniors and seniors. I was eighteen. I did not want yet another boring lesson on the safeties of sex. It was simple. Use a condom, listen to consent, don't ignore when someone says no.

       I normally skipped, but this time, they handed out letters that had to be signed by the parents and if they weren't by a certain date, the school called your parents.

       I did not want to listen to the same boring lecture.

       All the grades were separated, and the seniors had to go to the small auditorium. I was still tempted to skip, but the teacher was leading us there.

       I was just going to fall asleep during the lecture and hope the person talking didn't notice.

       Unfortunately, my bad luck came once again. The onyl row available was the front row and my class was the last to show up.

       Great.

       The only bright side was the Princes were in my class, so I got to sit down beside Orchid.

       "This sucks," Orchid said to me. "I don't want to listen to the same thing over and over again, and I'm pretty sure seventeen and eighteen year olds don't need a lesson on sex."

       "My thoughts exactly," I said. 

       "Nolan definitely doesn't need the lesson," Alan said. "Right, Nolan? Get it? Because you've done the dirty before?"

       "Did you really have to say that out loud?" Nolan asked.

       "Yes. I'm your brother. It's what we do."

       "I can see that."

       When the lecture began, I just tuned the speaker out and stared off into space. I wasn't the only one. After all, this was our fourth time having this lecture.

       Boring as hell.

       Nolan was the only person on his phone in the front row, so the speaker soon noticed and walked over and cleared her throat, causing Nolan to look up at her. "Mind telling me why you're on your phone?" she asked.

       "It's just....the lecture isn't really applying to me," Nolan said.

       The speaker, whose name I didn't know because she was irrelevant, raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?" she asked. "You're human, right?"

       "Yeah?"

       "Then it should apply to you. What would happen if you ended up getting a girl pregnant because you're not listening to the lecture? You could completely ignore the consensual rule as well."

       "Uh, not really," Nolan said. "I have a boyfriend and I'm, like, ninety-nine percent sure he can't get pregnant. The lecture is only about a man and woman's relationship, not man and man or woman and woman. It's not applying to me at all."

       "We get it, you're gay," an obnoxious douche, Felix, said, which caused a lot of people to laugh. "You don't have to keep reminding us."

       "Yeah, and we get that you're a fucking asshole," I shot back. "You don't have to keep reminding us."

       "Atticus, watch your language," the vice-principal warned. "And Nolan, please go see Mrs. Goth."

       "What? Why?" Nolan asked.

       "For being on your phone and disrupting the lecture," he said.

       "Are you kidding me?" I asked. "He's right. The lecture doesn't apply to him, so it's unfair that he has to pay attention when it won't affect his life at all."

       The vice-principal ignored me and gestured for Nolan to leave. Nolan sighed, grabbing his bag and walking out of the auditorium.

       "I'm sorry he was so rude and disrupted the lecture," the vice-principal said to the speaker.

       "He wasn't rude," I interrupted. "He was literally answering the questions that he was being asked. It was a dumbass move kicking him out."

       "Do you want to get kicked out too?" he asked me.

       "Gladly," I said, before grabbing my bag. "I'll be at Mrs. Goth's office if anyone needs me." 

       Some people chuckled as I left, but I didn't care. The vice-principal was a dick for kicking Nolan out. If anyone disrupted to lecture, it was Felix making that dumb comment.

       I got to the outside of Mrs. Goth's office and sat down beside Nolan. "You got kicked out too?" he asked.

       "Yeah, for defending you," I said. "On the bright side, we don't have to listen to the lecture anymore."

       "Yeah, that's true," Nolan said.

       Mrs. Goth walked out of the office and looked at us. "Alright, why are you two here?"

       "I was kicked out of the lecture for 'disrupting' it," Nolan said.

       "And I was kicked out for saying it was a dumbass move for kicking Nolan out," I said.

       "Well, I'll be calling your parents," Mrs. Goth said. "So you're probably going to have to wait here during lunch."

       "Well that sucks," I said.

       "Then don't curse during school," Mrs. Goth said. "I swear, you and your cousin need a filter on your mouth."

       "Wilder?" I asked. "No way, he's too innocent to swear. So precious and pure."

       Not really when it came to swearing.

       Mrs. Goth walked back into her office to call our parents. How fun.

       "Thanks for defending me, again," Nolan said. "I seriously lost count on how many times you've done it."

       "You're welcome," I said. "I hate when people get bullied, especially for something they can't control."

       "And because you want to impress Orchid."

       "I don't like her."

       "Yeah, you do," Nolan said. "Just ask her out."

       "It's not that simple," I said. 

       "Yeah, it is," Nolan said. "You just go up to her and ask her out and I guarantee she'll say yes."

       "What makes you so sure?"

       "Uh, probably the fact that she's my sister, so I know who she likes."

       "She likes me?"

       "Wow, you and Orchid are so oblivious," Nolan said. "Everyone knows it. Well, except you two. I should warn you, though. My family are major fangirls and once one of us starts dating, the others go on and on about that ship and keep asking when you're getting married and having a baby."

       "What's a ship?"

       "It's short for relationship. Like....Jerome and I are Jerlan. Jer-ome, Nol-an. That's our ship name."

       "That's....weird."

       "Our whole family is weird."

       Nolan's dad, Grayson, was the first one to show up. "Alright, Nolan, what did you do?" he asked

       "It's your fault," Nolan said. "You signed the form for sex ed when it was just talking about straight couples. It was boring, so I got kicked out for being on my phone and answering questions the speaker was asking me. I was, apparently, 'disrupting' the class."

       Grayson sighed. "You could have told me you didn't want to go to it. You're the one who told me to sign it."

       "I thought we didn't have a choice," Nolan said. "Anyone, the vice-principal is a grumpy, old man anyway. I don't know why he kicked me out. Not that I care, because I don't have to listen to that straight lesson."

      Grayson then looked at me. "Hey, you're Atticus, right? The one who came over with his sister a few days ago and is always standing up for Nolan?"

      "Yup," I said. "Which is why I'm out here too because I told the VP he made a dumbass move for kicking Nolan out. I get into a lot of trouble."

       Dad then walked into the front doors and looked at me. "Atticus, what did you do?" he asked.

       I was about to answer, but Grayson did instead. "Oh my god, no."

       Dad looked over and his eyes widened. "What the hell are you doing here?"

       "What am I doing here? What are you doing here? I was here first."

       "I was here first," Dad mocked.

       "What are you, five?"

       "No."

       "It seems like it."

       "How about you fight me?"

       "How about no?"

       Nolan and I looked at each other, then back at our dads. "You two know each other?" I asked.

       Dad looked at me. "You mean you know him?"

       "Yeah," I said. "He's Orchid's dad."

       "Oh, really?" Dad asked. "Then you are not allowed to date her."

       "Yeah?" Grayson said. "And my daughter isn't allowed to date your son."

       "That's what I just said."

       "No, you didn't."

       "How do you know each other anyway?" I asked.

       "He almost hit you in the head with a beach ball when you were six months old," Dad said.

       "No, I hit you," Grayson said.

       "Yeah, and I was holding Atticus," Dad said. "You still never apologized."

       "That was over eighteen years ago. Get over it."

       "I will when you apologize."

       "There's nothing to apologize for."

       "Dad, seriously, calm down," Nolan said.

       "Don't tell me what to do, Nolan," Grayson said. "I don't want you anywhere his son, and that goes for Alan and Orchid too."

       "Are you serious?" Nolan asked. "Okay, I don't know what's going on between you two, but Atticus is the only one outside of the family who stands up for me at school."

       "I don't care," Grayson said. "Smythes are evil."

       "Not as evil as Princes are," Dad said.

       "Evil? No, we're hella sexy."

       "You? No way, you're ugly."

       "Oh my god, you two are so childish," I said. "Dad, seriously, the Princes are one of the nicest people at the school."

       "You think I care?" Dad asked. "Anyone related to him will not be allowed to associate with my son."

       "You do know that Athena's best friend Tulip is also Grayson's daughter, right?" I asked.

       "Then Athena will not be allowed to be friends with Tulip again," Dad said.

       "Good, because Tulip will not be allowed to be friends with Athena," Grayson shot back.

       What the hell was going on?

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Yay, Grayson and Seb met. Woot woot.

Omg I just realized that both the Prince and Smythes have name themes. There's the Princes with the girls being flowers, and the Smythes with the children having a god/goddess name (or middle name). There's Athena, Atticus's middle name Apollo, and Evelyn's middle name Aphrodite. cx

And I loved when Nolan said, "I don't have to listen to that straight lesson." cx So fun.

But seriously, my high school always did this sex ed thing for grade 11 and 12 (juniors and seniors). Seriously, I was 18 when I was a senior and listening to the lesson. I DON'T NEED TO HEAR IT AGAIN AND AGAIN.