Free Flight of Life (Essence Series #1) by E. L. Todd Page A

their
essays into a pile on the teacher’s desk, and he recalled that he
had a paper due today but he had forgotten about it—again. When he
reached the teacher’s desk, Mr. Avey looked at him expectantly,
waiting for him to place his own paper on top, but Calloway passed
the stack and walked to this desk.
    When Calloway approached his seat, he
spotted a small box sitting on the surface. It was a McDonald’s
value meal apple pie and ‘Poverty Boy #2’ was written in permanent
marker on the cover. Calloway tossed it into the garbage and the
students started to chuckle at him. He sat in his seat and ignored
the rest of the class to the best of his ability. He didn’t know
who was responsible for the prank but he didn’t care anymore—he
hated school.
    Mr. Avey stared at him for
a moment then shook his head slightly before he started lecturing.
They were reading another Shakespeare play, Henry V , and all the students took
out their own books. Calloway borrowed a copy from Mr. Avey since
he wasn’t able to afford his own. Different students read aloud the
prose of the play but Calloway found it innately boring to listen
to. He loved reading Shakespeare but not when it was being read to
him. He read much quicker in his head.
    When the bell rang, Calloway grabbed
his backpack and was about to head for the exit when Mr. Avey spoke
to him.
    “ Please wait a moment,
Calloway,” he said. “I’d like to speak with you.”
    The students laughed as they walked out
the door, enjoying the sight of Calloway being disciplined for
something.
    Calloway sighed and approached Mr.
Avey’s desk. “Yes?” he asked.
    “ You’re serving detention
with me after school.”
    “ Why?” he asked. “I did
nothing wrong.”
    “ Really?” Mr. Avey asked.
His blue eyes shined brighter when he spoke and contrasted against
the white hair of his head and chin. He held his hands together on
the desk. “Then where is your essay?”
    Calloway was quiet for a moment. “I—I
didn’t have time to finish it.”
    “ So, you started it?” the
teacher asked.
    “ Well, no,” he said
honestly.
    “ Now you’ll have time in
detention,” Mr. Avey said. “Be in my class immediately after the
last bell rings. You will serve one hour.”
    Calloway sighed. He never heard of a
student receiving detention because they weren’t completing their
work but he decided not to challenge the instructor. Calloway
tightened his backpack strap then left the classroom, fighting his
anger as he walked to his next period.
    When he walked into his math class, he
sat in the back row and didn’t even glance at the front board,
where the teacher was writing down the homework for the day. The
teacher started to lecture but Calloway didn’t care about anything
he said. He was very good at math—always had been—but he was barely
passing the class because he failed to complete his assignments.
His high exam scores carried him with a passing grade.
    He closed his eyes and sighed, shutting
out the world with his mind, and stopped listening to the teacher.
He couldn’t concentrate anyway. Calloway was too distracted with
the stress of his life. Now he had to work a job in addition to his
other responsibilities, plus he had to fight for all humankind. The
depression spread through his body and poisoned his mind. He didn’t
see the purpose in any of this. What was the point?
    As soon as the bell rang for lunch,
Calloway practically ran from the room and headed for the library
across the way. When he walked inside, Easton and Breccan were
already sitting together. Calloway sat down without saying
anything.
    Easton immediately picked up on his
mood. She had a woman’s intuition. “Do you want to talk about
it?”
    “ No,” he said. He looked
around the room and spotted the table in the back of the library,
hidden from the librarian’s sight. “Let’s go in the back. I can’t
stand to have the librarian gawk at us all day and berate Breccan
for