Way Down I'll Go

Of Pirates and Persistant Stains

Jo's feet felt heavy as he made the trek back to the schools. 

Six and a half hours of nonstop lifting, hammering, pushing, pulling, and smashing did nothing to ease the aches or lessen the ever-present weariness. On top of it all, those bites of crusty oatmeal had been the only thing he'd eaten in the past 2 days, and he was starting to feel a bit dizzy. This was hardly the longest he'd gone without food, but it had been awhile since he'd needed to. He was out of practice.

One more day, he thought. Tomorrow was Friday. Payday.

The wind gusted against him and he pulled his thin jacket tighter. It would be a cold winter. Drew needed new boots and both Adam and Mikey had lost their gloves already. It seemed the list of needs was endless and no amount of stretching his income could get them ahead.

Jo pulled himself from his financial worries as he neared the middle school. Sam burst out the doors to meet him while Drew followed at a more controlled pace.

"Jo! Look! I got 100% on my science test!" 

Sam waved a paper in front of Jo's face. 

"And Ms. Hardy said that if the class averaged over 90% she would bring us pizza next week! Guess what our average was!"

"What?"

"No, guess!"

"Oh, ummm... 72?"

"Nooooooo"

"63"

"Higher."

"64?"

"Jo..." Sam sighed.

"What was it, kiddo?"

"90.6!"

Sam babbled on about pizza parties and class experiments. Jo listened patiently, noticing that Drew, though usually more subdued than Sam, seemed quieter than normal.

"Drew? Everything okay?" he asked when Sam became distracted by kicking a rock along the sidewalk.

Drew painted on an obviously fake smile. "Yeah! Everything's fine!" 

Noticing Jo's unconvinced expression, he faltered. 

"It's nothing, just something my teacher said. And I shouldn't even have heard it. I was eavesdropping."

"What was it?"

"Nothing important."

"Important enough to bother you, though."

Drew hesitated. "It's just, I really liked Mrs. Perkins. And then she said some stuff that made me not like her so much."

"Drew, teachers are people too. They're not perfect."

"It was about you."

They were both silent then. After a beat, Drew continued.

"She was telling another teacher how well I had done in her class and what a good student I was. And then she said that it was a miracle since I was being raised by a high school dropout."

"Well, she's not wrong. What about that conversation bothers you?"

"That's not all she said." He took a deep breath. "She said you were never in class, never did the homework, and fell asleep all the time. And that you should never have gotten custody of us because you're a bad influence."

"Okay. Well, she's right again about my class attendance. I was a terrible student. And I can see why she'd think I wouldn't be a good influence. Most people would probably agree with her if they didn't know the whole story."