Top of the Class

Marcia looks at her watch for the 10th time that morning. The carpool will be here soon, and Josh wasn’t anywhere near ready for school. So typical. That boy lives in his own world. Janie, her pride and joy, Sat eating her fruit and yogurt at the kitchen table as she reviewed the notes for her history exam.

“You ready for your test?” Marcia doesn’t even need to ask. Janie is always prepared, and consistently earns straight A’s .

“I think so,” she sighs. “This class has been really hard.”

She walks over and squeezes her daughter’s shoulder. Janie’s nails are bitten down, and she coils a lock of her blonde hair around her finger repeatedly. AP European History had been a challenge for her. “You’ll do well, you always do,” Marcia says. Does this sound dismissive of her daughter’s concerns? No, Janie always worried, but she would be fine. 

The 16-year-old nods, burying her head in her notes, which are neatly typed with three colors of highlighter defining the major historical events.  If only her twin brother was half this organized.

Marcia glances at her watch again. “Josh!!” she yells up the stairs. 

“I’m up” he croaks, sounding like he is still in his bed. Marcia feels her frustration building. If she has to drive her son to school again… She takes a deep breath. Raising twins had never been easy. Each stage of life has brought challenges, especially for a working mom with a husband who travels for business constantly. Pete is a great dad, but that doesn’t help when he’s not around.

“You’re getting picked up in five minutes, and I can’t drive you. I have an early meeting.” Marcia can hear the anger in her voice. She can’t help it. Josh is just so difficult. Just then, she hears stomping, and he son comes flying down the stairs wearing wrinkled jeans and a t-shirt she is sure he slept in. His long hair is uncombed, and his backpack is slung loosely over one shoulder, wrinkled sheets of paper ready to fly out of it. 

He stops at the bottom of the stairs, right before he runs into her. “I’m ready.” He gives her a lopsided grin and her heart warms a bit. Somewhere underneath the mess and the disorganization and the haphazardness, he is as kind and sweet as his dad. Maybe he just needs more time to grow up.

“Eat. Your toast is getting cold,” Marcia says, trying to shove the papers inside his backpack and zipper it up as she follows him to the table.

“Are you still studying,” Josh asks his sister as he shoves half a piece of toast into his mouth.

“Ew, gross,” she says, staring into his open mouth. “And yes, I’m still studying. But what would you know about that. You’re not taking an AP classes.”

“Geez, looks like I’m missing out on a lot of fun,” Josh reaches over to pick up a piece of fruit out of her yogurt cup and pops it into his mouth. 

“What are you doing?” Janie squeals. “Did you even wash your hands today? I’m going to be sick.”

“Didn’t you learn in any of your fancy classes that you need to build up immunity? That won’t happen if you never expose yourself to any germs.” He licks his fingers before taking another huge bite of toast.

Janie rolls her eyes at him before she carefully puts her notes into a folder and stashes them in her backpack. Despite the constant arguing and teasing, the twins have an unspoken bond. It was so obvious when they were young children. When one was sad the other would end up crying about something too, and despite their different interests, they would gravitate toward each other. Marcia would often find Josh playing barbie dolls with Janie, or her watching as he played football with the other boys in the neighborhood. There were only rare glimpses of that connection now, but it was still there, like an invisible string between them.

A horn honks in the driveway and after a lot of scrambling, the kids are out the door. Marcia realizes she never wished Janie good luck on her test. She could text her, but that feels like an afterthought. As for Josh, she has no idea if he had any tests or papers due. She never asks and he never volunteers any information.

She cleans up the breakfast dishes and heads upstairs to get ready for work. She’ll ask Janie about her test later, and make sure everything went well. But she knows it will.

*****

Marcia has finished meeting with a young couple who want to find a house before their upcoming wedding and is back in her office researching properties to show them. She jumps when her office phone rings. The shrill ringtone sounds like an alarm. “Marcia Lassner,” she says, her mind still on the house listing she was viewing on her computer.

“Mrs. Lassner? It’s Mr. Edwards, the high school counselor.  I’m sorry to make this call, but there’s been an incident and your child was involved. Everyone is okay, but I’m going to need to speak with you in person.”

Marcia already has her keys in hand. “I’ll be there in 10 minutes.” 

What had Josh done now? In middle school he had once cut out of class with a few friends. They later found them in the back of a local ice cream shop eating sundaes at 10:30 AM. But since that time, things had been relatively quiet. There was that party where the kids were caught drinking beers, but that was only once, and it was last summer. 

Things had been awfully quiet this school year, and they were well into the spring semester. She and Pete agreed they shouldn’t hover. They decided to have faith in him. Well, it looks like that decision was coming back to bite them now. 

Her head is spinning by the time she gets to the school. She texts Pete at a red light but knows she won’t hear back from him before she has to face whatever happened that morning. She checks in at the front office and is immediately ushered into the Guidance office. She sits facing the large wooden desk, feeling like a child herself as she waits for the counselor to walk into the room. 

When she finally hears footsteps, she gets up from her chair. “Mr. Edwards, can you tell me what this is all about?”

“Mrs. Lassner, thank you for coming. It’s your son,” he confirms. “He punched another student at morning recess. Fortunately, the student only suffered a bloody nose. Nothing was broken, but this is very serious.”

“I’m sorry. He can be a difficult child. He’s not a bad person, he just doesn’t seem to care about school.”

“Really?” Mr. Edwards says, a look of surprise in his eyes.

“Yes, I mean, he’s a smart boy, but he doesn’t apply himself.”

He sits down at his desk and starts ruffling through some of the many folders strewn around it, until he finds the one he’s looking for. Marcia sits down, waiting for him to find whatever he’s looking for.

He opens the folder, and takes out a series of exams and papers, all with A grades, and all with her son’s name on top. “Josh has been an inconsistent student, but he’s always been respectful of his teachers and fellow students before today. This semester he has straight A’s. He’s a very capable student.”

Marcia takes the contents of the folder and reads through it, seeing the assignments date back the first week of the spring semester. “I can’t believe it. He’s never earned these kinds of grades. It’s always been his sister who came home with straight A’s.

“That seems to be changing now.”

“What do you mean?

He looks at her like she’s the world’s worst mother. Clearly, she is missing something.

“Janie has been struggling in her classes, especially her AP classes,” he says. “I spoke to her history teacher right before you got here, and she is concerned Janie has taken on too much this year. It’s become a real problem recently. The only thing that’s saving her grade is successfully completing her weekly extra credit assignments.”

“Extra credit?” Margie says. “I don’t remember her mentioning extra credit.”

“Yes, they’re short essays the students are asked to submit each Sunday with some insight into their readings for that week. She’s earned extra credit every week, and that’s brought her grade back up to a B+ or maybe even an A-.”

“Oh, so she’s doing okay then.” Margie feels better knowing her overachiever has found a way to maintain her high average. And if she’s finding time for extra credit assignments, how overwhelmed could she be?

“Why don’t we bring in both twins.  I think it would be good if we all had a talk.”

Margie nods, feeling so inadequate. In all her years as a mother, she had never been called into the school like this. 

A few minutes later both of her children are sitting beside her. Josh sits tall in his seat as if he doesn’t have a care in the world. Janie stares down at the ground, her shoulders hunched. 

Mr. Edwards sits down opposite them. “Okay, I’d like to have a little chat about what’s been going on at school. Josh, would you like to start by telling us what happened this morning? There will be consequences for your actions, but they will be much worse if you don’t tell us the truth, so please consider your words carefully.”

“I hit Rob Stone in the face because he’s been harassing Janie for the past month or so.” Josh doesn’t waver in his admission. “I warned him he had better stop, but then this morning he was bragging that he was the top student in our grade and telling everyone that Janie was failing all her classes. He got what was coming to him.”

“Don’t you think it would have been better to tell someone about this than take matters into your own hands?” Mr. Edwards asks, looking from Josh to Janie.

“Do you really think that would have helped?” Josh shakes his head.

“You didn’t need to protect me,” Janie says. “I can handle things by myself.”

“Oh yeah. You were in the bathroom crying after your test. I wasn’t going to stand by and watch someone intimidate you like that just because you’re having a tough semester.”

“Why do you think he’s been harassing you?” Mr. Edwards asks.

“He’s just jealous because Janie has gotten the top academic award every semester since the start of high school. He’s desperate to win, but he’s not going to.  I can assure you of that,” Josh says. 

Tears roll down Janie’s eyes. “Everyone thinks I’ve turned into this big loser.”

“You’re not a loser,” Marcia tells her daughter. “And with all the extra credit you’ve been doing, you’ll probably end up with an A in your history class.

“What extra credit? I haven’t had time for any of the extra credit assignments.”

“Janie, I have a record of you successfully completing every extra credit assignment this semester. What are you talking about?” Mr. Edward’s eyes narrow.

“How is that possible?” Janie asks.

He picks up another folder off his desk and begins to review the papers inside. “They’re all right here.”

“Wait,” Josh says, holding up his hand. “I can explain.”

All eyes turn to him. “I did those assignments for Janie. She didn’t ask me to, but I wanted to help her out.” He smiles, ask if what he’s done is okay, but then his smile fades. “I know that’s really bad, but blame me, not her. 

“You wrote all those essays for me?” Janie asks, staring at her brother. “Why? How? You’re not even in my class.”  She looks unsure whether to laugh or cry.  

“Hey, I’m not an idiot. I take European history too. I just wanted to help you out, and I figured if I submitted the essays through your school email account, who would know?”

Marcia leans over and rubs her daughter’s back. She feels responsible. She had put so much pressure on Janie, and not paid enough attention to Josh, who it seems is more capable – and much more protective of his sister - than she ever realized.

“I didn’t manage to break Rob Stone’s nose this morning, but I’ll tell you this. If Janie doesn’t have the grades, I’m on track to earn the academic award for this semester,” Josh continues. “I’m not going to let that slimebag win.”

“I don’ think after what you’ve done you’d be eligible for any awards,” Mr. Edwards says, shaking his head. “Honestly, right now, I’m not sure whether you’ll be suspended or what’s going to happen. None of this is acceptable. None of it.”

“Wel,  as long as Janie doesn’t get in trouble.” Josh said. “This was all me. It was my choice.”

“This is what finally got you to get your grades up?” Mr. Edwards looks almost amused.

Josh shrugs. “I don’t know. I needed a reason to care. This was it.”

“What about getting into a good college?” Janie asks.

Josh shrugs. “I figure I’ll get into a decent school with good SAT’s and hockey. I haven’t really worried about it. But everything changed when that smart ass punk started harassing Janie. I can’t let him win.”

“Well, I’ll need to consult with the Principal, and we’ll decide on how to handle this, but it will certainly need to go on your permanent record.” He shakes his head. “Maybe we can give Janie a chance to do the extra credits on her own. We’ll see. But I can’t make any promises to you, Josh, even though I realize you were trying to help your sister.”

“I’ll be okay,” Josh says with a shrug. “But thanks”

“Thank you,” Marcia repeats, shaking hands with the counselor before he leaves them alone in the office.

Janie gets up from her chair and puts her hand on her brother’s shoulder. “Thank you, I guess, even though that was about the dumbest thing anyone ever did.” She smiles through her tears. “Maybe next you can help me with geometry? I’ve been struggling with that too.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Marcia said, feeling pride in her children, despite the trouble they were both in.

“I guess so,” Josh says, his brotherly devotion gone. “I mean, I’m kind of busy with my own schoolwork. I don’t really have time to do any more of yours.”

Janie puts her hands on her hips. “I didn’t ask you to do my work I don’t need any more favors. Just forget I even asked.”

Josh leans over and messes up his sister’s hair. “If you’re nice to me, I might be able to spare an hour or two to help you – I mean, if you’re that bad at geometry.”

“Gross, leave my hair alone,” she said. “And don’t talk about me like I’m an idiot. I’ve always been the better student than you.”

Josh looks at her and winks. “Yeah, whatever you say.” 

Janie rolls her eyes at him. “You’re so obnoxious. Why do I even bother.”

“Because I’m your handsome brother,” Josh gives a lazy grin. “And you adore me.”

“Okay, you two. Go back to class. We’ll talk more about this tonight – a lot more.” 

As Marcia heads back to her car, she realizes the enormity of what Josh did for his sister.  She missed all the signs that Janie was in trouble, but he picked up on it, and he took action to help her. It may have been stupid, and he may have jeopardized his own future, but she couldn’t help being a bit proud of him. Her son, who seemed to care about nothing and nobody, was a good man -- and an unlikely hero.