School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

disappeared up the stairs, Suzy and her friends appeared in the kitchen.

“Look what me and Dad did.” Jeff pointed at the cardboard square, trying not to look too proud.

“You mean, what Dad and I did?” Suzy said, her emphasis heavy on the corrected grammar, as she lifted the magnifying glass to her eye and peered down at the fly.

“No, I don’t think you and Dad did that,” Jeff said, deliberately missing the correction, “It was just him and me.” Suzy groaned but didn’t look up.

“Weird.” She said finally, straightening and handing the glass to Karen, who had been leaning down and squinting. “So are you going to go do something with Nacho now?”

“Well, I guess he could come over and see the dragon fly...”

“You were supposed to be out of the house tonight!” Suzy snapped. Jeff shrugged uncomfortably. Suzy glared.

“Is this a, um–” Karen bent low over the cardboard, “This kind of looks like a dragon.” Jeff’s face lit up, and he launched into the thrilling tale of how he and Suzy had caught the dragon.

Jeff kept his eyes on Karen and Miley as he talked, but then he thought it would seem awkward that he wasn’t looking at Jenny, so he met her eyes squarely and blushed. She was following his story intently, her face alive with interest. Then Jeff was sure he was looking at Jenny too much, so he looked at Karen, then Miley, then Suzy, then Karen, then Jenny again, whose nose was just slightly pointed up in the cutest way, her chin delicate and fine, her lips glistening...

Suzy cleared her throat. Jeff snapped his attention back to Karen and Miley. “And then I found it dead on the windowsill,” he finished. His voice squeaked on “windowsill,” and he felt his face go hot. Stupid voice, he thought. “Well, I gotta go get Nacho.”

THREE

At about 9:00, Nacho came over, to Jeff’s immense relief.

Jeff’s parents were in their room, having their monthly budget meeting, and Jeff knew they would soon head out for their post-budget-meeting ice cream date. Suzy and her friends were downstairs again, watching a movie. Until Nacho arrived, Jeff had been dividing his time between fidgeting, staring at his dragon fly, and wishing he had something to do.

A thorough examination of the fly and a retelling of the tale took them hardly any time, so Jeff took Nacho out onto the driveway to play P-I-G on the small basketball standard in the last of the fading September light.

Within five minutes, Nacho was a P-I, and Jeff was lining up a long shot from the sidewalk to finish him off. He dribbled, raised the ball, and Nacho said, “Hey! Look at that!”

“Nice try.” Jeff said, and he sank it. He pumped his fist in triumph, but Nacho wasn’t paying attention.

“No, really. Look.” He was pointing at a large butterfly fluttering around the flowers in front of Jeff’s house.

Jeff opened his mouth to make fun of Nacho’s un-manly love of butterflies but paused. “That seems really bright.”

The sun had set, and the first stars would be shining soon, but the butterfly’s wings were vibrant – swirls of electric blue and neon purple. Jeff walked slowly across his lawn as he stared. “Is that a glow-in-the-dark butterfly?”

As Jeff approached the flowerbed straight on, Nacho crept up from the side, whispering, “Don’t scare it off! Do you have a butterfly net?”

“Why would I have a butterfly net?”

“I dunno. Just in case?”

Jeff stopped his creeping progress and stared at his friend. “Just in case of what?”

“I dunno. Just in case you need a butterfly net?”

“No, I don’t have a just-in-case butterfly net.”

“Well, how are we going to catch it?” Though neither had mentioned it, catching the butterfly had been their plan as soon as they saw it.

After a moment’s consideration, Jeff took off his t-shirt, then held it up by the shoulders. “I’ll toss this over it, and then we can kind of fold it up over it as we pull it off the flowers. Oh!” Jeff’s face lit up. “Nacho! Then we can put it with the fly and show it to the bug scientist. Then I’ll have TWO new bugs I’ve discovered.”

“Well…” Nacho hesitated.

“Okay, fine,” Jeff conceded. “One of them can be named after you and one after me.” Then after a moment, “I get the dragon. You can have the butterfly.”

They were standing only a few feet from the flowers, and the glow of the wings was now unmistakable as they opened and closed slowly. Jeff focused on the insect, held his breath, then lunged forward, throwing the shirt as he went.

The butterfly was up off the flowers faster than Jeff would have believed possible, easily rising above the shirt as it landed.

Nacho shouted and leapt, trying to catch it in his hands, but the butterfly danced over him. Jeff grabbed his shirt and swung it wildly, hoping for a lucky snag. Nacho whipped off his own shirt and took a huge leap into the air, waving the shirt wildly at the rapidly ascending butterfly. In moments, it was gone.

Jeff squinted up, panting, his arms limp at his side, his shirt on the grass.

“Whatchya guys up to?” said Suzy.

Jeff squeaked and snatched up his shirt, his instinct to cover up in front of the four giggly girls standing in the open doorway. Then he forced himself to drop his arm to his side, hoping his confidence would make up for his lack of rippling muscles or chest hair. Nacho clutched his shirt to his chest.

“We were just trying to catch this weird butterfly,” Jeff pointed up, trying to flex without it being too obvious.

“Are you flexing?” Suzy asked.

“No!” said Jeff, horrified. This was a nightmare. He started to panic.

Then he remembered his dad’s advice. Lean into it.

In