Angela 2. David A. Bedford

next period was Spanish. Angela sat, her friends on either side, and looked intently, with her eyebrows raised and her lips slightly puckered. Mrs. Sepúlveda was not at all as she expected. She was short, intense, and sixty-ish, and she looked German. The teacher explained how the class would be conducted. Then she told the students to put everything away. She picked up a book and said,

       “Es un libro.”

      From there she began to ask questions and, because the objects she was talking about were right in front of them, everyone understood and answered. For the whole period they never wrote anything down or opened a book. When the bell rang, Mrs. Sepúlveda told the class,

      “Hasta mañana.”

      Angela, Benjie, Fiona, and Michaela stopped briefly outside the classroom door.

      “That was great!” said Benjie. “I understood everything and I can remember it.”

      “No homework in this class!” exclaimed Angela.

      Fiona agreed but looked worried. “It’s good,” she commented, “but I can’t help but feel something’s missing. Not writing anything down and not having to study for the next class makes me nervous.”

      “Don’t worry,” counseled Michaela. “She looks kinda fierce, but she’s really a teddy bear, I think.”

      Benjie and Fiona looked at her with puzzled expressions. Angela smiled broadly.

      ***

      At lunch Angela, Fiona, and Benjie sat together, with Michaela across the table. Almost immediately Yves walked up, carrying his food tray, and sat next to Michaela. Angela did the introductions. After exchanging impressions of the morning classes, they moved to debriefing the last part of the summer. They were so fully engrossed in their conversation that they jumped when Kitty, who had been standing behind Yves and Michaela without being noticed, spoke up.

      “Fournier, you need to watch out for yourself. You see that girl in the short pink jacket?” Kitty pointed to a corner of the cafeteria. “That’s Sonya. She says she’s going to trim your troika!”

      All five looked at Kitty in complete silence.

      “That’s Russian for cream your bootie,” she persisted.

      “Kitty, I don’t believe you,” countered Fiona, pulling Benjie back down onto the seat by his shirttail. “Go back to your hole!”

      Kitty sauntered off displaying a pleased smirk.

      “Don’t pay any attention to her,” said Fiona to Angela.

      “I won’t,” she answered.

      “Her nose is crooked, anyway.”

      They all stared at Michaela.

      “Well, it’s true!” she continued. “Look, I’ll show you.” She pulled out a pad and began sketching.

      The others laughed, but Angela could not help feeling out of sorts. She began to grow eager to get to dance class, yet she was dreading it at the same time. She hated the negative feelings she was getting about Sonya, whom she had not even met. All of it together made her frustrated with herself and anxious. She stood and picked up her tray.

      “Well, guys,” she said, “I guess I better head to P.E.! So much fun on a full stomach… See you later.” She smiled at her friends as she left, though the smile seemed fake to her and she wondered if it did to them. After dumping her tray and going to the gym to suit out, she took off at full speed when told to run around the entire perimeter of the school grounds. She seemed to regain a little emotional balance with each step.

      ***

      Angela felt considerably better when she joined Fiona and Benjie at their usual seats in Newsom’s class, especially after beaming her smile at them.

      “Ugh, physics!” exclaimed Benjie. “Count on Newsom to make it as unpleasant as possible.”

      “Hush! Here he comes,” Fiona cautioned.

      Newsom walked to his desk, opened his grade book, and began taking roll without any preliminaries. After calling the last name, he closed the register and looked over the expectant faces silently. After half a minute or so he began talking.

      “In my class you will listen and take notes. You will not talk. I will ask the questions. We will get along fine if everyone refrains from challenging my authority.” He looked straight at Benjie, who stared back with undisguised contempt, but said nothing. Angela heard Fiona take a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked at Michaela, who sat nearby, and saw that she was making a sketch, an amused expression working across her face. Newsom was too preoccupied with trying, unsuccessfully, to make Benjie cower, to notice.

      “Physics describes in mathematical terms the gravitational forces that govern the stars, the planets, you, and me. It gives the numbers that made the Big Bang put out the elements that go into making up all matter. It also describes the forces at the sub-atomic level, where gravity has no effect. The physics that deals with gravity is Newtonian physics, or classical mechanics, and relativity. The other is quantum theory. The two together are the ultimate key to the universe and enable us to explain how we got here.”

      Newsom looked at Benjie defiantly, but Benjie merely continued writing in his notebook, looking as though he were hanging on every word. Angela could see the sarcasm in the slight arch of his eyebrows and smiled, in part at the humor of it and in part because she was happy to see him control himself better than last year. She returned her attention to Newsom, who had gone back to previewing the course.

      ***

      As they walked to history, Fiona told Angela and Benjie, “The Newtonian stuff, as far as I know, is mostly normal math and is pretty easy to grasp. Now, relativity is a bear. If he makes us show why e equals mc squared, you get all these hairy square roots and Lorentz transformations. And nobody understands quantum theory, not even the scientists!”

      “How do you know all this?” asked Benjie.

      “Well… I read ahead sometimes.”

      “Do you understand all that?”

      “No. I told you not even the physicists understand the quantum bit.”

      Angela perceived that Fiona was feeling anxious, which was unusual and not at all reassuring. Benjie voiced her concern.

      “Well if you don’t get it how are we supposed to?”

      Fiona made a face. “He did say that we were going to do just a little bit on relativity, didn’t he? I don’t think he’s even going to go into quantum. How can he?”

      “I wasn’t listening.”

      Angela jumped into the conversation for the first time. “Well, this is the same stuff the seniors had last year. If they passed, I suppose we probably can too, if we work hard.”

      All three stopped in the middle of the hall as Benjie and Fiona looked at Angela. She gave them her best smile and they began to calm down. They walked the rest of the way to Romano’s room in silent but palpable companionship.

      Romano still sported last year’s ponytail, but he had replaced the earring in his left lobe with a small stud. He had his feet propped up on his desk and was chatting with students when Angela, Fiona, and Benjie entered. The bell rang. Romano put his feet on the floor, stood, and greeted the class.

      “Hello, everyone. I’m Mr. Romano and this is American history class. ‘The business of America is business.’ You have all heard that phrase, because if you hadn’t heard it before, you did just now.” Angela looked around and saw several people smile, though the new students seemed not to know how to take him. “This is how our country got its start. In England some businessmen received a concession from the British crown and created a publicly traded corporation called The Virginia Company. Most of the shareholders stayed behind in England, but some moved to the new world