“Don’t you have to read at Tech?”

“Nope. Haven’t you heard? We’re all dirtbags here. We don’t need to read.”

He was mostly teasing, but I could tell he partially believed what he said, too.

“That’s not funny, Jake. You’re smart. If you don’t move your brain a little it’s going to slide out of your ear.”

He made a gross slurping sound and tilted his head over. I laughed.

“So what books are in here?” he asked as we walked down the hall.

“I’ve got a Government textbook and Lord of the Flies for English. And that’s all I’m doing academically. Oh, and my new laptop is in there. That’s why it’s so heavy.”

“Show me last period?” he requested.

“Sure.” The laptop hadn’t even come up with Saxon. He wasn’t really the kind of guy who you could talk to about everyday stuff. It was always exciting with Saxon, and sometimes that was strangely disappointing.

“Was it your birthday or something?” Jake asked. We were in the classroom, and he put my bag down carefully on the table. I liked how respectful he was with my things.

“No. It will be in a few weeks, on October 11th, but my dad wanted to give me the laptop for school.”

“Nice dad,” he said.

“When is your birthday?”

“November 3rd. I’ll be seventeen.”

“Really?” I said, surprised. I just assumed he was my age.

“Yeah. Do I seem immature? I stayed back in kindergarten.”

“Kindergarten. What can they hold you back for?”

“I was unsociable,” he recited.

“Like you wouldn’t play with anyone else in the block area?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I don’t really know. I’ve been a dumbass for so long, it’s hard to remember all the specifics.”

I clucked my tongue at him. “You’re not a dumbass, Jake.”

He just avoided my eye contact. I had never met anyone who was so comfortable thinking so little of himself. I didn’t like it at all. Jake was way smarter than he gave himself credit for, and I hated that he was so blase about brushing off compliments he totally deserved.

We took out our paper and started sketching. His was much more precise than mine, much more detailed. I’d like to think I had a better handle on the subtle aspects, the shading and play of light and dark, but I think it pretty clearly came down to the fact that Jake was just plain better.

We didn’t talk much all period. Jake really was a really hard worker, and very focused. He took his time and evaluated his work over and over. A couple of times, our hands brushed as we reached for the same eraser or sheet of paper. When they did, he looked at me and smiled his crooked smile, but that was as far as it went.

When we got to last period, he was way more relaxed. It was slated as a project period, which meant that we came up with an independent design project and worked on it for a few weeks. The first assignment was a business card. I already had several sketched out.

“Those are great.” I flipped them over so he could get a better look at the new tweaks on my project. His eyebrows furrowed together as he studied the card sketches for my fictitious t-shirt design company. “Mine are a lot more boring.”

“Let me see.” I’d watched him sketch out concepts upside-down, but hadn’t been able to get a good look.

He slid his sketch pad across the table and I flipped through his neat, symmetrical, smart prototypes. “Jake, these are awesome. Simple isn’t boring.”

He brushed the compliment off. “So how about you show me this new laptop?”

I was so excited to show him I could hardly unfasten the latch on my bag. “It’s pretty cool, right?”

He let out a low whistle. “This is nice.” He ran his hands over the cover and turned it over, checking the underside, his voice excited. “Go Dad.” He flipped the lid, then looked at me, startled. “Sorry. Is it cool if I take a look? ”

“Of course.” There was something about Jake I couldn’t quite put my finger on. He was hesitant, and I didn’t know why he would be. We had been comfortable with each other from the minute I met him, but he was always so careful. He was respectful towards me, but there was also a nervous, self-deprecating facet of him that never really went away.

“It’s pretty jacked.” I leaned in and showed him a few of the applications on it.

“Awesome.” He finally closed the lid. “I’m glad you have this. It’s going to make this class so much easier.”

“Do we have to do a lot of computer stuff?”

“Yeah,” he said. “There’s a lab though. That’s where I go to get my stuff done.”

“Sometimes it’s easier to work at school.” I slid my laptop back into my bag.

“Yeah, especially compared to my house,” he grimaced. “So, I got a truck from my grandpa a few months ago.” It seemed like he wanted to say more.

“That’s great. I’m not old enough to think about driving anything but my bike, since I’ll just turn sixteen this October.”

“You’re only fifteen?” he said, his eyes wide.

“I’m a fall baby, so I’ll stay fifteen for the first month of school. But I turn sixteen in October. It just seems like I’m super young, but I’m totally normal for a sophomore.”

“Oh yeah,” he said, then licked his lips nervously. “Right. So, not that you have to, but since I’m driving anyway, I wouldn’t mind giving you a lift home when it starts getting icy.”

“Jake, you live, like, half an hour from my house. I’m all the way in Augusta.”

“Oh. Augusta? Well, I work near there, and I’m pretty constantly at work.”

“You do? Where?” The thought of having a job right now was so foreign to me. Mom wanted me to spend my time studying, and we vacationed a lot in the summer. Plus, I had no skills.

“I work at Zinga’s Farm.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and showed me his id card. The picture caught his half smile. I pressed my finger to his smile on the card before he put it back.

“So, what do you do?” I asked, intrigued by this information.

“I run the tractors and help fix them. I load fruit and package it for shipping. I help in the shop. In the fall I work pumpkin patch and tractor rides and work the apple orchard. At Christmastime I work the tree farm. Spring we do mulch and flowers. Summer is berry picking. Boring stuff.”

“Sounds pretty good to me,” I said, completely impressed. “Are you saving the money up for something?”